Did you read the popsci article I referenced ? This is the best article I have ever read on the process and the promise of this technology. From what I remember, they are capturing EVERYTHING that comes out of the process and refining what is useful. The molten slag leftover is inert and can be used for many things including possibly road aggregate. There are a few things left over that require even further processing and Startech is one of the few companies that has developed ways to deal with it. The plant should leave a zero carbon footprint once operational (start-up power will be from the grid) and will allow them to start digging up landfills (garbage, construction debris, chemicals, biomedical waste, .... whatever as long as it isn't nuclear contaminated) to feed throught the Plasma Gasification plant so that we can clean up and reclaim the land the landfills used to occupy. BTW...Startech has now teamed up with a midwestern engine producer to produce internal combustion engines that can use syngas instead of just pure hydrogen for generation of electricity.

READ THIS !! This is a technology being developed and tested by many companies. There is a small scale production test facility in Ottowa, Canada that has been running for months as a proof of concept for them to build bigger plants. (I believe Plasco Energy Group built that one). Read the Popular Science article "The Prophet of Garbage" http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-03/prophet-garbage to see how it works and to answer your questions about the energy production and waste byproducts. After reading this article all the way through you should have almost all of your questions answered and should become a believer in this technology. Every Plasma gasification company seems to be doing things a little differently, but Startech from the popsci article shows what their "complete" solution would look like. Obviously the more refinement done to the waste materials the more energy that you will consume. Startech uses a 30,000 degree plasma arc instead of the usual 10,000 degree arc. I do not work in the energy sector, I work in the computer technology sector but have been an avid reader of plasma gasification technologies since reading the popsci article over a year ago.