Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has installed three BWZ bucket elevators and a Louise TKF drag chain conveyor supplied by the Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Aumund at its new power plant at Ofunato. The cement producer uses both biomass and coal at the plant.

Two elevators and the drag chain conveyor are used to transport palm kernel shells (PKS) and palm empty fruit bunches (EFB), which are used as alternative fuels in the power plant. Each has a capacity of up to 150t/hr. The conveying concept is designed so that the different materials are kept apart and enter the silo buffer tanks separately. The third bucket elevator is used for coal handling. It is a gravity discharge type BWZ-S elevator with a capacity of up to 35t/hr.

Netherlands: N+P has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a 170t/yr SubCoal refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant in Farmsum, Groningen Province to Germany-based Sutco RecyclingTechnik. The plant, scheduled for commissioning in early 2021, will occupy the site of an existing N+P SubCoal production facility, acquired by the company in 2012.

It said that the new plant will be equipped “to allow further control of key fuel parameters such as chlorine, sulphur and, nitrogen.” It added, “N+P has developed and fine-tuned the SubCoal production method, resulting in plans for a new layout to implement the lessons learned over the past 10 years.” Managing Director David Driessen said, “The decision of the board to go ahead with a full new-build is a clear sign of our ambition to grow and expand across the globe.”

Indonesia: Solusi Bangun, the Public Works and Housing Ministry, the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Danish International Development Agency, and the Central Javan and Cilacap administrations have inaugurated an 18,300t/yr-capacity refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant in Cilacap in the province of Central Java. The Jakarta Post has reported that the US$6.29m plant, the first of its kind in Indonesia, will process 120t/day of municipal solid waste into RDF for cement plants.

The Indonesian government is exploring ways to increase the uptake of RDF production as a waste management alternative across the country and is aiming to open 12 waste-fired power plants of a total power of 234MW by 2022.

Netherlands: N+P has reported the successful performance of Subcoal Pulverised Alternative Fuel (PAF) quality, a type of its refuse-derived fuel (RDF) pellet product, in a series of industrial tests at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ (MHI) Research and Innovation Centre. It says the fuel “achieved a stable flame” without support fuel on a 24MW burner. In the tests, Subcoal ground by a vertical roller mill to a fineness of 90% under 3mm, was fed using existing handling systems into the burner at a rate of 4t/hr. The Netherlands-based recycling company says this proves its suitability for 100% substitution of conventional fuels for industrial applications.

N+P has also introduced the PAF grade Subcoal product to some of its clients in the cement and lime sector. It intends to research how these producers can replace the last 10 - 40% of their fossil fuel load. The first trials are expected to be carried out from late 2020.