Displaying items by tag: Refuse Derived Fuel

Spain: Cementos Portland Valderrivas has partnered with the University of Seville to build a non-hazardous waste processing plant to produce refuse-derived fuel (RDF) at its Alcalá de Guadaira cement plant in Seville. The producer hopes that, when commissioned, the installation will help to 'significantly' reduce the plant's energy costs and CO₂ emissions by substituting its RDF for petcoke in cement production.

Along with a renewal to the Alcalá de Guadaira plant's mining lease, the total cost of the project is Euro6m.

Philippines: Republic Cement is supporting efforts to remove plastic pollution from the sea by co-processing the waste in its cement production. The Business Mirror newspaper has reported that the cement producer has partnered with plastic waste collector Pure Oceans to take delivery of shipments cleaned up from off the coasts of Batangas and Davao.

Republic Cement chief executive officer Roman Menz said "Republic Cement is proud to partner with organisations such as Pure Oceans. Their deep commitment towards safeguarding the environment, while making significant contributions to the Philippine plastic waste crisis, is an inspiration for us to continue doing what we do in order to make a tangible impact on our communities, towards building a greener and stronger republic."

Through its partnerships with local fishing communities, Pure Oceans diverted 1.93m bags of plastic waste over the three years prior to the start of October 2022.

Denmark: Norway-based Geminor has commissioned a new refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production plant in Aalborg, Jutland. The plant is equipped with a windshifter separator, allowing it to extract up to 70% of plastic in residual waste, in addition to metals and wood. This produces a heavy bio-RDF with low fossil content, of the type previously developed by the company at its HUB research facility in Landskrona, Sweden. Though more expensive to produce than other types of RDF, the company believes the fraction offers higher profitability due to its taxation benefits.

UK: Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and solid recovered fuel (SRF) exports from the UK were 1.6Mt in the financial year which ended on 31 March 2022, down by 2.3% year-on-year from 2021 financial year levels. Waste management consultant Footprint Services reported that March 2022 RDF and SRF exports were 136,000t, down by 23% year-on-year from 176,000t in March 2021. Geminor exported 29,200t of RDF and SRF during the month, constituting a 22% market share. Its full-year exports in the 2022 financial year were 280,000t.

Geminor UK country manager James Maiden forecast that the decline in UK RDF and SRF exports is beginning to level off at a volume between 1Mt/yr and 1.5Mt/yr from the 2023 financial year.

Australia: Adbri is targeting 40% refuse derived fuel (RDF) substitution in cement production at its Birkenhead, South Australia, cement plant in 2022. By 2024, it aims to further increase RDF use to 50%. The plant used 35% RDF in its production in 2021.

Adbri says that it is Australia's only cement producer not to use coal, relying instead on a combination of RDF and gas.

UAE: Dulsco has commissioned a 70,000t/yr refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant at the Expo 2020 Dubai site in Dubai. RDF from the plant will be used by local cement producers and other industries. The project follows the UAE’s Circular Economy Policy 2021 - 2031. Dulsco’s business interests cover waste management, outsourcing, recruitment and workshop and fabrication services.

Panama: Cemex has secured a supply of 30t/yr of industrial waste for use at its Panamanian cement plant from US-based industrial conglomerate 3M. The waste will consist of high-calorific residual foam and wool.

Cemex South, Central America and the Caribbean regional president Jesús González said “We are very pleased to make this alliance that strengthens our company’s path towards our carbon neutrality goal by 2050. Cemex and the building materials industry can play an important role in the creation of a truly circular economy. As evidenced by this agreement, we welcome this challenge and are moving aggressively to create the better circular world of the future.”

Argentina: Geocycle plans to double the refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production capacity of its Piedra Blanca waste management plant in Córdoba in order to process up to 100,000t/yr of waste into RDF. The Holcim subsidiary will invest US$5m in the expansion. The plant received 78,600t of industrial waste, 57,000t of urban waste and 4400t of waste tyres in 2021 and produced RDF for co-processing in Holcim Argentina’s Jujuy, Malagueño and Mendoza cement plants’ cement production. The work includes the construction of a new 200m access road using EcoPact reduced-CO₂ concrete. The entire project is scheduled for completion in 2022.

General manager Mariano Bollo said "We started in 2020 with a small plant. In 2021 we expanded it, and in 2022 we are doubling its capacity. In the coming months and years, we will grow even more.” Bollow expressed his hope to process 100% of all waste received at the site into RDF.

Norway: Geminor processed 67% of waste that it handled in 2021 into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and solid recovered fuel (SRF). The company said that the figure represents a 3% decline from 2020 levels. It handled a total of 1.73Mt of waste in nine European countries in 2021.

CEO Kjetil Vikingstad said “The Covid year 2021 has been another challenging year for the European waste industry in terms of volumes, logistics, transport and varying market mechanisms. The RDF market, in particular, has differed with lower volumes in circulation due to reduced exports from countries such as the UK and Finland. At the same time, other countries - such as Poland, Denmark, and Italy - have experienced growth, which has helped obtain a balance in the market.”

Colombia: Cementos Argos says that it processed 20,000t of waste into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in 2021. The RDF replaced some of the fossil fuels in its cement plants’ fuel mixes. During the year, the company also increased its total volume of tyres used as fuel by 48%.