Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos is ready to start co-processing 400t/month of solid waste at its Rio Branco do Sul plant in Parana. The project has been approved by IAP, the state environmental institute, and is being run in conjunction with the local authorities, according to the Parana Portal. The initiative was started August 2018 with agreement between Votorantim Cimentos, Itambe and Supremo.

Belarus/Hungary/US: Italy’s Entsorga is working on alternative fuel projects for cement plants in the US, Belarus and Hungary. In the US it has signed a contract to supply a Pelican feed line at Argos Cement’s Martinsburg plant in West Virginia. It follows a long-term off take agreement in place with the cement producer to supply alternative fuels. The 60,000t/yr feed station is similar to a feed station already delivered in 2016 in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

In Belarus the waste engineering company plans to install an alternative fuel feed line at the Krasno cement plant. Local subsidiary EntsorgaFin will define the material acceptance standards and provide the design for the fuel feed station and feed line.

In Hungary Entsorga was awarded a contract for the supply of an alternative fuels automated handling and feeding system in January 2019 with an unnamed global cement producer. It will provide its Spider and Pelican products to the end user. Commissioning of the plant is scheduled for early 2020.

US: BioHiTech Global started operations at a waste treatment plant in Martinsburg, West Virginia in March 2019. It has completed the first phase of plant commissioning including the facility's reception area, overhead bridge cranes, and its primary mechanical sorting equipment. It has begun the next phase of plant commissioning and progressing operations, which includes receiving limited amounts of waste and beginning runs of its mechanical and biological treatment process for producing solid recovered fuel (SRF). The limited processing runs are expected to result in the production of SRF in the coming weeks with the facility reaching full operations in the second quarter of 2019. The unit uses Entsorga Italia’s proprietary high efficiency mechanical and biological treatment process (HEBIOT)

The majority of the waste, to be delivered as feedstock to the facility, is covered under a ten year agreement with a local waste hauler owned by Gold Medal Group, a regional waste management services company. The SRF will be supplied to cement producer Argos USA under a similar ten-year deal.

"The initiation of revenue generating operations at this first facility of its kind in the US is a pivotal moment for our company and an important step forward in the movement to lessen the environmental impact of waste management,” said Frank E Celli, the chief executive officer (CEO) of BioHiTech Global.

BioHiTech is the largest owner of the Martinsburg SRF plant through a majority owned subsidiary company with a 78% controlling interest in its operations. Gold Medal Group owns the remaining minority stake in the subsidiary.

Philippines: Geocycle Philippines has co-processed 20,000t of contaminated soil at Holcim Philippines’ Bulacan cement plant in 2018. The soil was taken from former petroleum depots in the Pandacan district that have been opened up for commercial and residential developments. In November 2014 the Philippine Supreme Court ordered the remediation of soil covering an area of 33 hectares, which had been contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.

Three companies have worked on the remediation project. It is led by US consulting firm AECOM, which performs the analysis of the waste and manages compliance and permits. Charifer Builders, a local partner, is in charge of civil works and site management. Geocycle Philippines transports the waste from the site to the Bulacan plant for final treatment through pre- and co-processing. The teams reviewed a number of soil remediation solutions but Geocycle won the bid for multiple reasons, not only cost.

“Geocycle's solution was considered the best option for this project as the treatment process completely destroys the contaminants, and leaves no residual liabilities at the project site,” said Alfred A Lalu, Technical Director, Environment of AECOM Philippines Consultants.

Geocycle Philippines is expected to co-process nearly 20,000t of contaminated soil in the first quarter of 2019.