AirSteril Maxi Thermal Unit

Now there is a new New Air Purification and Odour Prevention Device which appears to be, by all reports, a revolutionary development for the waste and resource management industry. In recent months it has been trialled by leading waste disposal company Viridor Waste Management and others, and is now resulting in large orders for them as the sole distributor.

AirSteril Maxi Thermal Units in use in a Refuse Transfer Station

The product is from Dax Environmental Ltd., a family owned UK based company that specialises in air purification solutions. Their aim is to help waste facility operators improve the quality of air in enclosed spaces by cutting odours and eliminating bacteria, viruses, mould and fungi in the air and on surfaces.

Their new product is an air purifier called AirSteril, it uses photoplasma oxidation and a unique ultraviolet system, in a unique five stage process, which in combination is far more effective than any previous device in oxidising and removing all the smelly hydrocarbons in the air and simultaneously killing a very high percentage of all the harmful aerosols. The equipment is stated to conform to all UK and EU health and safety regulations.
By unassisted thermal convection, the chosen units from their Maxi Thermal range, are sized to purify the whole airspace.

The ultraviolet light it generates is described as operating at peak UVC wavelengths. One lamp makes ozone (O3) and a second lamp coverts the ozone to hydroxyl radicals (OH) which are short-lived, but act as powerful destroyers of the DNA of all airborne pathogens within the “plasma” inside the unit. For the average waste transfer station tipping floor area the power requirement for a AirSteril Maxi Thermal installation is approximately “18” Watts, of continuous power consumption (all units are run continuously 24/7).

At waste transfer station facilities where it has been trialled by Viridor we have been informed of the following:

“Viridor were overwhelmingly impressed at the efficiency and cost of our technology and it’s ability to eliminate both household waste and green waste odours within their storage warehouse facilities. They were also further impressed that our units do not require chemicals or filters and are very low maintenance. They have already calculated that our units will save them 50% of their annual budget in the first year alone, which includes the cost of the units and installation and up to a staggering 90% in subsequent years. This has now led to ourselves starting to install our units at their remaining 90 plus UK depots.”
“The Viridor depot where the first of our trials took place is in the middle of a industrial estate in Lancing, West Sussex and which borders a residential area to the North and West. The wind was carrying the waste odours in all directions which led to them receiving numerous complaints every week. As of today Viridor have not received one complaint since the installation of our units.”

“In brief, our units use a combination of five technologies working in tandem 24/7, 365 days a year to produce what is called photo plasma. This envelops everything in the vicinity and eliminates all bacteria that causes the waste to smell. This technology has been fully tested by the UK Government’s Health Protection Agency and is 100% environmentally friendly as well as extremely low cost to run. “

Further information is available from Dax Environmental Ltd, UK who can be contacted on Tel: +44 (0)1206, +44 (0)460004, Fax +44 (0)1206 548136 or via their website at http://wppts.com/airsteril_maxi_thermal__revolution .

The UK government has for some years now been investing heavily in the Waste Technologies to increase recycling and reduce waste sent to landfill, but with announcement made this June it has confirmed that it is taking this much further, having embarked upon a “Zero Waste” policy. Earlier Zero Waste initiatives are underway in Scotland and Wales, with Northern Ireland also taking a similar approach and they all need waste technology investment, to be successful.

But, large though that investment is, there is more to come. The commercial and industrial waste sector which is of similar size, and had been slow to follow this lead, is now catching up. The landfill tax at £48/tonne in 2010/11 is the main driving force in this sector, and the fact that the Landfill Tax is to continue to rise by £8 a year until 2013, is now providing a compelling economic incentive to all businesses to divert larger quantities of their waste.

Put that together with the buzz around the emerging news of the exciting technical advances taking place in the waste technologies, which are evolving from proving trials to “proven and market ready”, and you have an un-missable opportunity to take part and benefit from this uniquely growing market.

Local Authorities and Waste Management Companies from across the UK and Europe are shifting their focus towards Waste-to-energy and Anaerobic Digestion. In addition, they are now committing large sums of government funding to the emerging technologies such as Gasification, Pyrolysis and MSW to biofuels.

At the Waste Technology Summit the challenge for many of the speakers will be to answer the pressing questions the delegate will be asking about: How can we identify the right technology? What are the merits and drawbacks of each? Which one suits the needs and budgets of the local area? How scalable are they, and what are the economic capacities?

EyeforEnergy have developed the Waste Technology Summit as a rare opportunity to bring together the top technology providers together in-person to answer your questions.

For any technology providers not yet signed up, there is still time to get involved. If you want to meet, and get your technology seen by decision makers from over 15 local authorities and waste management companies in the UK alone, EyeforEnergy can help you secure those meetings.

We recommend that you act now, and sign up for the Waste Technology Summit EU on the 4th and 5th October, London. Some of the leading stakeholders and most successful operators that will be present are: CEWEP, DEFRA, Grant Thornton, Mott Macdonald & WSP, Viridor? and Grundon?, to name just a few.

Find out more about the Waste Technology Summit and how it can grow your business here:

http://www.eyeforenergy.com/wasteuk/ and subscribe to our email updates here.

Don’t forget to enter the coupon code SLAST for your £100 discount when you sign up. An exclusive site visit to the Viridor/Grundon facility at Colnbrook is also included in the price.

Wednesday 26th May, The Source Conference Centre, Sheffield

Find out more and register FREE as an individual member @ www.sorp.org

Attend and listen to presentations on:
 Winning Commercial food waste business – How hard can it be?
 Collection – Performance and Efficiency in Partnership
 Turning Waste into Opportunities
 Creating valued products from your waste/resource
 Delivering Advanced Biological Treatment Processes
 Quality Compost the Cost and Value- The Choices Facing Operators
 Using ‘waste’ resources for soil benefit
 The sensitivities of the agricultural market using recyclate
 Using organic resources – A farmer’s view

A few of the companies already booked to attend include:

ADAS, CO2 Sense, Entec UK, Enterprise Plc, Envirolink NW, Environment Agency, Northumbrian Water, Scottish Water Horizons, Tanks & Vessels, Yorkshire Water , Wessex Water, WRAP.

To book your place please just complete and return the attached booking form to fax 01924 257455 or visit www.aquaenviro.co.uk

Here is our Waste Separation Technology list:

1. Screeners are sifting units that are rotated as powder is fed into their interior.
2. Air classifiers, cones or cyclones use the spiral air flow action or acceleration within a chamber to separate or classify solid particles
3. Concentrating tables or density separators screen bulk materials or minerals based on the density (specific gravity), size and shape of the particles.
4. Electrostatic separators use preferential ionization or charging of particles to separate conductors from dielectrics (non conductors).
5. Floatation systems separate hydrophobic particulates from hydrophilic particulates by passing fine air bubbles up through a solid- liquid mixture. The fine bubbles attach to and lift or float the hydrophobic particles up where they are collected.
6. Magnetic separators use powerful magnetic fields to separate iron, steel, ferrosilicon or other ferromagnetic materials from non-magnetic bulk materials. The magnetic field may be generated by permanent magnets or electromagnets.
7. Rake, spiral and bowl classifiers use mechanical action to dewater, deslime or separate coarse bulk materials from finer materials or liquids.
8. Trommels are large rotary drums shaped with a grate-like surface with large openings to separate very coarse materials from bulk materials, e.g. coarse plastics from fine aluminium.
9. Water classifiers such as elutriators and classifying hydrocyclones use settling or flow in water or a liquid to separate or classify powdered materials based on particle size or shape.

This type of equipment is normally found in Labs and in Industrial use – in wheelie bins.

From the Irish Times, 11 February 2010

WASTE CONTRACTS worth tens of millions of Euro are to be offered to private landfill operators by the four Dublin local authorities when the last Dublin regional landfill closes at the end of this year.

Almost all residual household waste collected in Dublin will be in the hands of private waste companies following the closure of the landfill at Arthurstown, near Kill, Co Kildare, next December.

The landfill, which accepts 600,000 tonnes of municipal waste per annum was due to close in 2007. An Bord Pleanála granted an extension of the facility until December 21st, 2010, but no further deposits of household waste will be permitted after this date.

It was initially envisaged there would be a short time lag between the closure of Arthurstown and the opening of the Poolbeg incinerator, and that during this period waste would be sent to the planned landfill at Nevitt, near Lusk, a Fingal local authority area.

However, while the Lusk facility was granted planning permission last year following protracted Bord Pleanála hearings on the case held on three occasions over two years, it still has not been granted an operating licence from the Environmental Protection Agency. The Poolbeg incinerator will not be operational until 2013 at the earliest. and the region’s local authorities have no other facilities to deal with household waste under their control.

They are now in a position where they will have run out of landfill space at the end of the year, and apart from small amounts of capacity in neighbouring county council landfill facilities, they will have to seek tenders from the private sector to deal with waste.

Dublin City Council has in the last week advertised for interested parties to enter into talks on the processing of up to 350,000 tonnes of waste annually.

While contracts have not yet been put out to tender, a source close to the council has said they are likely to be worth tens of millions of euro for the three years until the Poolbeg incinerator is scheduled to open. More here.

Waste management and energy recovery company, Waste Recycling Group (WRG), has entered into an exclusivity agreement with chemical company Solutia UK Limited to build an Energy from Waste facility (EfW) on land at Solutia’s headquarters, off Corporation Road, Newport, South Wales, UK.

The proposal is in response to the requirements of Prosiect Gwyrdd (Project Green), which aims to provide the five local authorities of Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Caerphilly, Newport and Monmouthshire with a solution to the long-term management of its municipal waste while reducing the reliance on landfill.

The Project has begun a procurement process, inviting private companies to bid for the contract, offering their own individual solutions to the problem. The complex process is expected to take two years, with Prosiect Gwyrdd discussing companies’ bids with them until the summer of 2011 before announcing a preferred bidder that autumn, and planning for the winning project beginning in 2012.

Modern EfW incineration is an essential part of sustainable waste and resource management strategies. Apart from helping the five councils to meet their waste management targets, the scheme will also offer benefits for the Government’s renewable energy and carbon reduction commitments.

EfW is a safe and effective way of diverting residual municipal waste from landfill and produces valuable and renewable energy by reducing the use of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and gas for generating power.

Modern, efficient EfW incineration is used extensively across Europe to meet the challenge of driving more value out of waste and resources. Waste policy at European level and in the UK supports the approach of setting high recycling rates together with the use of EfW incineration for the waste that remains after recycling. Currently, EfW plants in Europe can supply 12 million people with electricity and 11 million people with heat.

The scheme being considered by WRG has the potential for supporting a district heating system by using the steam created through the burning of the local municipal waste, and Solutia itself has expressed an interest in receiving electricity and steam generated by the plant once it is up and running.

Solutia has already installed two 2.5-megawatt wind turbines on the site as part of a plan to source its energy needs in ways which will reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and lower its carbon dioxide emissions, and has welcomed the WRG initiative.

“Anything which helps reduce our operating costs in this difficult economic climate will also clearly contribute to the security of employment on the site,” said a spokesperson. “So whilst it is still very early days, there are many good reasons for being excited about the potential of this project.”

WRG aims to submit a planning application in the summer of 2010 for the proposed facility, which would potentially be ready to start operation in 2014. WRG and Solutia are committed to ensuring that there will be full public consultation with local residents, statutory bodies and other interested groups.

Global building solutions provider CEMEX is forming a partnership with the Waste Recycling Group (WRG) to produce Climafuel, an renewable fuel derived from waste, for use in cement making at the Rugby cement plant.

Last year, CEMEX submitted applications for permission to build a Climafuel manufacturing plant either at Southam or Malpass Farm in Rugby. Should planning permission be granted by Warwickshire County Council (WCC) at one of these locations, CEMEX’s agreement with WRG means that the plant would be built and operated in partnership with WRG, and the resulting fuel supplied to the cement plant.

This is welcome news as UK MBT Plants are being built which will remain risky investments unless and until a market develops in Refuse Derived Fuel like this SRF. The aim ultimately will be to produce an SRF which will be saleable for use in any boiler, but the Waster understands that for now any SRF in the UK must be classed as a waste still – and that means that stringent Waste/Waste Incineration Directive type rules still apply to the emissions from any site which burns it.

As one of the UK’s leading waste management and energy recovery companies, WRG brings to the partnership the necessary expertise and experience in the manufacture of solid recovered fuel (SRF) from residual household, commercial and industrial waste. The Climafuel plant would utilise mechanical biological treatment (MBT) technology which is widely used in mainland Europe with over 80 operational facilities, mainly in Germany, Italy and Spain. Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), the Spanish construction and services group and WRG’s parent company, brings a wealth of experience in implementing solutions utilising a range of MBT processes and technologies.

CEMEX has demonstrated the significant benefits the use of Climafuel provides in displacing traditional fossil fuels and reducing emissions. By diverting waste from landfill, the manufacture and use of Climafuel can also help local authorities to meet the stringent targets set by the European Union for reducing the volume of waste going to landfill. The use of Climafuel will further reduce the plant’s consumption of fossil fuels, such as coal, and thereby help to achieve climate change objectives.

If permission for such a plant is granted by WCC, it could make a significant contribution to the county achieving its landfill diversion targets.

Neville Roberts, CEMEX’s Technical Director, commented: “CEMEX had always planned to involve a waste management specialist in this project and in WRG we have one of the leaders in this activity in the UK and Europe. The use of Climafuel represents a ‘win-win’ situation and this new partnership will deliver tangible benefits environmentally and commercially.”

Andy Ryan, WRG’s Development Director, said: “WRG has a strong strategic focus on providing solutions for local authorities as they seek to reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill, as well as improving performance on waste minimisation, re-use and recycling.

“This partnership represents an important extension to our offering. Climafuel would be manufactured to CEMEX’s tight specifications and this will produce a solid, clean and non-hazardous alternative fuel which generates valuable energy from material that cannot otherwise be recycled.”

CIWM and ESWA Courses

October/November Update

Forthcoming courses are:

10 November – Site Waste Management Plans

19 November – Duty of Care

Please scroll down for approximate course information.

Environmental Permitting Operators Certificate

This course is an option for demonstrating operator competence for the purpose of operating a permitted waste and resources facility for “low risk tier” sites – eg inert waste transfer / treatment, in house storage, WEEE storage, MRS (dry scrap – no free flowing liquid). It can also be used by a site in the “medium risk tier” or “higher risk tier” facility (other than landfill) who wishes to make use of a 12 month grace period to obtain the appropriate award. – see risk tier list. Further information can be found in the CIWM / WAMITAB operator competence scheme.

Hazardous Waste – Clasffication and Coding

Are you dealing with Hazardous Wastes and need to ensure you are classifying them correctly and assigning the appropriate codes? Whether as a hazardous waste producer or a treatment/disposal facility this course will give you a detailed explanation of the process and an opportunity to practice. By the end of the course you will have a working knowledge of the legislation and guidance governing the coding and classification of hazardous wastes and also be able to use the relevant documents required to classify hazardous wastes.

Hazardous Waste – Classification & Coding

2 September, Northampton
Are you dealing with Hazardous Wastes and need to ensure you are classifying them correctly and assigning the appropriate codes? Whether as a hazardous waste producer or a treatment/disposal facility this course will give you a detailed explanation of the process and an opportunity to practice.

Introduction to the Management of Wastes

Are you required to deal with your companies waste? Are you new to the waste industry or need to understand the waste industry in order to change career paths? This course will provide those new to the management of wastes with an introduction to sustainable waste management within the UK and an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of those involved from waste production to ultimate disposal.

Waste Carriers and Related Controls

The aim of this course is to provide waste carriers with the competence to handle waste within current legislative regimes safely and to minimise environmental impact .

Introduction to Waste Legislation

Is waste legislation new to you? Do you need an introduction into the key legal requirements of managing waste? This course is an excellent first step in understanding waste legislation.

Hazardous Waste Regulations

Do you know what Hazardous Waste is? Did you know that something as simple as a fluorescent tube is Hazardous? Do you produce or handle Hazardous Waste? This course explains which wastes are classified as Hazardous and provides up-to-date advice on how to comply with the regulations.

Course content may vary. To find out more about these courses go to the CIWM web site at www.ciwm.co.uk. You can also email training@ciwm.co.uk or call the Training Services Department on 01604 620426.

Manchester waste PFI deal to be done by end of month

Europe’s largest waste management contract, the £3.3bn Greater Manchester waste PFI, will be finalised by the end of the month, an insider on the project has claimed.

The source said the banks involved in the 25 year contract were close to agreeing the struc­ture of the finance.

A joint venture between infrastructure investor John Laing and waste contractor Viridor was originally named as preferred bidder by client Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) in January 2007.

But the complexity of the deal and increasingly difficult lending conditions caused by the credit crisis have meant that every deadline for the project has so far been issed. Last December GMWDA predicted that the deal would be wrapped up by Christmas 2008 (NCE 4 December 2008).

I think that many are waiting anxiously to see these signings go through. The industry needs this vital re-assurance that the banks are still able to put together a deal of this size, are lending, and that the credit crunch has done its worst… (The Waster)

12-03-2009

The German trade association for mechanical biological treatment (MBT) has refuted claims that the technology has not proved effective and popular in the country.

Michael Balhar, manager of the Association for Material Specific Waste Treatment (ASA), told www.letsrecycle.com that MBT – which comprises a sorting facility and some kind of biological treatment – was “still alive and in the best of health”, and that there were some isolated problems with it.

His comments come after Mechanical Biological Treatment MBT company MVV Umwelt claimed in late 2008 that MBT had not always worked when it was used in Germany and that energy-from-waste was increasingly a more attractive option for councils and waste management companies (see letsrecycle.com).

Mr Balhar pointed towards the 48 plants currently “successfully” operating in Germany using variations on MBT technology to pre-treat up around 25% of the country’s municipal solid waste as proof of its success.

And, he outlined a number of advantages that the technology offered, including “lower investment costs in relation to waste incineration plants”, and that, in Germany at least, MBT plants had a “smaller projection period” than incinerators.

Mr Balhar explained that MBT was particularly effective in allowing different materials within residual waste to be treated in different ways according to their properties.

He cited the examples of using anaerobic digestion to produce biogas from organic material, while dry materials such as paper and plastics could be prepared as a solid recovered fuel which could result in reduced use of fossil fuels.

Mr Balhar acknowledged that, as a “young and innovative” technology, MBT had faced some difficulties in Germany, but said that a German Federal Environment Agency study in 2007 had shown that “existing problems could be solved to [a] large extent and reduced clearly”.

Explaining that many of the problems had centred on the use of anaerobic digestion, he said however that the “MBT plant operators mastered the challenges placed against them well”, and said that questioning the technology was “not justified”.

He said that MBT had potential to be rolled out across Europe, explaining it was of “great interest to our European neighbours.”

“If one doesn’t consider the very ambitious German requirements and limit values as standard, relatively small investments are necessary to realise the EU provisions and guidelines all over Europe quite rapidly,” he said. More here.