Supplier news

Wendt Corp. installs ragger wire chipping line for Santarosa Group

Wendt Corp., Buffalo, New York, and strategic business partner MTB of France have manufactured and installed a ragger wire chopping line at Niagara Falls, New York-based Santarosa Group, a family-owned and operated industrial waste and recycling company.

Santarosa Group invested in the chopping line to process ragger wire, which is also referred to as ragger tail and pulper rope. It is made during the paper/pulping process when waste is cleaned from the pulper vat. The waste material wraps around itself, creating a compact rope-like chain. Ragger wire consists of plastic trimmings, steel baling wire, staples, foil, insoluble papers and other impurities found in recovered fiber.

“We needed a heavy-duty chopping line to size and separate materials,” says Aaron Santarosa, president of Santarosa Group. “We are putting in waste streams which contain various materials that can destroy a typical shredder, and the MTB Shredder was able to withstand those materials without ruining the machine in addition to providing the specialized materials for our end users.”

Santarosa Group’s chopping line features an MTB BDR 2400 shredder, MTB TMR 600 ferrous extractor and belt conveyors. The shredder cuts the tough-to-process ragger wire into 2-inch long pieces, while the TMR 600 extracts the ferrous metals. The company also recently purchased an eddy current separator to recover nonferrous metals. The process provides a finished paper/plastic product that the company can sell as a fuel source, Wendt says.

“Our revenue has increased dramatically since we started the operation, and now that we are fully operational we have been able to grow our markets and experiment with different products,” Santarosa says. In addition to this application, Santarosa Group also is shredding numerous aluminum products, plastic and paper rejects, plastics, ferrous wire, coiled ferrous wire, tires, wood and MRF residue, among other materials.

Operating five to six days per week, the shredder is running at a rate of 1,300 tons per month.

“Our long-term goal with this investment is to develop niche businesses to process and upgrade numerous waste streams into useful commodities,” Santarosa says. “With the tight spec that our customer requires, we have been able to be a dominant supplier at an efficient price.”
 

ZWEDC installs densimetric table

Zero Waste Energy Development Co. LLC (ZWEDC) of San Jose, California, has purchased the second densimetric table (d-table) in the U.S. The first was purchased by sister company Z-Best Composting, Gilroy, California. Both were supplied by Stamford, Connecticut-based Van Dyk Recycling Solutions.

According to Van Dyk Recycling, the d-table can remove more than 99 percent of compost contamination, such as glass, plastics, stones and stickers, thereby increasing organics diversion from landfill.
 

Ener-Core receives $2 million purchase order from Dresser-Rand

Ener-Core Inc., based in Irvine, California, reported in August that it received a $2.1 million purchase order for two Ener-Core Power Oxidizers in the 1.5-2 megawatt power capacity. The order calls for the delivery of the systems to Dresser-Rand for subsequent integration into Dresser-Rand’s KG2-3G/PO Power-station, representing the first commercial order of the system.

Houston-based Dresser Rand is offering its KG2-3G gas turbine with Ener-Core’s Gradual Oxidizer technology to allow the turbine to operate on a lower quality gaseous fuel with fewer emissions when compared with those of a conventional turbine, Dresser Rand says.

Separately, in early August 2015, Ener-Core announced the success of the Sub Scale Acceptance Test (SSAT), recently conducted by the company and approved by Dresser-Rand. The test is considered a vital technical step in the scale-up effort, enabling Ener-Core’s license partner Dresser-Rand to begin quoting and closing additional purchase orders.

“This has been an exciting time at Ener-Core as we begin the commercial phase of our agreement with Dresser-Rand. Receiving the initial purchase order for our first two next-generation Power Oxidizers as well as the first license fee payment are truly significant steps for Ener-Core and are a powerful validation by a well-established partner of the commercial viability of our technology and our ability to scale up our solution from 250 kilowatts to 1.5-2 megawatts,” says Alain Castro, CEO of Ener-Core. “We are now able to fully engage with Dresser-Rand’s global sales and marketing team and begin the full commercial efforts for our 1.5-2 megawatt systems.”
 

GTI to distribute VSO gasholders

Geomembrane Technologies Inc. (GTI), Fredericton, New Brunswick, has announced it is now the exclusive distributor of double-membrane gasholders, manufactured by VSO Biogas Technologies, Artigues, France, in the U.S. and Canada. GTI says its cover experts can deliver, install and commission these gasholders, and provide advice on how to maximize the use of biogas.

According to GTI, double-membrane gasholders reliably capture methane gas, a naturally occurring component of biogas generated from anaerobic digestion. They are designed to safely store and regulate the use of biogas, which can be used in engines and combined heat and power units for electricity and heat at wastewater treatment plants, municipalities and farms. Biogas also can be used in boilers for process heat and steam or, in some cases, sold to a local utility for profit.

Made from flexible composite materials, the gasholders consist of an inner membrane that holds the biogas and an outer protective membrane that also regulates internal pressure. The gasholders range in size from 1,800 cubic feet to 180,000 cubic feet and can be either pad-mounted for solid structure digesters or mounted directly on round digester tanks.
 

PHG Energy tapped to build county gasification plant in Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee-based PHG Energy (PHGE) reports it will build a gasification plant for Sevier County Solid Waste, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

According to PHGE, the plant will be capable of converting more than 30 tons of composted material daily into thermal energy while producing a valuable high-carbon biochar.

“This new installation will help us reduce the amount of compost we need to transport by converting it into a biochar material, creating a new revenue stream for us,” says Tom Leonard, director of Sevier Solid Waste, Inc. (SSWI). “The energy from the gasification system will be used in a thermal oxidizer promoting odor control in the buildings and will allow us to defer other upgrades. This represents a significant savings from our current disposal and operating costs.”

SSWI operates a garbage composting plant that processes more than 100,000 tons annually from Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. All the municipal solid waste (MSW) is processed through the plant, with 60 percent of it being made into compost.

PHGE’s gasification plants employ a thermo-chemical process that converts the biomass to a combustible fuel gas. According to PHGE, around 90 percent of the biomass that is gasified in the PHGE system becomes fuel gas, and the only remaining residue is the charcoal-like biochar, that in SSWI’s case will be sold to a local industrial user as a renewable source of fuel.

PHGE partnered with ARiES Energy, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based provider of energy consulting services, to develop the project.
 

Caterpillar, Navistar will end collaboration agreement for vocational trucks

Navistar Inc., Lisle, Illinois, says it will launch a new line of premium vocational trucks for the severe service segment beginning in early 2016 through its International Truck brand, leveraging shared technology and intellectual property from its venture with Caterpillar.

In addition, the company will transition the production and engineering of the Cat-branded severe service trucks the company has been supplying to Caterpillar since 2011 to Caterpillar. Navistar says it will continue to manufacture trucks for Caterpillar through Dec. 31, 2016.

While specific terms will not be disclosed, both companies will have the opportunity to leverage certain joint intellectual property, collaborate with suppliers and use licensing agreements moving forward, Navistar says.

“Navistar and Caterpillar have had a strong, collaborative working relationship through a number of projects and partnerships for many, many years,” says Bill Kozek, president, Navistar Truck and Parts.

In related news, Caterpillar, Inc., headquartered in Peoria, Illinois, reports it will begin independently designing and manufacturing its vocational truck product family at its plant in Victoria, Texas. The plant, which opened in 2012, has been producing hydraulic excavators. Caterpillar launched its first vocational truck, the CT660, in the North American Market in 2011. Two more models, the CT680 and the CT681, have since been added to the lineup.