renews Reclaim. reuse. recycle.
spring 2008
Compost turning in Vermont Screening in Washington State Shredding in Ontario
Crambo now even more efficient
Multistar XXL for heavy-duty throughput
Brini separator gets trash sorted out
renews Reclaim. reuse. recycle.
Contents L3 in Washington State
2
Mid-Atlantic Waste
3
Vermont Natural Ag Products
4
Topturn X67
5
Production of fuel from waste
6
Brini separator technology
8
Crambo developments
10
Multistar XXL
11
Composting plant in Hamilton
Back
Johannes Pohl, President
Welcome to the first edition of RENEWS! This newsletter will tell you what’s going on with Komptech – user reports, technology features, and product developments. We’re proud of the part Komptech products play in improving the world we live in, by reducing waste volume, and recycling refuse into valuable and renewable raw materials, compost, and fuel. We’re also proud of the efficiency and longevity of our machines, which helps them be part of the solution. I hope you’ll find RENEWS informative and interesting. If you want to know more about us or our “technology for a better environment,” just drop me a mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Johannes Pohl, CEO, Komptech USA j.pohl@komptech.com
Multistar star screen outperforming competition in Washington State Late last year, Komptech USA delivered the first Multistar L3 star screen in the US to Cedar Grove Composting in Maple Valley, Washington. The input material at Cedar Grove is highly contaminated food waste, and composting takes place in the wettest environment possible. Thus, Cedar Grove had a big contamination problem and needed a highly capable solution. The L3 star screen has two hurricane air sifters, and removes plastic from both the oversized and middle fractions. Cedar Grove operates two other screens by other manufacturers, one trommel and one deck screen, but the L3 outproduces both of them, in addition to removing the plastic. Impressed by this performance, Cedar Grove is planning to purchase another L3 to use at their other composting plant.
Mid Atlantic Waste Systems now distributing Komptech One of the latest additions to the Komptech family is Mid-Atlantic Waste Systems. With six locations in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, Mid-Atlantic has a large footprint. With their commitment to quality, they are a perfect fit for Komptech. Komptech composters figure prominently in Mid-Atlantic’s environmental program, and the company sells the entire Komptech line, including shredders, screeners, and separators. Mid-Atlantic shares Komptech’s vision of providing entire solutions, another way in which we are good fit for each other. In keeping with this vision, Mid-Atlantic doesn’t just sell our products – the company is making its mark as a specialist for turnkey recycling systems for composting, waste processing, separation and fermentation.
Did you know?
Rich Hood, President of Mid-Atlantic Waste Systems
In 2006, recycling prevented the release of approximately 55 million tons of carbon into the air, roughly the amount emitted annually by 39 million cars.*
*Source for all Did You Know? facts: US Environmental Protection Agency
Vermont composting leader relies on Topturn X53 to boost production and cut costs Did you know?
Composting turns food scraps and other organic waste into fertilizer that can be used to grow more food.
Jim Foster, owner of Vermont Natural Ag Products in Middlebury, has been composting yard waste, manures, sawdust and food waste for several years. Jim started out by windrowing, and turning the windrows with a front-end loader. He soon saw the need for a purposebuilt machine to increase production. He looked around, and purchased a used turner in 2002. It was a definite improvement over previous turning methods, but within a couple of years the business outgrew its capabilities, and Jim needed a higher-capacity turner to keep up with the growing demand for his products. At this point, Jim knew that his business deserved the best. So instead of just looking online and reading brochures, Jim studied the various turners on the market and traveled in the US and even to Europe to visit manufacturers. He came away convinced that Komptech Topturn X53 was the most cost-effective turner for his operation, based on its capacity, features, build quality, and user-friendliness. Jim isn’t the only industry professional to reach this conclusion – the Topturn X53 has won the prestigious American Design Award, and is generally con-
sidered to be the most user-friendly compost turner on the market today. At Vermont Natural Ag Products, some of the features they appreciate are the fully air-conditioned cab with filtered air supply, powerful 330 hp Caterpillar engine, and the 4500 cubic yard per hour turning capacity. Vermont Natural Ag Products is confident that the Topturn can help them triple production while drastically lowering turning costs. The company can certainly make good use of the increased production capacity – it is a regional leader in soils, composts, and growing mixes. Its “Moo” line of certified organic composts enjoys an excellent reputation throughout the Northeast. Vermont Natural Ag sold 1000,000 cu. yards of Moo products such as MooDoo in 2007, and the expanding market for organic food products means a very bright outlook for selling even more in 2008.
Jim Foster with the Topturn X53 windrow turner. The cabin swings down for easy entry – just one of many user-friendly features.
Topturn X53: Winner of the prestigious American Design Award
The Topturn at work Early in the morning at a composting operation somewhere in the world, the operator approaches a gleaming Topturn X67. The cabin is low to the ground, so all he has to do is step in and take a seat. He sets down the coffee he was holding, and turns the ignition key. The powerful engine comes to life, the central information panel lights up, and the machine is ready for action. The operator presses a button, and the cab swings smoothly up to the top of the Topturn. Up here at an altitude of 15 feet, the air is good – thanks to automatic cabin air conditioning and filtration. The operator pushes the joystick forward and the machine starts to move, up to a top speed of 4 mph – not bad for a compost turner! The machine approaches the windrow. At 20 feet wide and 10 feet high, it’s big, but not too big for the Topturn. The operator uses the multi-function lever to lower the machine to the right
height. A green button starts the drum. A warning sound comes on, and then the drum starts as the Topturn moves over the windrow. The giant rotating drum, 5’ 8” in diameter, chews through the windrow, thoroughly turning it as it goes. Material swirls in the air and a large cloud of steam rises up, but the Topturn leaves a perfectly shaped triangular windrow behind it as it goes. The operator turns on some music, leans back, and lets the Topturn do its thing. At 6000 cubic yards per minute, the work goes quickly.
The machine churns through the windrow. At 20 feet wide and 10 feet high, it’s big, but not too big for the Topturn.
From commercial waste to renewable energy
Commercial waste is a renewable energy source with strong benefits. It is available in the greatest quantities where energy needs are also highest, and deriving it from municipal or commercial solid waste can be an integral part of a recycling program, reducing landfill volumes and consumption of raw materials. This article examines a recycling line using Komptech components, as an example of how fuels can be separated out from a municipal or commercial solid waste stream.
Did you know?
Although Americans represent only about 5% of the world's population, we generate 40% of its waste.
Many municipalities now recycle, which involves separating the waste stream into different material classes. By including the ability to separate out a “caloric” or fuel fraction, these processing lines can produce materials for refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and mass-burn fuel. Komptech offers processing technology designed for commercial waste with high amounts of synthetic material. The output is a highly caloric, finely shredded fraction that can be used in many applications, such as co-incineration in the cement industry. To begin with, a sturdy single-shaft shredder with a high degree of shredding reduces the material to a uniform particle size. Ferrous metal separation then removes ferrous contraries. A highly caloric fraction is then
Pre-shredding: Terminator XF
extracted from the material stream using ballistic separation, and brought to the required final particle size by post-shredding.
Pre-shredding Pre-shredding brings the input material down to a uniform particle size and prevents overlengths that can cause problems in subsequent processing stages. This provides the basis for all subsequent treatment, by opening trash bags to expose the contents, and by eliminating size variation. The shredder itself must be impervious to any and all contraries in the waste stream. The Terminator XF (eXtraFine) addresses these requirements with a new cutting geometry and innovative teeth seating: the tooth holder itself is
seated inside the shredder drum and is safely protected. The Terminator is very reliable, even for objects with high strength and different material types, such as synthetic reels, data storage tapes, tough fabrics, large metallic objects etc. The shredding size can be adjusted for the material and follow-on processing by modifying the cutting gap. A choice of drives is available – either hydraulic (with optional separation from the shredding unit) or high-efficiency mechanical direct-drive.
Separation Separators remove oversized particles and contraries which reduce calorific value or can negatively impact the combustion process. Komptech’s Brini MK separator forms three fractions using purely
mechanical methods. The twodimensional fraction consists of light, flat materials like foil and packaging materials, and forms the input material for subsequent post-shredding. The Brini also separates out a fine fraction with high inert content, and a 3-dimensional heavy fraction. A fourth fraction can be generated using a second screen hole. With appropriate hole sizing, this can separate a fluidized bed fraction from the light fraction. In contrast to traditional wind sifting, customers benefit from the simplicity of a sturdy system which combines high efficiency with low operating costs.
Terminator
BRIni
Terminator XF Pre-shredding
Brini Separation
Rasor Post-shredding
Pre-shredding brings the input material down to a uniform particle size and prevents overlengths that can cause problems in subsequent processing stages.
Separators remove oversized particles and contraries which reduce calorific value or can negatively impact the combustion process.
The Rasor is a new slowrunning post-shredder, which combines high quality of the shredded material with long service life and low operating costs.
Post-shredding
Types of fuel
The Rasor is a new slow-running postshredder, which combines high quality of the shredded material with long service life and low operating costs.
Refuse-derived fuel
The Rasor generates material for fluidized bed plants (particle size ≤4”) and for rotary furnace plants, such as used in the cement industry (particle size ≤1.25”). A quick-change system for the screen baskets keeps changeover times short. The slow-running shredding process creates only low vibration and dust. Continual material feed and automatic adjustment of the cutting gap minimize energy consumption, making this a very efficient system.
Rasor
RASor
RDF is used in fluidized-bed and rotary incinerators, for electricity generation and cement production. To make RDF, high caloric fractions are extracted from treated residual mixed waste or from mixed commercial waste. These fractions are heterogeneous, and therefore require further processing before they can be used. The critical parameters for fluidized bed combustion are chlorine and metals, which build up abrasive lead, zinc and aluminium chlorides. Thus, RDF must be processed to reduce the chlorine and heavy content, and to assure a consistent quality and particle size.
Mass-burn fuel Mass-burn incinerators generate power using fuels from separated commercial, industrial and household waste. This fuel requires only basic processing to separate out non-combustible, hazardous or explosive materials. Currently most US waste-to-energy facilities are mass-burn incinerators.
Terminator XF: teeth
Brini Elements
Brini separation technology – sorting treasure from trash Brini Separator
Did you know?
US solid waste consists on average of 34% paper, 13% yard trimmings, 12% food scraps, 12% plastics, 8% metals, 7% rubber, leather and textiles, 6% wood, 5% glass, and 3% other.
Brini separators have proven their worth for 20 years, for sorting fractions from household, commercial and industrial waste. Air and ballistic separation are commonly used methods of separating out high caloric fractions for generating secondary fuel. Due to their compact design and purely mechanical function, ballistic separators are usually more cost-effective in both investment and operation, since unlike with air separation there is no need to move, settle, or clean large amounts of air. The Komptech Brini is a ballistic separator that sorts material according to its physical properties. Working fully automatically and with high precision, in a single cycle the Brini separates according to the following criteria:
commercial waste. Using an optional material distributor, the material mix in the feed falls onto rigid screen elements arranged lengthwise and slanting upwards. The screen elements are attached to a crankshaft at each end. When these rotate, they move the elements in a circular motion. The material fed in at the lower end moves either upwards or downwards depending on its physical characteristics, sorting itself into a two-dimensional light fraction, a three-dimensional heavy fraction, and a screen fraction.
Outstanding product features
• Oversized/undersized particles
The sturdy, proven design of the Brini separator combines simple operation with efficient sorting performance and high throughput.
Functionality in detail
High capacity
This three-fraction separator is particularly suitable for separating pre-treated
The separator is designed for continuous industrial use. The MK range has
• Two-dimensional/three-dimensional • Rigid materials/soft material surface
a high effective screen area and is available in several sizes. Throughput is dependent on the material.
Selectivity The rigid screen elements are arranged lengthwise, and give excellent turning of the material and thus a high degree of sorting. The separation threshold between the light and heavy fractions can be easily tailored to the material.
Sturdy design The steel screen elements, with abrasion plates in the loading zone and at the sidewalls for extra wear protection, easily handle sharp and heavy materials. The sturdy drive mechanism includes an electric motor, gearbox and robust, maintenance-friendly crankshafts. Access panels to all machine areas provide easy access, and simplify service and maintenance.
Separation into three fractions The two-dimensional fraction consists of smooth, flat, slender fragments which are cleansed of impurities by the shaking/ tossing and rotation on their way over the screen elements. With commercial waste, this fraction typically comprises synthetic film, plastic bags, paper, cardboard, textiles etc. The material is moved upwards by the screen elements. This fraction is generally suitable for further processing into secondary fuel. The three-dimensional fraction comprises rigid, hard and/or heavy pieces which do not fall through the screen holes. This might be demolition rubble, stones, wood, hard plastic, electrical components, cardboard, or metals, depending on preceding separation steps. The Brini screen element motion causes this fraction to roll and drop downwards. Depending on the composition of the material, further processing may be an option. The screen fraction consists of materials which fall through the screen holes. This depends on the input material and may be damp organic material, sand, ash, or an inert fine fraction, as is often the case with commercial waste. The screen hole size is selectable from ½ - 4” as needed.
Input (pre-treated fraction from mixed and commercial waste, potentially recyclable mixtures)
Three-dimensional fraction
Screen fraction
Two-dimensional / fuel fraction
Three-dimensional fraction: Metal, hard synthetics, glass, stones Screen fraction: Material that falls through the screen holes (usually damp, organic material such as sand, ash, or inert fine fraction) Two-Dimensional fraction/ fuel fraction: Paper, foil, textiles Brini Type
MK 41
MK 61
MK 81
MK 101
MK 121
Screen area 3 fractions:
100ft²
160ft²
210ft²
260ft²
310ft²
Screen area 4 fractions:
130ft²
190ft²
250ft²
310ft²
380ft²
Throughput
to 100yd³/h
to 160yd³/h
to 210yd³/h
to 260yd³/h
to 310yd³/h
Low operating costs The low power requirement of this simple yet efficient machine keeps energy costs down – power consumption is in the 3-7 kW range. Maintenance and servicing costs are also low, thanks to well-proven technology, reinforcement in areas subject to heavy wear, and reduction of moving parts to a minimum.
Wide area of application
Brini screens at work
Separation of lightweight packaging
BRINI separators are available as three or four-fraction machines (with two different screen holes) and are suitable for the following materials (subject to appropriate pre-treatment): • Household waste, residual waste, compost • Bulky waste, commercial waste • Potentially recyclable mixtures • Paper and cardboard waste Film plastic for energy recovery
Sorted fraction for material recovery
New Crambo developments
More efficient and longer-lived 2007 saw a new version of the general-purpose Crambo wood shredder, with best-ever cost efficiency. This proven performer now features reduced fuel consumption and emissions, with longer service life even in adverse conditions. With its wide range of applications, the Crambo was already one of the best machines on the market, and now it’s even better.
Higher efficiency By switching to low-emission CAT®ACERT™ engines, we’ve taken the Crambo to a new peak of efficiency on several levels. A new temperature management system ensures optimum performance even in hot temperatures, by regulating drum rotation speed and water cooler ventilation. This prevents downtime due to overheating. In economy mode, the machine detects no-load condition and automatically reduces engine and drum speeds. Normal operation is resumed once material is fed in and the machine detects the change in load. This brings a marked reduction in operating costs, and extends service
10
life at the same time. In combination with modifications to the drum drive, it also reduces fuel consumption by up to 25%.
Extended service life Tough root stocks, hard eucalyptus wood, fibrous oil palms – shredders have to deal with a lot of difficult materials. We’ve reengineered the Crambo drum to prolong its service life even more. The new design features thicker walls at the drum pipe, a modified transition to the flange area, and stronger gears to withstand the highest loadings, day after day. We also offer an optional reinforced drum for the toughest applications.
New fine separator Combined shredding and screening in one machine saves costs This new option for the Crambo is ideal when shredding materials such as root stocks, logging residue, and green waste. In cases like this, soil, clay, needles, leaves, and other matter can reduce the quality of the shredded material, as well as making it heavier and bulkier to transport. The separator option removes most of the fine fraction in the output. This eliminates the need to take a dedicated screener to the site – a major cost factor, since these fractions are often treated decentrally by contractors. The separator for both trailer and track versions of the Crambo is recognizable only by the additional swiveling discharge at the rear. It consists of a star screen disk integrated into the discharge duct, with Cleanstar® cleaning system and adjustable screen section. Separating is very effective – when shredding root stocks, up to 40% by weight is separated off as fine fraction.
Multistar XXL for Xtra throughput Looking at a high-tech screen machine the size of the Multistar XXL, it’s natural to assume that it represents a significant investment. But when you look at the operating costs, the XXL comes out well-nigh unbeatable in cost per ton or cubic yard – and that’s what counts in a heavy-duty machine. Of course, to work at optimum efficiency any machine needs to work at optimum load. With the XXL, that load is extra-large. The Multistar XXL is most at home where large quantities are shifted on a daily basis: at composting plants screening bulk compost, biomass and bark, with plant operators who operate several sites, and with contractors serving a wide customer base. Despite its size the XXL is designed as a semi-trailer with a transport width of just 8' 4'', so it can be moved from site to site with ease. The XXL’s extra-large throughput is so high that it poses difficulties if there is just one wheel loader. If the XXL is configured for throughput, one wheel loader will be occupied solely with feeding the 15 cu. yd. hopper, while another is busy taking away the output material. To complicate matters for the
Did you know?
loader driver, the Multistar star screen technology allows splitting into three fractions. The dimensions of the screen decks are worthy of this machine’s XXL moniker. A coarse screen with more than 8 cu. yd. capacity and a 15 cu. yd. fine screen add up to a total throughput of up to 530 cu. yd. per hour – all with a fuel consumption under 3 gallons per hour. The Cleanstar® system with carbide cleaning fingers protects the screen stars from wear. All this performance is surprisingly easy to control – a touch panel with intuitive menus makes operation simple. Optional features include a magnet drum for ferrous particles, roll separator for oversized particles, and wind sifter fan for medium particles.
The EPA estimates that 75% of what Americans throw in the trash could be recycled. Currently only 32.5% is recycled or composted, leaving 42.5% potential for growth.
11
Pre-shredding: Terminator 3400
New state of the art composting plant in Ontario The city of Hamilton, Ontario recently unveiled a new plant for composting municipal waste, transforming garbage into Grade A compost for gardening or agriculture. This $30 million investment turns 50 truckloads a day of food scraps and other organic garbage into compost using cutting-edge technology, including a Dutch-designed sealed tunnel composting system and a Terminator and a stationary Multistar star screen by Komptech. The trucks haul organic waste to the plant and dump it on a tipping floor big enough to hold two days of waste. Loaders scoop it into the Terminator, which shreds it to expose it to air, bacteria and water. The shredded waste goes through a magnetic ferrous fraction remover, and then enters tunnels where composting begins. Composting is aerobic, with air forced through the composting mass. The waste goes into two sealed tunnel stages for a total of 14 to 20 days, during which bacteria are killed by the 130-150°F heat of decomposition. The mix then goes to a stationary Multistar star screen, which removes oversized pieces, rocks, plastics and other contraries. A fully sealed conveyor then takes the mix to a separate building for 20-30 days so it can cool and dry out.
The plant gets about one pound of compost for every 2.5 pounds of waste. The compost is fully decomposed, so it can be used anywhere, from flower pots to farms. The facility is the first in Canada to meet new EU standards for preventing cross-contamination of composted and non-composted material. It’s designed to handle 60,000 tons annually, with a peak capacity of 90,000 tons.
Komptech USA Inc. PO Box 121 Erie, Colorado 80516 Copyright Š 2008 Komptech GmbH. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form (by printing, photocopying or other means) or processed, duplicated or circulated electronically without prior written approval of Komptech GmbH
USA WEST: (720) 890-9090 USA EAST: (614) 578-1459 komptechusa.com