Vertical markets in waste industry
There are several industries that generate a high volume of waste during their production process. With the Thermolysis, these can be used and valued obtaining some subproduct to sell or reuse.
When analyzing if your industry could be a candidate to implement one of our plants, it is important to take into account that the smallest module we have is 1MWh, which has to be fed by one ton of effective waste* every hour during 8.000h/year (11 months). Depending on the waste to be treated, some additional machinery may be necessary (shredder, pelletizer,…).
*We define effective waste as that free of inert materials (ceramics, sand, stones, etc), metals and, in short, any element without calorific value.
"Vessel
Ballasts from large vessels, lubricants, oils that can be thickened with the use of sawdust or shredded paper and obtain bunker fuel, heat and coal smoke to be used as fuel in other industries that need it (cement, thermal,…) or to obtain electricity.
"Sewage
The leached sludge can be treated and syngas, heat and soil improver can be obtained in the process. The syngas can be converted into electricity through a cogeneration engine while the heat could be converted into electricity through a boiler system and a turbine.
"Bunker
Depending on the country and the development of the plastic industry, Thermolysis becomes an alternative to the local sale of recycled plastic or the sale to large producing countries such as India and China.
Depending on the type and composition of the plastic (never PVC), an average of 350 – 550 kg of fuel bunker is obtained for each ton of plastic treated. To this must be added the heat obtained and the surplus coal smoke that can be sold…
The most likely scenario is that there will be more revenue from the sale of these results than from the sale of the recycled plastic itself.
"Food
Let’s use a packaged/bottled juice factory as an example. For the production of these juices on an industrial level, large quantities of fruit are required, which is treated and squeezed, and from which an important surplus is generated, which is usually sold for animal fattening in the industries.
With a Thermolysis module, syngas would be generated for the production of electricity for self-consumption, heat to be used in its production process or to generate more electricity and an important amount of biochar with which to create a second industry or to fix coal in its soils. On the other hand, it would mean a reduction in the cost of handling the surplus generated.
"Biochar
Large starch extraction plants require a large amount of raw material of which between 10 and 25% of its weight is not used and becomes waste.
With a Thermolysis module, electricity can be generated to supply the plant itself, to sell the surplus energy to the local grid and to use the heat generated in the process to boil the water needed for production in a first step and to dry the production at the end of the process. In addition, approximately 10-15% of biochar would be obtained for sale or for use as a soil improver in the plant’s own fields if this were the case.
"Energy
This type of industry generally distills fruit, vegetables, tubers, cereals, etc. for the production of alcohol. In the process of obtaining the alcohol, a lot of surplus is produced which can be treated in a Thermolysis plant to obtain electricity, heat and biochar and thus be able to valorize this surplus.