News items March 2018

Microtrac introduces new size and shape particle analyser! Microtrac announced a new instrument at Pittcon 2018! The new Microtrac Sync will provide customers with more information about their particles than ever before. By integrating the world’s leading laser diffraction technology with the leading dynamic image analysis on the same bench with the same GUI, Microtrac’s Sync is synchronising size and shape measurement – one sample, one bench, one sample flow path, one sample cell, one analysis. Whether troubleshooting a particle size distribution or searching for more specific ways to characterise materials, this new instrument from Microtrac will increase customer’s productivity and enable them to explore and optimise the properties of their materials. “Until now, laser diffraction has provided industry with the most used and most reliable methodology for particle size” says Paul Cloake, President of Microtrac. “Users who wanted more information, like shape, needed to perform measurements on different technologies.

SRF Production Facility Saves One Million Tons of CO2 15 years ago ThermoTeam started producing solid recovered fuels for the cement industry. Incredibly, one million tons of energy rich SRF have already left the production line designed entirely by Lindner-Recyclingtech. With this innovative facility for sustainable and environmentally friendly waste processing in Styria, Austria, cement manufacturer Lafarge has already been able to save 1.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). This is the amount of CO2 that the average car would emit while circumnavigating the earth approximately 230.000 times. ThermoTeam Alternativbrennstoffverwertungs GmbH in Feldkirchen near Graz is a joint venture between Lafarge Perlmooser Holding AG and Saubermacher Dienstleistungs AG. On February 28th, 2018 the company celebrated 15 years of successful SRF production at the Retznei site in Styria with guests from politics, business and research, and announced more trailblazing investments in the future. The innovative SRF facility went

High availability, a wide range of possible applications, precise grain size ‘We make more out of waste’ – That’s the Nemetz Entsorgung und Transport AG’s objective. Founded in 1915 with a small horse-drawn carriage, today the family business in Leopoldsdorf near Vienna is active in waste management throughout Austria. Services include the collection and recycling of valuable materials (metals, paper, glass, plastics, demolition/construction waste, etc.) as well as the disposal of residual waste, special waste and hazardous municipal, commercial and industrial waste. For this purpose Nemetz customers can use an online ordering service for skips and other containers. Since 1993 the company has been operating a continuously expanding sorting plant (also for film and PET) at its headquarters and since 2002 a modern RDF plant at the Himberg site in Lower Austria, which was later retrofitted with a system for the removal of PVC plastic. The refuse-derived fuels are produced from mixed waste and are marketed primarily in the cement industry. When

The first large-scale plant for the recycling of heavily contaminated PE film waste has now delivered by HERBOLD MECKESHEIM, the plant can process up to 8,000 tons per year of film, used big bags and similar waste. The waste coming in bales are pre-sorted, shredded and foreign bodies are separated by means of a pre-washing unit in which also a first washing takes place. Fig. 1) Charles Müller (Managing Director) and Deon Swart (Technical Manager) in front of the HERBOLD plant Afterwards, further contaminations are dissolved in a wet granulator under intensive friction; a subsequent friction washer separates the dirty water from the product. A hydro cyclone separates foreign plastics and specifically heavy contaminations from the target fraction. This separation process has a particularly high separation effect and ensures the high quality of the produced film flakes. Fig. 2 + 3 ) Contaminated Input In two drying steps, centrifugal dryer and hot air dryer,

Renewable energies are today more important than ever. SUEZ focuses on sustainability and therefore produces high-quality biogas and compost! In Montpellier, SUEZ supports its subsidiary Amétyst with 10 million euros for the development of its processing plant for domestic waste and biowaste with the aim of increasing the process capacity as well as the product quality. After optimizations, including in the field of methanation, SUEZ concentrates on the issue of efficiency and compliance with regulatory standards for compost production. For this purpose Amétyst uses RHEWUM screening machines type WA with feeders type AV at the end of the separation process. After the organic waste has completed various procedural steps and has been treated for 2 to 3 days in a bioreactor, the fraction of 0- 20 mm is separated from it by using four screening machines with direct excitation of the screen cloth (see video from minute 1:10). These screening plants have been specially developed for the integration into the production

Using lump breakers from Van Beek the ash-processing SARU units of Shell in Pernis are running at full speed again. “The lump breakers have proved they can meet the requirements of our plant”, says Mario Graca, process engineer at Shell. For big projects of this type Shell is of course playing it safe. The installation was preceded by detailed discussions and tests on site. Why a lump breaker? SARU stands for Soot Ash Removal Unit. This is where Shell has for decades already been processing ash and other hazardous substances that are produced in other processes in Pernis. These substances finally end up in a rotary kiln incinerator with a rotary valve. This has worked well for years, but more recent waste materials seem to clump together and this could block the rotary valve. Suitable solution This is why Shell approached the contractor Jacobs to find a solution. For senior buyer Rudy Schilders it soon became clear that a lump breaker was

When using screening machines in a production process, efficient and exact screening is very important for the downstream processing steps. To achieve this, the mesh cloth used in the machine must not clog with the material to be screened. The blocking and clogging of the meshes is a common problem that occurs especially with difficult to screen and fine powders. This can lead to outages and production loss. To prevent this and to keep the mesh cloth clear, GKM Siebtechnik offers different cleaning systems depending on the characteristics of the product. A mechanical and economical process is the ball cleaning system. This involves the use of balls under the screen which knock against the mesh cloth and thereby displace particles that adhere. Another option for the cleaning of the mesh cloth is the use of an Ultra-Vario-Sonic System. This system delivers a much more efficient sieving action especially with very fine mesh sizes. The throughput rate increases significantly