Displaying items by tag: RDF

UK: N+P has appointed Neville Roberts as Managing Director UK for N+P Alternative Fuels. He will be based in N+P’s new UK office in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. His appointment follows the expansion of N+P to supply refuse derived fuel (RDF), solid recovered fuel (SRF) and its Subcoal product into UK domestic and European markets.

Roberts, a chemical engineer, has worked in the cement industry for over 35 years. He has worked for Rugby Cement, the Saudi Cement Company, RTZ Cement, Castle Cement, RMC and Cemex. Most recently he has been advising businesses, including N+P, on the use of alternative fuels. Roberts has specialised in production management and in particular the use of alternative fuels on cement kilns. Prior to leaving Cemex at the end of 2013 he was focussing heavily on alternative fuels in his role as Energy Business Development Director.

UK: Wastecycle's recycling facility in Colwick, Nottinghamshire is now one of the largest in the UK after an expansion of the site. By acquiring seven acres of property, which the company previously leased, and buying an additional four acres, Wastecycle has extended its site to nearly 20 acres.

"It's an exciting time for us because this expansion provides us with the platform we need to reach the next stage of growth as a company," said Financial Director Nathan Cole. "Over the long term, we plan to use the additional land to expand our extensive recycling and resource management activities. This will help us broaden the services we offer our customers while improving the quality and sustainability of the recycled products we manufacture."

The company has also completed an expansion of its main office to accommodate its growing workforce. After a 20% growth in staff 2015, it now employs almost 300 people across its Colwick site and its two sites in Leicestershire. "Ensuring our teams are comfortable in their working environments is very important to us because, not only does it increase productivity, but it also creates positive morale," said Cole. "Larger premises also provide the opportunity to open up new jobs, while improving the quality of service we can provide to customers."

Wastecycle separates 500,000t/yr of waste, including 18,000t/yr of recycling from 126,131 homes in the Nottingham City Council area. Some of the waste is turned into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for use at cement plants. It also sorts through the rubbish of thousands of businesses across Nottinghamshire, runs a skip hire service and operates a wallboard recycling facility, which it developed with British Gypsum.

In 2014, Wastecycle's turnover increased to Euro42.8m from Euro35.9m in 2013. In 2015, it won four awards, including a bronze environmental best practice accolade at the Green Apple Awards in November 2015. It was recognised for the success of its wallboard recycling scheme, which has prevented more than 30,000t/yr of wallboard from reaching landfill.

Egypt: According to Reuters, Arabian Cement Company has commissioned new alternative fuel processing machinery at its plant in Suez.

The state-of-the-art FLSmidth HOTDISC^TM allows Arabian Cement's plant to rely completely on coal and alternative fuels to run its operations. Moreover, it enables the plant to operate its kilns using alternative fuel materials directly, without the need to pre-treat them. Arabian Cement now has a designed fuel mix of 70% coal and 30% alternative fuels. The alternative fuel that will be used will be a mixture of agricultural wastes, municipal sludge and refuse-derived fuels (RDF). Alternative fuel use is expected to result in around 60,000t/yr of reduced CO₂ emissions.

Philippines: According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, on 24 June 2015 the Pasig City government brought online what it described as, 'The country's largest facility for turning rubbish into fuel, capable of processing 600t/day of trash.'

The plant, which is Pasig City's joint project with the IPM Construction & Development Corp (IPM) and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), can process almost all of the city's daily waste production into refuse-derived fuel (RDF). Pasig City mayor Maribel Eusebio said that the plant would produce fuel pellets from the waste, which would then be supplied as an alternative fuel to cement plants. The RDF is majority-owned by Basic Environmental Systems & Technologies (BEST), a subsidiary of publicly-listed Minerales Industrias Corp, as well as France-based Lafarge Industrial Ecology International.

The plant mechanically segregates waste, selecting garbage with high thermal value that will be shredded, made into pellets and wrapped into bales. The plant is expected to convert 25 – 35% of the processed waste into alternative fuel for cement kilns. "The plant addresses serious concerns on increasing municipal solid waste and disposal," said Eusebio. "The RDF plant also complies with the waste diversion requirement of Republic Act No 9003 or Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. It also addresses climate change issues associated with how municipal wastes are managed."

The use of RDF in lieu of coal addresses the twin issues of solid waste management and climate change. "This is the largest RDF plant in the Philippines to date," said Isabelita P Mercado, president of IPM, which operates and manages the plant. "This is also a pioneering endeavour to save the environment by reducing our dependence on fossil fuel."

India: According to the Economic Times, the waste from city kitchens will soon be recycled into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) at waste processing plants in Kalaburagi City, Karnataka. The RDF from the 10 upcoming waste processing plants in Kalaburagi will be given to cement companies for use as fuel and the biodegradable waste will be used as manure by farmers.

The joint initiative taken up by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development & Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) has had agreements with cement manufacturers such as ACC, Vicat Sagar and UltraTech in Kalaburagi.

"Plastic-like material is a good alternative for fossil fuel as it can replace up to 20% of fossil fuel in terms of energy," said KSPCB chairman Vaman Acharya. The pact is yet to be signed and talks between the stakeholders is in the final stages. Transport costs for the RDF are estimated to be less than US$0.016/kg.

The idea to use RDF instead of fossil fuel in Kalaburagi cement plants was first conceived by Hasiru Dala, a Bengaluru-based non profit organisation working on waste management. It has provided 100t of combustible waste to Zuari Cements' plant in Andhra Pradesh in the past two months. Nalini Shekar, founder of Hasiru Dala, said that the material was not sold to the cement plant for a price, but Zuari paid for packaging and transportation. Households have been asked to segregate waste and hand it to BBMP garbage collectors to make the process easier.

India: Bangalore's first refuse-derived fuel (RDF) processing plants are expected to be operational by the end of June 2015. Production will start at low levels before rising to meeting full production capacity. Local government body, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), is building two units at Kannahalli and Seegehalli, which will have the capacity to segregate and generate 140t/day of RDF, according to local media.

"We have already roped in four cement manufacturers. There is a lot of demand for RDF and when manufacture starts, we can be assured of consumption," said Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) Chairman Vaman Acharya. Bangalore has the potential to generate more than 500t/day of RDF.

It is planned for the RDF produced in Bangalore to be used by cement plants in Kalaburagi district in the north of Karnataka state. However this may more than double the price of the RDF due to transportation costs.

Egypt: Lafarge Industrial Ecology (Ecocem) has signed two major contracts to manage and operate existing refuse-derived fuel (RDF) platforms in Suez and Qalyubeya in Egypt.

In an effort to continue its efficient waste management processes, the company has signed a year agreement to renovate and upgrade the platforms in Suez and another separate 10-year agreement to manage and operate the existing platforms in Qalyubeya. Lafarge Ecocem has already added a new production line to the Suez platform and plans an additional line within one year of signing its contract with the governorate. The plant will produce 42,000t/yr of RDF and the investment will total US$1.66m.

Ecocem has also already added an extra line to the Qalyubea plant, in addition to renovating one production line. The company's future investments in the governorate will increase the RDF production capacity by 32,000t/yr to 280,000t/yr. Both investments at the Qalyubeya plant were funded by GIZ and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with a total Investment of US$1m.

"In line with our 'Building Egypt 2030' campaign, Lafarge is committed to help solve the issue of waste in Egypt and to continue taking the necessary steps towards sustainable development," said Hussein Mansi, CEO of Lafarge Egypt. "At Lafarge Egypt, we feel it is our responsibility as a leader in building solutions to be the major proponents in waste management and plan to continue finding many opportunities to make a difference."

Building on its waste management strategy, Lafarge Ecocem is committing to several additional long-term contracts with different governorates to help convert municipal solid wastes to alternative fuels. In addition, in March 2015, Lafarge Egypt and Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S A E signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a waste management framework of municipal and agricultural waste.

Lafarge Egypt and Ecocem have implemented many projects over the past three years in order to increase the use of alternative fuels and aim to achieve an average fuel substitution rate of 25% by the end of 2015. More than 260,000t of waste have been processed and fired in Lafarge's Sokhna plant since 2013, an equivalent of 100,000t of fossil fuels.