WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ACTION – RESOURCE RECOVERY
Woodchips to energy VEOLIA’S RECENT MOVES IN THE WASTE-TO-ENERGY MARKET HAS SEEN THEM TEAM UP WITH SPECIALIST EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER FINLAY.
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opulations are growing and, as a result, so too is waste generation. Conversely, landfill capacity is declining as urban areas become increasingly dense. While the waste hierarchy privileges avoidance, reuse and recycling, interest in waste-to-energy as a solution for material that falls through the cracks is growing. Capturing this potential was the driving force behind Veolia’s decision to open a new facility in Horsley Park, New South Wales. According to site manager Stephen Bernhart, the new resource recovery facility handles wood waste material, which it then processes into a wood chip product. “After running multiple equipment trials in 2018, we have recently kicked into operation,” Stephen says. He adds that the wood chip product will be provided to a customer where it will be used as a substitute for coal within a cement kiln.
Veolia’s facility processes a significant amount of wood waste, such as pallets, offcuts and plywood which need to be shredded, and has the capacity to receive 430,000 tonnes of general solid nonputrescible waste per year. “We have detailed specifications we need to meet to supply our wasteto-energy customer, and a big part of that is ensuring we achieved a material size sub 50 millimetres,” he says. “It’s quite a challenging task because it’s such a small grade, so we decided to invite multiple suppliers out to the site to run tests and demonstrate their equipment.” Stephen says Finlay Screening, Crushing and Recycling Systems, a supplier of screening and processing equipment for the waste and recycling industry, stood out during the trials. “Finlay were heads and shoulders above the rest in demonstrating not
Finlay, Screening, Crushing and Recycling Systems stood out in demonstrating what their equipment could achieve. 32 / WMR / September 2019
just what their equipment could achieve, but how it could achieve it consistently,” he explains. Finlay initially trialed a medium speed shredder, however, the resulting material didn’t quite meet specifications. Three weeks later they were back, with a Terex Finlay 693+ Super Track Screening Plant that, according to Stephen, worked extremely well. “During the second trial there was a large lump of steel which had passed through the primary shredder into the secondary shredder,” Stephen says. “The TDSV20 shredder shut down as intended, and Finlay representatives opened it up to remove the steel. The machine was back up and running in approximately three minutes – I was very impressed with how the equipment handled it.” According to Stephen, Finlay also demonstrated how the shredding equipment could maintain the
