Supplier news

BioHiTech America installs digesters in 10 Florida Golden Corral restaurants

BioHiTech Global Inc., a technology company that provides a data-driven solution for food waste disposal announced that its subsidiary, BioHiTech America, based in Chestnut Ridge, New York, has started installing its commercial food waste disposal solution to Golden Corral restaurants in 10 franchised locations throughout Florida.

Privately held Golden Corral Corp., Raliegh, North Carolina, has almost 500 restaurants in 40 states—with 56 restaurants in the state of Florida alone.

Golden Corral franchise owners, Taylor Levy and Marc Verderame, say they wanted to find a disposal solution that considered the environment, while elevating the operational performance of their locations.

BioHiTech’s on-site Eco-Safe digester is designed to allow their Golden Corral restaurants to safely dispose of food waste in the sewer system, while at the same time collecting data and providing real-time reports on the details of what exactly is being wasted.

“Categorizing and quantifying the food waste will help us to measure our sustainability progress and reduce the volume of prepared dishes that do not sell in specific locations,” says owner Taylor Levy.

The digester weighs each increment of waste. It also allows employees to categorize the type of waste, simultaneously transmitting this real-time data to the BioHiTech cloud during the digestion process.

The visibility of the food waste data allows management to identify wasteful preparation and staffing, improve profitability and make important decisions regarding overall operations.

Lindner-Recyclingtech honored with third Global CemFuels Award

Austria-based Lindner Recyclingtech was honored at the 10th Global CemFuels Conference and Exhibition in Prague. The shredder manufacturer was honored for the third time, in the award in the category “Most innovative technology for the use of alternative fuels.”

The Global CemFuels Conference and Exhibition focuses on alternative fuels, particularly for the cement and lime industry. The 2016 event, held Feb. 22 and 23, attracted 170 participants from over 30 countries.

“Since we were privileged to receive this award already in 2009 and 2014, it is all the more pleasing that Lindner-Recyclingtech again was the only shredding equipment manufacturer to be honored by the trust of its customers,” says CEO, Manuel Lindner.

Lindner belt drives have already performed over 2 million operational hours. What the company describes the system used in its Jupiter series of primary shredders and Komet series of secondary shredders as “robust and virtually maintenance-free.” It is designed to give customers ergonomic accessibility through compact design, low energy consumption by using the kinetic energy stored in the fly wheels as well as simple belt changes that do not require a specialist, according to the company.

To stay close to the needs of its customers in the future, Lindner says it will enlarge its research and development (R&D) center to around 3,280 square feet in 2015. Customer requirement are verified on these test systems and results are subsequently implemented into production.

More than 1,200 Lindner shredders are in operation worldwide.

Hurst Boiler commissions poultry litter-fueled biomass boiler in North Carolina

Hurst Boiler, an international manufacturer of a complete line of gas, oil, coal and hybrid biomass fuel-fired steam and hot water boilers since 1967 based in Coolidge, Georgia, has announced the commissioning of its third poultry litter-fueled boiler.

Prestage AgEnergy of Clinton, North Carolina, is completing the 1,600 horsepower Hurst boiler installation. From fuel receiving through emissions, the boiler is the first Hurst Boiler system in the U.S. designed and engineered specifically to be fueled by poultry litter. This cogeneration facility is scheduled to be commissioned midyear and will support Prestage Farm’s turkey operations.

“While we have been carefully evaluating the potential to use litter in our boilers in the U.S. market, one of our solid fuel boilers in Guatemala began running almost 3 years ago on 100 percent litter simply because it was the most cost effective and reliable fuel,” says Tommy Hurst of Hurst Boiler Inc. “Since then, two more systems have been installed and are providing steam to poultry facilities using only chicken litter.”

Bion develops technology to unlock greater value from livestock waste stream

Bion Environmental Technologies Inc., Crestone, Colorado, a provider of advanced livestock waste treatment technology, announced that over the past three years, it has modified its technology platform to enable the capture of ammonia and its conversion into commercial products, rather than its destruction. This has enabled the production of renewable natural gas from the volatile solids in the waste stream, while maintaining the desired nutrient reductions.

Bion estimates the potential byproduct revenues from renewable energy (and associated carbon-reduction credits) and fertilizer products at Kreider Farms Phase 2 (at full operation), Manheim, Pennsylvania, based on present market prices, to be in the range of $15 million to $20 million.

By capturing the ammonia, Bion not only prevents its impacts to the environment as before, but is now able to recover and process substantially more of the nitrogen in the manure stream into a stabilized value-added product.

Bion filed a patent on this process that recovers a nitrogen-rich, natural, non-synthetic fertilizer in September 2015. Bion is preparing a filing with the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) for certification for use in organic production.

The technology platform can now ustilize anaerobic digestion to produce methane, which can then be cleaned and injected into existing pipelines, resulting in a clean renewable compressed natural gas.

The gas can then be delivered anywhere in the country for use as a vehicle fuel, such as California, where it would qualify for significantly more renewable energy credits. Patent protection for the 3rd generation technology platform was filed in September 2014.

BHS grows sales team

Bulk Handling Systems (BHS), Eugene, Oregon, has announced a new organizational structure to its North American sales team, adding three new hires and promoting a veteran employee.

The company says the new separation technology specialists (STS) will focus on applications of core solutions. The all-new STS team consists of Travis Curtis, Randy Roy and Richard Sweet.

Curtis joins BHS to cover the Southeast and central U.S.

Roy will cover the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada, while Sweet will cover the northwestern U.S. and western Canada along with having responsibility for continuous technical training for the entire BHS salesforce. New to the regional sales manager role are Ken Smakula, covering the U.S. Atlantic Coast, and James Haidos, responsible for the central U.S. and eastern Canada.

BHS says it is also making capital investments at its Eugene headquarters and at NRT’s headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.

Greenlane Biogas supplying gas upgrading and recovery systems in British Columbia

Greenlane Biogas has received a contract from Orgaworld Canada, an organic waste treatment company that is part of international waste-to-product business Shanks Group plc, to supply a biogas upgrading system and a carbon dioxide recovery unit for Surrey, British Columbia’s Organic Biofuel Facility.

The facility is currently under construction and will have the capacity to process up to 115,000 metric tons of organic waste—from the city’s curbside collection program and commercial waste from the region—annually.

The organic waste will be fed into anaerobic digesters to generate biogas, which will be upgraded by the system to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) with methane purity greater than 97 percent.

The RNG will be used to fuel the city’s fleet of natural gas waste collection and operations service vehicles, and supply the city-owned district energy system to heat and cool public and privately owned buildings in the City Centre community.

Greenlane Biogas is a global supplier of integrated full system solutions to upgrade biogas released from organic waste to biomethane, a renewable natural gas.

It offers modular upgrading systems to generate an energy source interchangeable with natural gas and has has installed more than 95 systems globally, including two other projects in the British Columbia area.

Pyrolysis project to use Ajax solids handling equipment

Ajax Equipment, a Bolton, U.K.-based solids handling specialist, is supplying hydrocarbon reclamation firm Recycling Technologies, Swindon, U.K., with waste handling equipment for the company’s waste-to-resource pyrolysis system.

Ajax will provide a combined screw feeder and elevator, an agitated screw feeder featuring plug screw and a hopper.

Recycling Technologies says its process uses a fluidized bed pyrolysis system to breakdown mixed plastic waste to produce heavy fuel oil that can be resold into the hydrocarbons market.

Waste material held in the Ajax hopper is transferred into the pyrolysis chamber using a plug screw feeder. A plug is required as the pyrolysis process creates gases that react with oxygen to form unwanted byproducts. The stainless steel screw elevator recycles sand from the fluidized bed back into the pyrolysis process, the company describes.

Matt Green, Recycling Technologies says, “Ajax’s plug screw technology is well matched for pyrolysis as it allows continuous production and prevents by-products forming.”

He condinues, “Ajax has worked on several pyrolysis projects giving them valuable insight on solids handling for pyrolysis, making them the ideal supplier for Recycling Technologies.”

To determine the requirements of the waste handling equipment Ajax carried out tests on multiple materials representing the likely variation.

Bulk waste materials can vary in their size, notes Ajax, therefore, it is recommended that tests are carried out using material from the same source as will be used.

If alternative materials are used the performance of the equipment may alter, affecting the quality of the whole process, the company adds.

More information on Ajax Equipment is available at www.ajax.co.uk.

Vecoplan opens new test lab

Vecoplan, Archdale, North Carolina, has christened its new test lab, which the company describes as “an integral part of Vecoplan’s continuing expansion.”

The lab serves two functions vital to Vecoplan’s long-term goals, according to the company.

“First, it provides a practical hands-on environment to test the feasibility and ensure the quality of our R&D efforts,” says Gary Kolbet, vice president of engineering, Vecoplan LLC.

Bob Gilmore, Vecoplan chief sales officer, adds, “But, just as important, the test lab is set up to provide real world conditions in which customers can view their own waste materials being processed.”

The lab also is configured with an open slot to allow for the installation of other machines on an as-needed basis. One of the semipermanent machines is horizontally fed, while four are vertically fed via hoppers.

The horizontal shredder, a VTH-VU, is equipped with a vibration feed conveyor as well as a pneumatic discharge system. The hopper-feed shredders include a VAZ 1600 M XL T, a V-ECO 1300 and a VAZ 1300 M NewGen.

Specific shredders also feature patented Vecoplan innovations such as the SureCut™ Film & Fiber shredding system and the energy saving HiTorc™ electromagnetic drive technology.

UNTHA UK appoints new managing director

North Yorkshire, U.K.-based UNTHA UK has announced that Marcus Brew has been promoted to the post of managing director. He previously served the company as sales director.

Chris Oldfield, who has led the shredding business since 1997, will become chairman, concentrating on UNTHA UK’s over-arching strategic direction and other wider ambassadorial responsibilities in industry, the company says.

With a sales target of $14 million for the new financial year, the promotion signifies the next stage in UNTHA UK’s organic development.

The UNTHA UK team has grown from a one-man business to 17 employees.

Specializing in shredding solutions for the waste to energy and varied recycling markets, UNTHA now has more than 500 machines in operation throughout the U.K. and more than 9,000 operating worldwide.

Roger Draper joined the senior management team as head of after sales last October, for instance, and sales coordinator Sharon Annat progressed to the role of sales process manager in December.

UNTHA UK also is looking for two more service engineers, a sales manager for spare parts and an office administrator.

Brew has 25 years of experience working with technically complex capital equipment.

He also has extensive commercial acumen, having run his own business too, UNTHA UK says.