Supplier news

Vecoplan awarded contract to build feedstock processing system for Fulcrum BioEnergy

Vecoplan LLC, Archdale, North Carolina, announced that it has executed a fixed-price contract with Fulcrum BioEnergy Inc., Pleasonton, California, to design, engineer, install and commission a municipal solid waste (MSW) feedstock processing system for Fulcrum’s Sierra BioFuels Plant near Reno, Nevada. Fulcrum has developed a process for converting MSW into low-cost, low-carbon renewable transportation fuels.

“After a comprehensive research and review process, we identified Vecoplan as the right company to engineer and build our feedstock processing system. Vecoplan’s ability to stand behind their product with a fixed-price contract that guarantees the performance of the system, coupled with their knowledge, experience and commitment, made Vecoplan the right partner for us,” says Rick Barraza, Fulcrum vice president of administration.

Len Beusse, Vecoplan’s managing director and chief operating officer, states, “We are excited to be involved in such a landmark project. Fulcrum truly seems to be in the vanguard of this burgeoning industry.”

Fulcrum develops and owns projects that convert MSW into syncrude and renewable transportation fuels. The company has secured long-term MSW feedstock agreements with its waste services partners and has entered into long-term fuel and product offtake agreements with Cathay Pacific Airways and United Airlines.

Fulcrum says MSW located near large population centers will enable the company to economically turn waste into low-carbon, drop-in jet and diesel fuels. The developer says it has secured sufficient MSW feedstock to support its plan to construct and operate plants across North America. The Sierra BioFuels Plant, Fulcrum’s first commercial-scale plant, is located approximately 20 miles east of Reno, Nevada, and is expected to begin operations in 2017.

Torxx Kinetic Pulverizer partners with Marathon Equipment

Bermuda-based Torxx Kinetic Pulverizer Ltd. (TKPL) has announced it has entered into a manufacturing and distribution partnership with Marathon Equipment Co., based in Vernon, Alabama, a subsidiary of Environmental Solutions Group (ESG), Chattanooga, Tennessee.

TKPL is the manufacturer of the Torxx Kinetic Pulverizer (KP), which the company describes as a robust system capable of destroying the most demanding of waste materials. In fractions of a second, large volumes of waste and other materials are deconstructed into a fine homogeneous fluff or shattered into small predefined particle sizes, depending on the feedstock.

“The KP has a waste reduction process unlike any of our competitors,” says Richard Stevens, executive vice president of business development for TKPL. “All other waste processors—mainly chippers, cutters, grinders, shredders and hammer mills—break down waste for compaction or further processing with a direct contact cutting and shearing action.”

The KP represents a breakthrough new size-reduction technology for our industry, and is an integral part of our effort to provide the world’s most productive and efficient equipment for the collection and processing of solid waste. Our customers will benefit from the dramatically lower operating costs, and also achieve higher diversion rates.”

Idaho city selects Monsal systems

General Electric (GE), based in Fairfield, Connecticut, has announced the city of Rexburg, Idaho, has selected its Monsal anaerobic digestion (AD) and Monsal 70 technologies to treat biosolids at its wastewater treatment facility. The project represents the first North American application of GE’s Monsal technologies designed to allow municipalities to meet federal standards for disposal of treated biosolids.

The technology uses an AD process to treat biosolids, and GE’s Monsal 70 system pasteurizes the sludge, creating biosolids for disposal. Biogas produced by the system can be used to produce electricity and heat.

The Monsal 70 system is a patented pasteurization process to produce Class A biosolids—or biosolids with reduced pathogens. With this classification, no land application restrictions exist, providing long-term certainty of biosolids disposition, GE says. The system also does not require specialized permits or staffing, the company adds.

The city of Rexburg selected GE’s technology because it needed a new solution to treat sludge from the wastewater treatment plant.

“GE was the only company that offered the specialized equipment that we needed to install before the winter months begin so that we can meet our federal environmental requirements,” says John Millar, public works director.

WRS Italia enters the US shredder market

Shredder manufacturer WRS Italia of Italy has entered the U.S. shredder market. The company recently promoted its equipment at WasteExpo, held in Las Vegas June 1-4, 2015. The company is part of Steel Group, a steel producer based in Motta di Livenza.

WRS says it produces its mechanical parts in-house and also offers machining services and heat treatments that are monitored by the Steel Group, allowing WRS Italia to have a unique production chain model in Europe.

Further, the company says, Steel Group’s competence in the special steels field allows the choice of the right material for every shredding purpose and allows WRS to develop shredders for customized applications.

The company says it aims to use a simple and innovative machinery concept to transform scrap into secondary raw materials while reducing energy consumption. Its wide range of machines and plants are designed for the recovery, recycling and preparation of products for secondary raw materials or “clean energy” production, WRS says.

With a range of products that includes single-, double- and four-shaft shredders, as well as preshredders, WRS Italia says it offers solutions for all types of applications, including tires and obsolete electronics and appliances shredding, plastics separation, municipal solid waste (MSW), refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and more.

Designed to guarantee high performance, WRS shredders are provided with either an electric or hydraulic power unit, depending on requested power, with an applied torque range of tens of thousands of feet pounds.

The company says it offers a global commercial service network through local importers that includes training and after-sale intervention.

City of Edmonton and University of Alberta select BIOFerm AD system

Viessmann Group/BIOFerm Energy Systems’ high solids anaerobic digestion (AD) technology was selected by the city of Edmonton and The University of Alberta to help extract energy from the city’s organic waste.

“Sustainable credentials and the future of municipal organics recycling and composting are continuously demonstrated by the City of Edmonton,” says Nadeem Afghan, president and CEO of BIOFerm Energy Systems.

Selection of the technology vendor represents the first part of the project to be located at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2016. Operations are set to begin by the third quarter of 2017.

“This high-solids anaerobic digestion facility is expected to annually produce over one megawatt of renewable electricity and 40,000 gigajoules of renewable heat, along with quality compost from approximately 40,000 [metric tons] per year of Edmonton’s organic waste,” says Christian Felske, technical specialist with the city of Edmonton’s Waste Management Services.

Facility design allows organic material to be loaded into eight fermentation chambers where it remains stationary during the AD process. A robust biofilter removes odors emitted during digestion and prevents them from entering the atmosphere, BIOFerm says.

Terex acquires Neuson Ecotec

Terex Materials Processing, a business segment of Terex Corp., Westport, Connecticut, has announced the acquisition of the assets related to the Environmental Technology product lines of Austria-based Neuson Ecotec GmbH. This acquisition marks further expansion of the Terex Environmental Equipment (TEE) business unit, closely following the purchase of the assets of Continental Biomass Industries (CBI), Newton, New Hampshire, in April, according to the company.

TEE, part of the Terex Materials Processing segment, has been serving the wood, biomass and recycling industries since 2011. The acquisition of the Neuson Ecotec Environmental Technology products will add chipping, shredding, screening and composting products to accelerate development of a global dealer network while adding a facility in Linz, Austria, that can support production requirements in continental Europe. The forestry division of Neuson Ecotec GmbH will transition to Neuson Forest.

The Neuson Ecotec products that Terex is acquiring will be part of a global portfolio of distribution-oriented products to be rebranded as Terex Ecotec. After combining these products with existing Terex products, products in development, and some of the products recently acquired from CBI, the company says the Terex Ecotec line will be among the most comprehensive in the industry.

“The addition of the Terex Ecotec Environmental Technology product lines will add further depth and breadth to an already significant portfolio of products that are managed by TEE,” says Tony Devlin, TEE worldwide business director.

Ener-Core to install system at California landfill

Ener-Core Inc., an Irvine, California-based designer, developer and manufacturer of power oxidization technology products, has announced plans to install a 250 kilowatt (kW) Powerstation EC250 at a landfill in Orange County, California. The system will allow Santa Ana, California-based Orange County Waste & Recycling to generate electricity from gas that is currently being flared at the inactive landfill.

The installation is part of a renewable energy project made possible by the California Energy Commission awarding $1.5 million to the University of California, Irvine’s Advanced Power & Energy Program (APEP) in January 2015. The aim of the project—a partnership between Ener-Core, the County of Orange and APEP—is to demonstrate the feasibility of converting low-quality landfill gas from a closed landfill into clean energy under field conditions. The partnership plans to install and test a 250kW ultra-low emissions power plant at Santiago Canyon Landfill. As part of the partnership, Ener-Core will receive about $900,000 to build and install the EC250 Powerstation. The power plant will use landfill gas created from solid waste decomposition to produce electricity for site operations. Until now, the landfill gas at Santiago Canyon has been flared because it could not be used to fuel traditional power-generation technologies.

According to data from the U.S. EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP), at least 50 percent of the country’s landfills are at full capacity and closed. When landfills close, they typically continue to emit harmful greenhouse gases for as long as 50 to 70 years after closure. However, the quality of the gases typically falls drastically after a landfill has been closed. As such it has historically not been feasible to generate energy from a landfill after closure.

An objective of the project is to demonstrate that the Powerstation can reliably generate clean energy from the landfill gas, though the facility is inactive.

Alain Castro, CEO of Ener-Core, says, “Our solution offers an economically attractive and technically reliable solution for generating clean power from well over 1,000 closed landfills across the U.S.”

BRT names Van Galder LLC North American sales partner

BRT Recycling Technologie GmbH of Germany has selected Van Galder LLC, Rochester, Minnesota, as its exclusive sales and distribution partner in North America. Van Galder LLC is led by industry veteran Jeffrey Van Galder, who brings more than 17 years of experience in the recycling equipment industry, including direct experience with balers, conveyors and other equipment typically installed in completely automated material recovery facilities (MRFs). Van Galder has been working with BRT for years, the equipment company reports.

“Jeffrey’s consultative approach to finding solutions for the customer has led to longstanding collaborative relationships within the industry throughout North America. We are looking forward to a prosperous cooperation,” says Andre Berlage, BRT sales manager.

BRT specializes in designing and engineering equipment for recycling and waste sorting applications and has worked with disposal contractors, municipal recycling facilities, waste management companies and engineering firms.

Pallmann partners with Standard Bio on biorefinery plan

Pallmann Group, Zweibrücken, Germany, a manufacturer of size reduction technology, is joining forces with Standard Bio, a Norwegian biomass conversion technology company, to develop a new biorefinery concept that will use low-value organic waste as a resource for energy, natural fertilizers and animal protein.

The concept is based on the conversion of renewable resources—trees from cultivated forests and other types of biomass—into solid briquettes for energy generation, as well as natural oil.

The patented high-pressure wood press and drying machine developed by Pallmann and Standard Bio is capable of producing 500 cubic meters of compressed wood per day, along with 50 160-liter barrels of natural oil, the companies say.

Pallmann will develop and build various key pieces of equipment to reduce the dried wood to particulate sizes that can then be converted into “bio-briquettes.” Some of the output can also be combined with other natural nitrogen-rich resources to produce fertilizer and animal feed, Pallmann says. The two companies recently signed a technical and sales agreement under which they plan to set up a demonstration plant in Norway that will use wood surplus from timber processing operations in the region.

The plant is expected to be operational later this year. The medium-term goal is to provide technology and equipment packages for customers around the world.