Items filtered by date: Monday, 01 April 2019
US: BioHiTech Global started operations at a waste treatment plant in Martinsburg, West Virginia in March 2019. It has completed the first phase of plant commissioning including the facility's reception area, overhead bridge cranes, and its primary mechanical sorting equipment. It has begun the next phase of plant commissioning and progressing operations, which includes receiving limited amounts of waste and beginning runs of its mechanical and biological treatment process for producing solid recovered fuel (SRF). The limited processing runs are expected to result in the production of SRF in the coming weeks with the facility reaching full operations in the second quarter of 2019. The unit uses Entsorga Italia’s proprietary high efficiency mechanical and biological treatment process (HEBIOT)
The majority of the waste, to be delivered as feedstock to the facility, is covered under a ten year agreement with a local waste hauler owned by Gold Medal Group, a regional waste management services company. The SRF will be supplied to cement producer Argos USA under a similar ten-year deal.
"The initiation of revenue generating operations at this first facility of its kind in the US is a pivotal moment for our company and an important step forward in the movement to lessen the environmental impact of waste management,” said Frank E Celli, the chief executive officer (CEO) of BioHiTech Global.
BioHiTech is the largest owner of the Martinsburg SRF plant through a majority owned subsidiary company with a 78% controlling interest in its operations. Gold Medal Group owns the remaining minority stake in the subsidiary.
Philippines: Geocycle Philippines has co-processed 20,000t of contaminated soil at Holcim Philippines’ Bulacan cement plant in 2018. The soil was taken from former petroleum depots in the Pandacan district that have been opened up for commercial and residential developments. In November 2014 the Philippine Supreme Court ordered the remediation of soil covering an area of 33 hectares, which had been contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.
Three companies have worked on the remediation project. It is led by US consulting firm AECOM, which performs the analysis of the waste and manages compliance and permits. Charifer Builders, a local partner, is in charge of civil works and site management. Geocycle Philippines transports the waste from the site to the Bulacan plant for final treatment through pre- and co-processing. The teams reviewed a number of soil remediation solutions but Geocycle won the bid for multiple reasons, not only cost.
“Geocycle's solution was considered the best option for this project as the treatment process completely destroys the contaminants, and leaves no residual liabilities at the project site,” said Alfred A Lalu, Technical Director, Environment of AECOM Philippines Consultants.
Geocycle Philippines is expected to co-process nearly 20,000t of contaminated soil in the first quarter of 2019.
Uzbekistan: The government is preparing to increase the use of alternative fuels in the cement and lime industry. A draft decree intends shift local industry to meet global trends in energy consumption and away from natural has consumption, according to the Trend News Agency. The government intends to encourage the use of coal, wood briquettes and pallets, biogas and other fuels.
The Ministry of Energy, together with the Academy of Sciences and research institutes, is planning to develop energy efficiency levels for industrial gas boilers. Local gas suppliers Uzneftegazinspektsiya, Uzenergoinspektsiya and Uztransgaz will then stop supplying natural gas to non-compliant industrial users from the beginning of 2020.