Wastebeater Develops Unique Recycling Capabilities
Wastebeater Develops Unique Recycling Capabilities
9th March 2011
New TITECH technology extracts wood from C&I waste
Background
Commercial and industrial (C&I) waste is generated from a wide variety of business sources, from factories and industrial plants to wholesalers, shops and offices. The waste produced therefore typically contains a broad selection of materials, including metals, plastics, wood, paper and card.
Belfast-based Wastebeater Recycling is at the forefront of developing waste management and recycling services for commercial and industrial companies as well as local authorities in Northern Ireland. Since it opened its Belfast materials recovery facility (MRF) in 2003, Wastebeater has seen significant changes in the C&I waste stream. It has invested in TITECH sensor based sorting technology to help it derive greater value from the 150,000 tonnes it is licensed to process each year. Wastebeater is the first company in the UK to use TITECH systems to extract wood.
Sorting requirements
Over the last five years, Wastebeater’s Belfast facility has witnessed a significant change in the composition of C&I waste. The waste entering the plant has become much lighter, with the infeed now containing greater quantities of plastic film, paper, card and rigid plastics. This has had serious implications in terms of materials sorting, as the original technology was not extracting all the potential value from the waste.
Wastebeater therefore had an important investment decision to make, based on deriving best value from C&I waste. The first option was to mechanically process the waste, using screens, shredders and separators, to produce a combustible product for solid recovered fuel (SRF). The other option was to sort the waste into clean fractions and exploit its potential higher value as recycled materials.
As Kieran Byrne, Managing Director of Wastebeater, explains: "We knew there was a strong market for clean recycled materials, so we wanted to develop a sorting process that would allow us to derive high value, high purity fractions from the waste. We investigated all of the possibilities and decided that optical sorting would be the most effective."
The system that Wastebeater developed using optical sorting to target C&I waste was so advanced that there was no model to follow in the UK. This made developing the plant more challenging. However, TITECH was able to demonstrate how its technology worked in a number of different applications at different sites, including C&I waste sites in Europe, and the results it could achieve for different fractions.
Kieran Byrne says: "We were right at the forefront of developing MRFs for C&I waste recycling, so there were many unknowns. It was therefore very important to us that our technology partner would deliver real results, not empty promises. TITECH really stood out from the crowd in this respect and gave us the confidence that our investment in optical sorting technology would pay off."
Working together, Wastebeater and TITECH built on their mutual experience to design a sorting line dedicated to C&I waste. TITECH was then awarded the contract to supply sensor based sorting equipment in two phases, beginning in June 2009.
Adding value
During the first phase of installation, four TITECH systems were installed to sort the 2D fraction of the plant’s waste stream. This was their primary focus in terms of obtaining value from waste and represents 40 per cent of the infeed material. The TITECH systems were configured to target film and paper, and the TITECH team worked closely with Wastebeater during an initial six-month bedding-in period to make sure that the new systems were delivering optimum performance.
In 2010, TITECH was asked to install a second phase, this time to recover materials from the 3D fraction such as heavy paper, wood and mixed plastics. Three further sorting systems were supplied, with one unit targeting papers, one unit targeting wood and the third unit providing a clean-up on the wood line while also extracting plastics.
Targeting wood from the 3D fraction was a new application for TITECH in the UK. The installed systems incorporate TITECH’s latest technology, which uses two Near Infrared (NIR) sensors; each concentrating on a different part of the spectrum. This technology can gather greater amounts of information about what is on the belt, providing an even more accurate assessment of the materials that are passing through. The twin sensor system is particularly good at identifying materials that are traditionally difficult to sort because they are very similar to one another, such as wood and paper.
The quality control team at Wastebeater have found the TITECH dual sensor system is so accurate that it provides at least 98% purity of recovered wood.
In addition to providing the MRF with increased levels of saleable products, the installed TITECH technology has helped the plant to make significant cost savings, as Kieran Byrne explains: "This facility can now process 25 tonnes of C&I waste per hour. There are a maximum of seven employees working on the process at any one time, including the grab operator and the loading shovel driver. Thanks to TITECH technology we are now processing up to six times as much waste per hour while achieving significantly higher recycling rates as compared to more traditional labour intensive operations. This new system has further enhanced our competitive edge in the UK recycling industry."
TITECH Managing Director Jonathan Clarke says: "The Wastebeater plant uses cutting edge TITECH technology that targets wood for the first time in the UK, providing the client with a significant advantage in this area. We were confident that we could accurately separate wood from other materials using our new twin NIR sensors, which focus on different parts of the infrared spectrum in order to distinguish between similar materials like paper and wood. We also spent a considerable amount of time working with Wastebeater to optimise the system’s performance. This has been an extremely interesting and beneficial project to work on and clearly demonstrates how TITECH technology can be adapted effectively to deliver a good quality end product."
Ends
Notes to editors
TITECH is part of Tomra, which is recognised as a leading global provider of advanced solutions for recovering and recycling materials.
Tomra has a turnover of 500 million euros and more than 1,900 employees worldwide.
TITECH technology is used in more than 35 markets worldwide and 2,500 units have been sold to date.
More than 650 of these units are installed in Germany alone, which is considered to be one of the world’s leading countries in waste management.
Further information about TITECH sorting systems can be found at www.titech.com
Wastebeater is a privately owned recycling organisation which is at the forefront of the waste management and recycling industry in Northern Ireland.
Further information about Wastebeater can be found at www.wastebeater.com
