/Magazine_1_2011_eng

magazine 1/2011

Service Tour de France practice Duel at dawn product placement

Axtor, Get set, go!

More machine for the same price.

Additional equipment without additional charge

Adjustable speed of oversize fraction belt Scraper for the round brush

Extra-long oversize and fine fraction belts

Mustang/Mustang E mobile drum screen The rest is in the brochure and on www.komptech.com

www.komptech.com

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contents product placement AXTOR, GET SET, GO! Test run – questions, opinions and good marks on the Axtor demonstration tour.

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future we need a green revolution What Fukushima has shown us, or: How to keep the world liveable, and how the use of sustainable biomass can help.

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practice Nature’s goods Hannes Dietmaier turns biogenic raw materials into valuable products – the whys and hows.

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product comparison THE DUEL OVER FUEL Who makes the best chippings? Find out what makes this a burning issue. 10 Service Tour de France meets Eyjafjallajökull Group Service Manager Manfred Harb tours French customers, and not even an angry Icelandic volcano can stop him.

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Innovation CRIBUS TEST RUN What can the Cribus do better than other screeners?

What our testers discovered.

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practice We’re making Cyprus green Cyprus is more than just a holiday island in the Mediterranean.

Find out how Komptech is helping make it greener.

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practice 10 years later, still going strong At St. Louis Composting, one of our first customers in the US, different generations of Komptech machines work together with excellent results.

The Axtor in heavy-duty testing

Natural & good – Nature’s Goods

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Who makes the best fuel?

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Cover: Peter and Stefan Blümel during an Axtor test.

Composting in the great Midwest

Publisher: Komptech GmbH, Kühau 37, A-8130 Frohnleiten T +43 3126 505 - 0, F +43 3126 505 - 505, info@komptech.com, www.komptech.com Editors: Andreas Kunter, Joachim Hirtenfellner Layout & graphics: Alexandra Gaugl Photos: Komptech GmbH Frequency of appearance: periodically

TECHNOLOGY FOR A BETTER ENVIRONMENT

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axtor GET SET After the presentation of the Axtor in the Autumn of 2010 at the IFAT/Entsorga show in Munich, we spent the winter on the road, showing interested parties what the Axtor can do. It also served as a kind of endurance test for the machine. Here’s a sampling of questions and opinions we collected on our journey.

“Can it handle this too?”

Zeller Co. (GER) Definitely the most frequent question asked of our technicians – and the answer is “yes.” The Axtor is omnivorous. It can handle light meals like green cuttings, shrubs and bark, as well as heavier dishes like solid wood – from short sawed-off pieces to 5-meter oak trunks measuring 70 cm thick. The machine was always fed under strict observation to make sure it didn’t get the hiccups. The clear result: The Axtor is truly a universal wood shredder.

“Chipping and shredding – I want to see it do both.”

Odense Environmental Center (DK) Naturally we often had to prove that the Axtor isn’t just a shredder, but also a full-function chipper. Lots of people were surprised at how quick and easy it was to convert. One man, a screwdriver, and less than 3 hours, and the free-swinging shredding tools were replaced by precisely-cutting chipper blades.

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product placement

“Output just the way I need it.”

Bokelmann Co. (GER) The biomass market is extremely dynamic. Input material type, quality and availability are highly variable, and so are the specifications for fuel.

If you’re going to serve this market, you need a flexible machine, like the Axtor. In almost all cases, we were able to generate the desired type of fuel in either shredder or chipper mode with the right choice of tools and screen baskets. Typical tasks were chipping with the 60 mm screen basket, shredding untreated old wood with the shredder blades, or preparing bark for large incinerators with an open screen basket and a throughput of 450 m³/h.

“Where’s the second frontloader?”

A. Seitinger, Komptech test technician A question that our technicians often asked when trying to determine the maximum throughput rate. When shredding green cuttings, the Axtor’s appetite is so voracious that loading

speed becomes a limiting factor.

And no wonder – with the right materials significantly more than 300 m³ per hour is possible. Loading itself is not an issue. The folding sidewalls allow loading from both sides, and depending on the hopper setting it can be up to 6 meters long and over 2 meters wide. At the end is a greedy intake feeder that makes short shrift of even the bulkiest material.

“It made a noise. What just broke?”

Schafzahl Co. (A) Naturally, on this tour the Axtor get plenty of contraries between its teeth, and of course that is noticeable on a fast-running shredder. But anyone hoping to see a dramatic breakdown was disappointed – opening the shredding chamber revealed no smoking, twisted metal. On the contrary, everything was spectacularly unspectacular. In chipper mode, i.e. working with fixed tools, a massive contrary impact merely breaks a shear bolt, which causes the holder and tools

GO! to fall by gravity into a protected position inside the shredding drum.

A new shear bolt goes in, a new blade goes on, and after less than 10 minutes the machine is ready to resume work.

“They really thought about maintenance on this one.”

Blümel Co. (A) Even the best fast-running shredder needs more maintenance than a slow shredder – it’s just in the nature of the technology. But if the designers think about the service technicians from the start, time-consuming maintenance work that might require contortionist skills and a battery of curses can be avoided. Easy access to the shredding chamber via the discharge conveyor, the drum design with individual tool mounting, the swingout screen basket, and the underfloor engine and drive system are just a few of the design features that gained accolades in testing.

Based on all this experience, we gave the machine its final touches. The Axtor is now ready to go. It’s pawing the ground in its starting gate, so to speak, eager to put its 780 horsepower to work on any chipping or shredding job.

product placement

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axtor on tour Where you can see the Axtor in Action Date Event

Place

18 - 20 May Recycling Aktiv

Baden-Baden, Germany

8 - 9 June

Kelpen-Oler (Limburg), Netherlands

BVOR

9 - 10 June Roadshow Ving책ker, Sweden 15 - 23 June Roadshow

France

26 - 28 June

Demopark

Eisenach, Germany

8 September

Komptech Partnertag

Klagenfurt, Austria

26 - 30 September Caterpillar Waste & Recycling Customer Event

Marseille, France

11 - 13 October

Stift Rein, Austria

Austrofoma

More informations on www.komptech.com or at info@komptech.com

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product placement

we need a green revolution We already knew that the areas of energy in general and renewable energy in particular have great potential. The disaster at Fukushima in Japan has taught us that we are risking more than just climate catastrophe if we don’t change our ways. At the Central European Biomass Conference in Graz, Austria in late January 2011, the EU member states presented their plans for renewable energy through 2020.

“National Action Plan” is the name for the package of data that each of the 27 EU member states had to prepare by mid-2010 to demonstrate how they would reach the targets set by the EU by 2020. (Almost) all of them met the deadline. Even if some of the numbers seem highly questionable and would probably not stand up to closer scrutiny, an overall picture was still clear: The European Union’s target of covering 20 percent of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020 is attainable, albeit only with great efforts by all involved. It’s not just a matter of generating the energy, but also of expanding the electricity infrastructure. Renewable energy from wind and sun cannot be stored, and must often be transported across great distances

in great quantity. Preparing for all this takes time, so it’s best to start now rather than wait until later.

The over 1000 specialists at the conference were in agreement that biomass will have a very important role to play in meeting these goals.

Unlike the other renewable energy sources, biomass is stored energy and so can be used when needed.

According to the EU member state action plans, 56 percent of renewable energy will come from biomass by 2020, putting it well ahead of wind and hydropower.

Doing this will require an additional 200 million cubic metre equivalents of biomass during the next ten years - the approximate annual consumption of 20 million wood chip heaters in single-family homes.

France, Italy, Great Britain and

Germany are the countries planning the greatest increase in biomass energy generation, and it will take a major logistics effort to meet their goals. Therefore, here again it is important to begin taking steps now – so that the green revolution really does happen and there is not another Fukushima.

“After Fukushima, the world must become a different place.”

Josef Heissenberger

future

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Nature’s goods In a narrow valley in Styria in Austria, Johannes Dietmaier has with entrepreneurial foresight created a company whose use of biogenic raw materials unites climate protection, sustainability, and regional value creation in an exemplary way. The company name “Naturgut” – Nature’s goods – is also its reason for being. The company’s own composting programme supplies a key ingredient for high-value natural products for gardening and landscaping, while its biomass production supplies heating fuel for homes as well as large electricity and heating plants.

It’s not easy to get Johannes Dietmaier on a photo. Turn around and he’s back in the frontloader, working away. “That’s just the way he is,” grins Werner Brunner, responsible for customer service. “When he sees something that’s not the way he wants it, he won’t rest till he’s fixed it.”

Thinking ahead and having the courage to start something new are characteristic of the company founder. Growing up on a farm, early on Johannes Dietmaier set himself the goal of bringing its operations to a sustainable, environmentally compatible level.

When the separate collection of biodegradable waste was introduced in Austria in 1992, Dietmaier decided to set up a composting operation.

Since that decision, Dietmaier’s and Komptech’s paths have often crossed.

The one a practical doer, working on getting the mixes and processes right in the pioneering days of composting, 08

practice

the other a machine manufacturer developing the right equipment based on practical needs. It was the beginning of a mutually beneficial cooperation that continues to this day.

“Only the highest quality is good enough for us” As an organic farmer with deep roots in the soil, Dietmaier knew from the beginning that only the best compost had the right to be spread on agricultural fields. Careful examination of the raw materials, mixing and piling into windrows, continual turning, watering, and final screening and windsifting – the idea behind all of it is to get a good product into farmer’s hands. The reward for all this work is a quality-controlled compost that is compatible with many kinds of soil. “If you want to get ahead in the compost business, you need to offer more than just screened compost,” is Dietmaier’s conviction. “Using compost, we make soils and substrates for home

gardeners, and special mixes for professionals.” For example, Naturgut mixes green cuttings and clay with nutrient-rich manure from free-range organic chickens to create organic compost.

Another business opportunity is in the expansion of the product range with related products. “We use local larch bark as a decorative and mulching material,” explains Dietmaier, and praises an important new “colleague.”

“Uniform appearance, defined grain – after chopping, the next most important step is screening the bark, and we can fully rely on our new Multistar L3 to take care of that.” The machine’s full name is actually Multistar L3-L, with the L standing for a longer coarse screen deck. fuel from the forest This screener is also put to good use in prepping biomass, the company’s second major line of business. At the preparation area set up in 2007, local biomass is processed into fuel. In addition to chips and firewood for sale to individuals, Naturgut takes woody green cuttings and forestry remnants, coarsely shreds the material with a Crambo and screens it, and sells it to larger heating plants. “Our customers don’t want fines – coarser sizes are what they’re looking for. The top limit for

the usable fraction is at 120 to 150 millimetres, which we can easily provide with the L3 and extra-large star screens,” says Dietmaier. The coarse screening deck is over four and a half meters long, and separates dependably.

The star screener works mostly on-site, often in line with the Crambo – when it’s there. Which is often not the case, since the Crambo can frequently be found in the forest, or rather, on forest roads. It’s a Crambo 5000 direct, mounted on and powered by a 4-axle MAN truck, complete with integral crane to do the loading.

With a somewhat smaller screen basket and a screen deck to separate out fines, in just one step this machine creates fuel that goes directly from forest to heating plant.

Johannes Dietmaier is a person who strikes out in new directions, something that challenges his machines and their manufacturers. “There ought to be a way…” is his favourite way to start a sentence, and he has a habit of giving our developers headaches. But we need customers like that – it’s what keeps us moving ahead.

Forestry residue – an opportunity?

A long winter has ended, and homes need less heating. Many heating plant stocks are depleted, and now is when replenishment should really start. But rising prices for fuel wood are bringing the discussion on the use of alternatives like forest residue back to the fore.

In Austria, Naturgut is probably the company with the most experience in processing forestry residue, the term for branches and crowns left by mechanical wood harvesting. “It’s not a simple subject,” Johannes Dietmaier readily admits, “But in my opinion we have no alternative but to use this resource. As a service provider, we take care of removal, and use it to create a fuel for heating plants.

Our customers are large forestry companies, which means that the amount of cuttings taken out of the forest is usually not decided by us, but by their experts.”

The logistics are down to the company, and require experience and flexibility. Dietmaier says, “Unfortunately there is no single best way to do things, and the margin of error for coming out on the profit side is small. Processing on-site, i.e. right on the forest road, or haulage of the loose material to a processing location, shredding with a fast or slow shredder, further processing by screening – many things have to be decided case-by-case. In any event, we have the machine park and the logistical know-how to get the job done.”

practice 09

Duel

komptech chippo vs jenz chippertruck

at dawn

Timidly, the morning sun pokes at the dawn mist in Weissenhorn, Germany. As the sun gets brighter and the mist disperses, two machines come into view. On one side the incumbent, an orange-green machine by Jenz. Facing it is the challenger, a Chippo 5010 CD by Komptech. Right here, right now, at a wintry -10°C, we are going to find out which makes the best wood chips at lowest costs.

When you bring a new product to market, you need to find out how you stand up against the competition. You can do it quietly in secret, or you can challenge the best in the industry to a duel. In our duel, nobody was going to get hurt – but we were determined to find out which chipper makes the best wood chips with the highest energy efficiency.

What we casually term “the best wood chips” has a specific meaning in the industry – the highest possible proportion of chips of the requisite size, homogeneous in appearance, i.e. cut cleanly without splitting or splintering, for good pouring behaviour as well as good self-drying in storage. For users, this adds up to stoppage-free heating, while the machine operator knows that he is getting the best output from the available material. The specific energy consumption, i.e. the fuel per bulk cubic meter of chips, is an important indicator of efficiency. This is important not just for the operator, for whom fuel savings equal financial savings, but also for the environment. After all, the less fossil fuel used to generate renewable energy, the better.

Calling out the leader It was naturally particularly challenging to go up against one of the market leader’s machines.

On this cold winter’s day the machines squared off, teeth ground 10

product comparison

extra sharp, a motivated operator in each cabin, hand at the ready on the crane joystick.

People were also on hand to record data – working time, cubic meters output, fuel consumption, everything.

Samples of all fractions were taken for objective comparison, scientifically performed by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Göttingen. The assignment was to make chips of size class G50 per the ÖNORM M 7133 standard. The output was also judged by the new DIN EN 14961-1:2010 requirements, to get a feel for this standard. To produce this coarse chip product, both machines had a long advance and screening basket with 60 millimetre mesh.

And they’re off Wolfgang Biedler and his Jenz HEM 581 Chippertruck started at an impressive pace. It was immediately clear that this is a man with plenty of experience with chippers. A fan blew the material out, and a container was quickly filled. Output weight and time were combined to get the output per hour, 155 bulk cubic meters. The Komptech Chippo set to work with no less élan. Trunk after trunk entered the hungry maw of the machine under the skilled hand of Helmuth Katheder.

All eyes were on the discharge stream – would there be a difference in quality?

For a fistful of chips – left to right: Josef Heissenberger, Bernd Grüning (HAWK), Michael Maier (Kässmeyer GmbH)

chippo with high efficiency The output was readily measurable, at 200 bulk cubic meters per hour and a specific consumption of 0.385 litres per bulk cubic meter, 12 per cent less than the Jenz Chippertruck. There was also the question of how the conveyor belt discharge would affect chip quality and machine efficiency. At the press of a button, a stream of chips flowed into the container.

The expectation was that the lower power needs of the conveyor would positively influence output and energy efficiency, and this turned out to be justified. The note-takers jotted down 220 bulk cubic meters per hour and 13 per cent lower specific fuel consumption than with blower discharge. The total advantage over the competitor machine was 23 per cent! designer wood chips As regards chip quality, what is more natural than to ask a manufacturer of chip heaters? KWB – Kraft und Wärme aus Biomasse GmbH – is a market leader in wood-chip heaters in the 15 to 300 kW range.

A user with long experience was available in the person of Wolfgang Torschitz, KWB sales technician and also operator of a district heating network.

After weighing, an initial screen analysis to ÖNORM was done onsite. Right away, juror Wolfgang Torschitz called what he saw on the ground “Designer chips.”

“These chips will feed and burn very well in heaters designed for G50. Normally I would put chips of this quality into glass jars for demonstration purposes.”

Wolfgang Torschitz, KWB

A closer look was needed.

Consistent, rectangular, with few fines, the chips on the conveyor looked good. Together with the throughput and the efficiency, this made the Chippo with conveyor belt the winner. The chips from the Chippo with blower discharge were within the standard range but a little less consistent-looking. The Jenz machine delivered an almost equally high proportion in the main fraction, but with more elongated pieces.

At the end of the bitterly cold day, all were agreed that the real winners were the chip customers, who get the ideal fuel for their heaters.

Surprise The analysis result from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Göttingen surprised everyone, as a portion of the samples turned out to be unclassifiable by either the ÖNORM or the DIN-EN standard.

Theory and practice do not always correspond! This is not uncommon and is unavoidable, since chips are a natural product dependent on many factors. The only product that fit the standards was the material from the Chippo conveyor discharge; the Chippo with blower discharge produced a material that missed the classification by a hair’s breadth.

Wolfgang Biedler and his Chippertruck making mincemeat of trees

Helmuth Katheder hard at work feeding the Komptech Chippo

Best quality, best efficiency – the Chippo with conveyor belt is the winner The duel in figures

Throughput Specific fuel [bcm/h] consumption [l/bcm] Jenz Chippertruck blower discharge

155

0,43

Komptech Chippo Blower discharge 200 (+29%) 0,38 (-12%) Conveyor discharge 220 (+42%) 0,33 (-23%) bcm = bulk cubic meters

product comparison

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Tour de France Eyjafjall

Rennes

Marlenheim

Le Mans

Mulhouse Angers Dijon

Nantes

Tours

Limoges

Besanรงon

Lyon

Bordeaux

Toulouse

Pau

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service

Montpellier

Nice Marseile Toulon

e meets lajökull When Komptech sets out help its customers, the ash cloud of an unpronounceable Icelandic volcano is not going to stop us.

Last spring our Group Service Manager Manfred Harb travelled a couple thousand kilometres by car in order to meet with our French customers in person.

“We’re glad to go the extra mile for our customers.”

Manfred Harb, Group Service Manager

Not even the grounding of all flights in Europe for several days could keep Group Service Manager Manfred Harb from his Tour de France in the service of customer satisfaction.

Over the course of four days in the spring of 2010, he visited eight customers in southern France, to learn about what they wanted, understand their wishes, and listen to their concerns.

Many of his talks with customers revolved around biomass processing, a topic of great interest in France.

The Crambo and Multistar screens were the subject of detailed discussion, with many suggestions for improvement.

Customers were very interested in the option of fitting the Crambo with a more powerful hydraulic cylinder, to swing the screen basket cassette out more easily when it is very dirty and therefore in particular need of cleaning. We quickly met customers’ requests for this cylinder and now offer it for retrofitting.

Such hydraulic cylinders can also help level out star screens on sloping ground, so that the full screen surface can be used. Also, when working in Bordeaux vineyards, raising the height of the hopper walls will in future mean that in loading, material ends up where it’s supposed to – namely in the hopper.

Customers were unanimous that biomass will be even more important in future, and interest was correspondingly high in Komptech’s new biomass products, the Chippo and the Axtor. Manfred Harb gathered much useful information from customers, and while driving 2000 kilometres during two days of solid driving, he had plenty of opportunity to think about the best way to put all of it into practice…

The reduction of operating costs in general and the reduction of costs for wear parts in particular are priorities at Komptech. We are always on the lookout for ways to improve the economy of our machines for our customers.

For example, the patented Cleanstar® system on our start screens doesn’t just help ensure good screening of difficult materials, its cleaning action also helps extend the life of the screen stars.

By changing the cleaning fingers at the right time, customers can significantly extend star service life and thus cut their costs for refitting the screen decks.

To help customers determine when this is necessary, we developed a limit gauge that lets them know the right time to change the cleaning fingers.

service

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Big difference

A test report on the new Cribus

 Very quiet  Highly effective cleaning brush  Fuel consumption 5 litres/hour  Drum change in five minutes  100 m3/h with sludge compost 14

Innovation

Komptech has a new trommel screener. Just like all other trommels, the Cribus has a hopper in the front, a screener drum in the middle, and a couple of discharge conveyers – so far so unexciting. But if you take a look on the inside, the Cribus starts looking much more interesting. Electric drive of all components, a drum diameter of 2.2 meters, and friction wheel drive make it distinctly different from the competition. What are the advantages of all this? Let’s ask our test partners, who ran the Cribus 3800 E through its paces in a test campaign.

The most important thing first: The electrical drive system won approval all round. The test machine was equipped with a diesel generator that supplied the current for the hopper, drum and conveyor belts. This dieselelectric drive – let’s call it hybrid – is considerably more efficient than a standard diesel-electric drive. The Cribus’ average consumption was 5 litres of diesel, compared to other machines in this output class which use 8 to 10 litres. In the heavy use the Cribus is designed for, over the course of a year this can save a 5-figure sum just for fuel.

Flexible use Another advantage of the electrical drive, in the opinion of the Gelsenroth company (Messel, Germany) is its higher flexibility and broader range of applications. If the machine is run with grid power it is emissions-free, which can be a big plus for permitting, especially since the Cribus is also very quiet-running. In a practical touch, it comes complete with electrical outlets for running additional machines like supply conveyors.

Maintenance got positive marks.

For one thing, there is less of it to do in the first place, since it uses maintenance-free electric motors in place of hydraulics. For another, cleaning and inspection are simplified by the machine’s easy access – just fold down the side panels to expose the drum. Changing the drum takes only a few minutes, as the Lengel company in Schwadorf, Austria demonstrated in an impressive stopwatch-timed 5 minutes.

Heavy, wet, sticky – no problem!

“Testing under extreme conditions” is what you might call what happened at the Rubin company in Lauchhammer, Germany. Copious rain during the test phase offered ideal conditions. Heavy sewage sludge compost, steady rain – and yet the machine doggedly went through over 100 cubic meters per hour. According to Rubin, the reason the drum didn’t clog was its efficient brush cleaning, plus the large gap between side panels and drum. That prevented material from accumulating against the outside of the drum. The drum drive, which uses friction power transfer, was another focus of interest.

Would it still work as efficiently and stoppage-free under these conditions?

The answer turned out to be a definite “yes” – thanks to all-wheel drive and the Wheelgrip® antislip control, there was not a single stoppage.

The only downside was the control electronics, which took a little time to get used to. But that was quickly done.

The friction wheel drive also prefers to be level, but with the four adjustable hydraulic supports that shouldn’t be an issue.

The Rubin company was among our testers: Helfried Böhmchen and Mirko Muschter, with Erich Cordie and Helmut Pfeiffer of Komptech (left to right)

A hearty thanks to our testers!

Their valuable feedback confirms that the Cirbus really is something special.

innovation

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Cyprus Кΰπρος Third-largest island in the Mediterranean, geographically part of Asia Land area: 9.251 km² Highest point: Kyparissovouno, at 1024 m Climate: Mediterranean with continental character Water temperature: February 17 °C, August 28°C Population: 1,038,461 Capital: Nikosia (population 195,000) Largest port cities:

Paphos, Limassol, Larnaka

Cyprus waste data Household waste: 778 kg per person per year (2009) Recycling rate: 14% Disposal costs per household: 80-100 Euro per year (Larnaka, Famagusta) 20 Euro per year (rest of Cyprus) Waste management goal: By 2012 no more dumping or landfilling of untreated waste Collection is done solely by municipalities.

Separated waste (glass, aluminium, metal, paper, PET) is collected in the capital city of Nikosia, with pilot projects in other cities.

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practice

We’re making Currently there are 117 official waste dumps on Cyprus.

Environmental organizations put the figure at over 200 if unofficial dumps are included. These dumps emit gases, burn, and deface the landscape. They contribute to an attitude that it’s OK to just dump your trash behind the nearest hill, and leave garbage on the ground wherever you happen to be. The island is dirty – the tourists who flock to the island every summer put it at the top of per-capita waste amounts, at 778 kg per person per year.

Something has to change, and Komptech is helping it happen.

This Mediterranean island, surrounded by three continents, has a rich history and charming landscape. The climate is typically Mediterranean, with hot summers and rainy winters. That makes the island delightfully green in the winter, and indeed it was formerly the most heavily forested island in the Mediterranean. Now forest covers

just 17 percent of the island and the omnipresent garbage is an eyesore in many places. Who is going to finally clean up Cyprus’ illegal trash dumps?

Who will make the island green once more?

An on-site look takes us to Larnaka, with some 80,000 inhabitants the fourth-largest city in the Greek

Cyprus green southern part of the island.

Komptech recently delivered 12 machines here – trommels, star screens, Terminator shredders, ballistic separators and a Topturn windrow turner. They are now writing a new chapter in the rich history of Cyprus. Since beginning operations on 1 April 2010, the MBA Larnaka has run 100,000 tonnes of household waste through the Komptech machines. And it’s more every day, for the machines are not yet running at full capacity. Of the 100,000 tonnes, 20,000 tonnes of material have been recycled to manufacturers, and another 16,000 tonnes have been professionally composted into water vapour and biogenic carbon dioxide. The rest was landfilled as largely inert material in the new Larnaka landfill, built to European standards. The MBA operator Helektor S.A. is working hard to convert a further 19,000 tonnes into refuse-derived fuel for the island’s industrial incinerators. When running at full capacity, the company plans to process and stabilize or reuse 200,000 tonnes of household waste per year.

So the situation on Cyprus is improving. The number of dumps is declining. People see that the government is doing something, so they are starting to change their attitudes and separate their garbage. To make proper waste

disposal economical, collection fees for households have been raised to a European level, so the machines can work for the country and its people.

Quality of life will increase and the environment will improve, and regain some of its original beauty.

Cypress has become greener, and not just in winter. We at Komptech are proud to be part of it.

MBT Larnaka Commissioning: 1st of April 2010 Capacity: 200,000 per annum Intake: 3000 t per week in summer, 1800 t in winter Area served: Larnaka and Famagusta region (total population around 150,000) Employees: 65 Planner, builder, co-financer and operator: Helector S.A. practice

17

10 years later, still going strong

The compost market is growing rapidly. The potential US demand for compost is estimated to be ten times the potential supply, so there are opportunities out there. But composting is more than just putting trash in piles and waiting for it to rot.

You need to know what you’re doing.

St. Louis Composting does. They’ve been in business since 1992 and are the largest composter in the region. They’ve grown steadily, and growth shows no sign of slowing down, especially as interest in local organic food and all things “green” continues to expand. The number of people joining the green movement helped the company grow right through the recession, and they added a new composting facility in January of this year.

For 10 years, a Komptech Hurrikan sifter has been part of St. Louis Composting’s growth. One of the very earliest Komptech machines sold in the US, it is still going strong.

18

practice

St. Louis Composting has built its business on quality. Their composting feedstock is primarily yard and landscaping waste, and the output is valued by homeowners, landscapers and municipalities, with “Black Gold” compost as the most popular product. St. Louis Composting only recently starting using food waste, first making sure it had all its permits in order.

They take a quality-focused approach in everything they do; for example, the company uses manure from just one farm, where they are assured that it is free of weed seeds so that customers can be confident about the product.

Another aspect of St. Louis Composting’s quality attitude is the time it lets compost cure.

With ample composting space, the company can let its 60 x 3 x 2 m windrows cure for a full six months, to make sure the compost is really fully composted, without shortcuts.

This quality approach was what prompted St. Louis Composting to get the Hurrikan in the first place. It was an investment in quality control, to remove more of the debris from the feedstock.

As Marketing Manager Ashley Bement put it, “Early on, not many composters were doing this, but we

Site Manager Steve Willmann with his 10-year-old Hurrikan

were already thinking about how to compost better.” In its 10 years of operation, the Hurrikan has amply proven its value. According to Rick Buettner, Equipment Manager, “It extracts all of the paper and plastics from our finished product very well and helps to maintain our quality control. It also separates stones and metals very well too. It is a very well thought out machine.” The company made one modification during that time, replacing the original conveyor belt, which was optimized for household waste, with a smooth belt better able to handle the high amount of dirt in the feedstock.

As production and sales have grown, so has St. Louis Composting’s machine park, and over the years the company has had the opportunity to work with many different machine brands and models. When it came time to invest in a new screener, the company chose a Komptech Multistar XXL. In addition to the positive experience with Komptech in terms of overall design and build quality, the decision for the Multistar was driven by throughput – which according to Buettner is three times higher than any other screener.

St. Louis Composting uses the 10-year-old Hurrikan and the brand-new Multistar together, teaming Komptech with Komptech.

Together, the machines can produce about 2800 cubic yards in a 6-hour shift, a job that used to take days. According to Buettner, the only thing better would be an XXL with integrated Hurrikan - “But, putting them together is certainly getting the job done for us!”

practice 19

A real bigmouth.

A huge aggressive mouth: 1610 x 1000 mm feed opening with horizontal and vertical feed rollers From shredding to chipping: Change tool elements, switch speed and away you go!

Neat and tidy feeding please: Huge feed table (6 x 2 metres) with hinged hopper

Always the right particle size: Simple screen basket exchange with screen basket rotatable to the rear Yellow powerhouse: CAT速 C18 engine with 780 HP in maintenance-friendly underfloor position

Material in abundance: Throughputs up to 400 cubic metres per hour

AXTOR 8012 -

Universal shredder for green waste and wood

The rest is in the brochure and on www.komptech.com

www.komptech.com