Paper machine No. 10 manufactures 100 percent recycled lightweight and high-strength linerboard.
From left: Jean-Denis Girard, member of the National Assembly for Trois-Rivières; Luc Blanchette, minister of forests, wildlife and parks; Gene Kruger, vice president, business development, Kruger Inc.; Julie Boulet, minister responsible for the Mauricie region; and Michael Lafave, senior vice president and chief operating officer, Kruger Packaging
Montréal-based Kruger Inc. has announced it has dedicated its paper machine No. 10 (PM10), a project that was completely rebuilt to manufacture 100 percent recycled lightweight and high-strength linerboard at its Trois-Rivières, Québec, mill.
Kruger invested $250 million in this project. Well before work got underway, Kruger says its engineers toured numerous manufacturing plants in North America and Europe to find the best technology for manufacturing 100 percent recycled lightweight and high-strength linerboard “of the best possible quality.”
Commercialized as XTR, the new linerboard grades manufactured on PM10 meet increasing demand for ultralight packaging without compromising strength, performance or environmental footprint, according to Kruger.
PM10’s annual production will total 360,000 metric tons of XTR linerboard, an exclusive product that Kruger says is the first to manufacture in North America. A portion of the production will be used by Kruger’s packaging plants in LaSalle, Quebec, and Brampton, Ontario, while the remainder will be sold to packaging manufacturers across Canada and the United States.
Announced jointly by Kruger and the government of Québec in September 2015, this $250-million project required some 500,000 hours of work over a 20-month period that ended in spring 2017, when the machine entered its startup phase, says the company. The project also consolidated 270 jobs at the Trois-Rivières mill, in addition to generating benefits for the Mauricie region and Québec, Kruger says. More than 80 local businesses were involved in the project. Of the total budget, approximately $40 million was spent with local suppliers and $60 million with suppliers elsewhere in Québec, Kruger says.
The company says several dignitaries and project partners were present at the PM10 dedication, including Luc Blanchette, minister of forests, wildlife and parks; Julie Boulet, minister of tourism and the minister responsible for the Mauricie region; Jean-Denis Girard, member of the National Assembly for Trois-Rivières; and Gene Kruger, vice president, business development, Kruger Inc.
Kruger Packaging specializes in the manufacture of containerboard products and corrugated packaging made from 100 percent recycled fiber. The Montréal-based company was created in partnership with Kruger Inc. and Investissement Québec – acting as the Québec government’s agent – which has a 25 percent take in its assets. Kruger Packaging employs some 800 people, including more than 600 in Québec, and operates four production sites, namely the Trois-Rivières mill, the Place Turcot containerboard mill in Montreal, and the LaSalle and Brampton packaging plants.
Founded in 1904, Kruger Inc. is a major producer of publication and specialty papers, tissue products, containerboard and packaging made from recycled fibers, renewable energy, cellulosic biomaterials and wines and spirits. The company also is a leader in paper and paperboard recycling in North America. Kruger has facilities in Québec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as in Tennessee, Maine, New York, Virginia and Rhode Island.
Redeveloped Factoria Recycling and Transfer Station in Bellevue designed to enhance recycling and disposal options.
King County, Washington, officially dedicated its Factoria Recycling and Transfer Station in Bellevue, Washington. Customers now have more recycling and disposal options than ever, the county says in a news release.
Replacing a 1960s-era facility, the new station features new technology designed to reduce environmental impacts and improve customer service.
“I am committed to improving the efficiency and quality of the services we provide to county residents, and this new station delivers,” says King County Executive Dow Constantine. “In just one example, the new compactors at Factoria improved the efficiency of each trailer hauled from this station, which translates into fewer trucks on the road and reduced climate pollution.”
Located at 13800 SE 32nd St. in Bellevue, the new facility offers a wide array of recycling services for major appliances, yard waste, clean wood, scrap metal, commingled recyclables, textiles and more.
Additionally, a new household hazardous waste (HHW) facility allows customers a place to dispose of their HHW materials in an environmentally responsible way.
Garbage disposal services were not disrupted during the three-year reconstruction project, which included the demolition and removal of the old facility, the building of a new retention wall and the installation of public art.
Recycling and garbage disposal services at Factoria are available Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. HHW disposal services are available Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
This redevelopment project moves the County ahead by bringing efficiencies and enhancing service. In addition to areas for recycling and HHW disposal, key features of the new solid waste transfer building include:
King County operates eight transfer stations, two drop-boxes, the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill and many programs to help customers recycle. Learn more about the Solid Waste Division at kingcounty.gov/solidwaste.
The systems, supplied by BHS, process a combined 50 tons per hour of single-stream and MSW material.
Suez’s Recycling & Recovery UK division recently began operating two new systems at the Altens East Industrial Estate south of Aberdeen, Scotland. The turnkey single-stream and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) systems were provided by Bulk Handling Systems (BHS), Eugene, Oregon. They are rated to process 20 metric tons per hour (tph) and 30tph, respectively. Purchased and operated by Suez on behalf of the Aberdeen City Council, the material recovery facility (MRF) will process 140,000 metric tons of material per year and will increase the city’s diversion rate by nearly 20 percent, saving an estimated £5 million ($6.6 million) in annual landfill taxes, according to a news release from BHS.
The systems feature recycling technology from BHS, Nihot and National Recovery Technologies (NRT). The supplier says the facility is designed for high performance, featuring five BHS Tri-Disc screens, six NRT optical sorters and a Nihot Single Drum Separator.
BHS says Suez invested in specialized technology to ensure its end products are highly marketable knowing that product quality is absolutely critical in today’s volatile commodity markets. For example, a BHS Debris Roll Screen breaks the incoming glass and removes the 50-millimeter fraction, which is processed through a Nihot Single Drum Separator to remove light contamination. The remaining glass-rich material passes through an NRT ColorPlus optical sorter to remove the remaining nonglass contamination, including paper and small pieces of ceramic, stone and porcelain, to leave a clean glass product. Paper purification is accomplished with NRT optical sorters, where the recently updated ColorPlus-R removes cardboard from the news stream and a SpydIR-R recovers flattened plastic from the mixed fiber stream. Designed to comply with the Scottish Government’s Code of Practice on Sampling and Reporting at Materials Recovery Facilities, the systems feature numerous belt scales to weigh inbound and outbound materials and automated labeling of outbound bales, BHS says.
“The quality of our commodities is more important now than it’s ever been,” says Tim Hughes, Suez project development manager. “The abundance of technology in our systems ensures that we’re able to meet or exceed our customers’ specifications. BHS has been a great partner from design onwards, as these systems surpass all of our throughput, recovery, purity and uptime expectations. The city of Aberdeen is in a great position to landfill significantly less while contributing to the circular economy and should be proud of its Council for making its vision a reality,” he adds.
“This MRF includes an abundance of new technology that is producing products that have exceptional quality,” BHS CEO Steve Miller says. “Employing NRT optical sorting on glass, news and mixed paper really sets the Aberdeen plant up for long-term success with regard to product quality. The recyclables leaving this facility are of the highest purity found anywhere in the industry, which is a testament to Suez’s commitment to excellence. We expect this MRF to be a top performer for Suez for years to come.”
In 2000, the Aberdeen City Council awarded Suez a 25-year contract to manage recycling, composting, treatment and disposal of the household waste for its residents, which now number more than 228,000 people. The £27 million ($35.7 million) project was developed to meet the goals set out in the Aberdeen City Waste Strategy and is in line with Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan, the latter of which includes a 70 percent recycling target by 2025.
BHS designs, engineers, manufactures and installs sorting systems and components for the solid waste, recycling, waste-to-energy and construction and demolition industries. Its wholly owned subsidiaries include Nihot (Amsterdam), NRT (Nashville, Tennessee) and Zero Waste Energy (Lafayette, California). BHS is also the originator of Max-AI technology, a form of artificial intelligence that is designed to identify materials, make intelligent decisions and direct equipment, such as robotic sorters.
E-scrap is a dynamic stream of material that is best managed when recyclers and reclaimers work closely together.
Many scrap recycling companies handle electrical or electronic components, directly or indirectly, including those that process computer and electronic equipment and household and industrial goods or those that process manufacturing scrap.
Recycled components can contain a range of metals with significant intrinsic value, but these may represent only a fraction of the components. Gold and other high-value metals often are surrounded by plastics or other materials, making sustainable recovery challenging.
Scrap yards in the U.S. today have little incentive to consider the ultimate fate of their products, but the dynamics of the recycling market already are changing that with advances in environmentally sound recycling of e-scrap and greater involvement of global manufacturers in sustainability.
E-scrap recyclers perform a valuable function in reducing the ratio of plastics and other materials in the precious metals (PM) stream when they disassemble old computers and other nonworking equipment, removing drivers and power supplies from chassis and separating integrated circuits (ICs) and other components from circuit boards, for example. This can greatly improve the efficiency of thermal recycling operations.
As the U.S. moves to more hybrid and electric vehicles, automakers and suppliers, already interested in sustainability, could further stimulate the greening of end-of-product-life recycling. On conventional vehicles, spent catalytic converters, which depend on precious metal catalysts, already are targeted heavily for recycling, as are lithium-ion batteries and circuitry on electric vehicles.
E-scrap is a major opportunity, and components with a higher ratio of high-value metals produce the highest returns. High-density circuit boards always are worth more than simpler circuits. According to a report by Market Research Engine, Deerfield Beach, Florida, the value of e-scrap generated globally is projected to grow at about 23 percent per year, reaching more than $76 billion by 2022.
Manufacturers of mobile devices already offer direct recycling-exchange programs for customers, and manufacturers of other, especially smaller, consumer or household products could follow suit. Still, most e-scrap starts out mixed with other materials, so e-scrap value depends, in large part, on disassembly labor, material separation and downstream efficiency.
Upstream, many manufacturers already recycle scrap from production processes, especially residual materials containing valuable metals. High volumes of concentrated e-scrap containing PMs also are generated whenever aftermarket components, such as circuit boards or military replacement parts, exceed their rated shelf life and must undergo certified destruction. They also are generated in mass recalls of electronic products. Samsung, for example, heralded its responsible recycling policies in March after recalling 1.9 million Galaxy Note 7 phones last year.
The extent to which manufacturers of industrial and consumer goods take a hand in developing downstream recycling channels for high-value metals remains to be seen. But globally, e-scrap generation has been growing by more than 40 million tons per year for some time, according to a report from Market Research Engine, and the advent of more environmentally responsible methods that maximize recovery of PMs can help change the equation. It also can create new opportunities for e-scrap disassembly operations and those that want to focus on more energy-efficient, “greener” recycling.
E-scrap is a dynamic stream of material and is best managed when recyclers and reclaimers work closely together to establish the most accurate, cost-efficient and safe methods to recover the valuable materials contained.
Generally, there are two main factors e-scrap recyclers will want to consider: economic, and environmental, health and safety (EHS).
On the economic front, this will largely depend on the volume, types and grades the recycler handles as well as available resources to manage the material. Firstly, segregation by grade is helpful as it provides for better tracking of yields produced by reclaimers. It also allows recyclers to supply the appropriate grade of material best suited to the processing capabilities of a reclaimer. Yet, while most industry professionals agree that 100 percent reclaim preparation (automated or manual separation) provides the most accurate results, the trade-off is that it is more costly. So where is the tipping point?
For most materials, the guideline is that e-scrap products with a gross combined value of precious metals and copper of at least $8 to $10 per pound are ideally suited for full reclaim processing. Materials with lower commodity value will be more cost-efficiently managed by a shredding and sampling or outright sale. Additionally, any extraneous material that can be removed upfront will produce two reclaim benefits: removal of heavy parts, such as steel shielding, aluminum heatsinks, transformers, etc., as well as wire and bulk plastics and packaging will reduce overall reclaim costs, and some of these can be recycled and traded as separate commodities.
Regarding EHS, this is always a central focus for reclaimers. Protection of employees, the environment, as well as process equipment is extremely important, and especially challenging in highly regulated, heavy- industrial environments that incorporate foundry, thermal reduction, chemical and mechanical processes. Reclaimers generally will ask many questions about the e-scraps’ constituent materials and may request samples to evaluate further before even accepting. Deleterious elements, such as beryllium, cadmium, mercury and others, are problematic for both employee and environmental exposures.
The reclaimer also will be evaluating how the processing of the material will impact EHS. For example, batteries and other sealed devices will pose a risk of explosion and toxic release in a thermal or shredding process. Those types of devices need to be removed and recycled or disposed responsibly. The more information the recycler can provide and address upfront, the less likely there will be added costs from surcharges, hazardous waste disposal or potential rejection and return of a shipment.
Local availability of advanced thermal reduction services reduces the cost of recovering PMs while also helping to safeguard the environment. In contrast, shipping volumes of e-scrap halfway around the world for recycling is energy intensive, and the process can be laden with uncertainty. In developing countries and remote regions, e-scrap recyclers may operate with primitive methods and little government oversight. Without singling out any manufacturers, CBS News chronicled the practice of open burning of e-scrap in China on “60 Minutes,” available at www.cbsnews.com/news/following-the-trail-of-toxic-e-waste. Small-time operators cook printed circuit (PC) boards over open fires outdoors, and chemicals from extraction baths pollute the ground and water supply.
Uncontrolled combustion of e-scrap potentially can vaporize large quantities of semivolatile toxic compounds and produce halogenated organic pollutants, including dioxins and furans.
A laboratory study conducted by the University of Cincinnati and co-authored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) detailed byproducts produced in the open burning of e-scrap. The PC board samples in the study, titled “Characterizing emissions from open burning of electronic waste using TG-GC-MS system,” started to decompose at 684 degrees Fahrenheit (362 degrees Celsius) and 775 F (413 C), respectively, and combustion produced a mixture of aromatic and aromatic amine organic compounds of C6-C16. Combustion of PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate, also known as acrylic or acrylic glass) cellphone casings and other plastic e-scrap were examined separately.
Although most plastics begin to melt at relatively low temperatures, combustion produces low-levels of acids, which should be captured and neutralized. In addition, thorough combustion is required to reduce or eliminate byproducts, such as benzene compounds. Yet at the same time, combustion processes must be controlled to avoid the high-temperature formation of toxic byproducts.
Most thermal recycling operations have been in place for years and rely on tray furnaces, and some may use afterburners as secondary treatment of combustion byproducts before discharge to the atmosphere. Operators often are reluctant to upgrade to cleaner or more efficient furnaces, which are subject to newer, more stringent environmental regulations.
Gannon & Scott, however, continues to develop environmentally responsible thermal reduction processes. Throughout the past 98 years, the company has designed and built or upgraded more than a half dozen high-capacity thermal reduction units that operate with advanced process and pollution controls.
© Gannon & Scott The new thermal reduction unit at Gannon & Scott’s Rhode Island facility features advanced environmental controls and can recover high-value metals even from lower-grade scrap materials. We recently commissioned a three-stage thermal reduction unit at our Cranston, Rhode Island, facility. The TRu3Tec thermal reduction system is designed to operate at relatively low temperatures (about 1,400 to 1,500 F) to dramatically reduce the formation of hazardous byproducts. Plus, it features environmental and process controls to further reduce waste emissions. It is an enhancement of a similar system designed by Gannon & Scott for our metals recovery facility in Phoenix.
Pollution controls for the system include quenching, cyclonic separation, wet scrubbing of exhaust gases and dust collection. Both plants also are zero-discharge facilities for processing wastewater sludge and plating solutions.
For mixed products, such as circuit boards, that arrive at our facilities, any carbon-bearing organic compounds, plastics and combustibles, such as filters, will be destroyed in the thermal reduction process. Virtually no air emissions are produced because the system captures and treats combustion byproducts. Water-based scrubber solutions condition primary combustion byproducts so we do not discharge any harmful dioxins or furans to the atmosphere. We neutralize acids as a secondary part of the process. Our process evaporates water and treats residues internally so no hazardous waste is generated.
Most PM recovery operations talk about zero waste as goal. We are about as close to that goal as possible. All the scrap metal that comes from burnt circuit boards is sent to metal recyclers.
Even packaging materials and pallets are recycled. Almost the only waste that leaves our plant is from our cafeteria and a small amount of office waste.
Currently, about 70 to 80 percent of the residuals processed at our facilities come from manufacturers, primarily from electronics, automotive/aerospace, jewelry, minting and metal plating operations. The bulk of the remainder comes from end-of-life product recyclers, particularly e-scrap recyclers, and we expect this segment to grow with the economy and as the recycling industry expands and matures. The system also is used for certified destruction of obsolete electronic components. Sensitive materials subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) guidelines also are accepted for destruction.
We even generate electricity at our new Rhode Island facility, which features a 406-kilowatt DC, 40,000-square-foot solar array. Our goal is to deliver certifiable, tangible value for our customers, and intangible value with our environmentally responsible approach.
This is increasingly important to Fortune 500 companies and multinational corporations, and others with active sustainability policies. Our process not only greatly minimizes wastes and emissions, but we also are able to economically recover value even from material containing only a few percent of residual PMs.
Volume is key to value, especially at lower PM percentages. We regularly maximize recovery of residual PM value from wipes, gloves, spent jars of conductive pastes; cathodes and ion exchange resins used in plating operations; and even floor sweepings from manufacturers. Even difficult-to-handle silicone rubber with PMs can be processed. We help suppliers recover value from fabric waste impregnated with low levels of silver, cloth that would otherwise go to a landfill. In this case, we turn what would be a hazardous waste into a valuable return for the customer.
Such opportunities abound, and we believe new ones will emerge in the end-of-life e-recycling space. Enterprising recyclers can play an important role in identifying these opportunities and in creating win-win-win value for themselves, their customers and the environment.
Vertical rotor shaft ensures longer dwell time in the drying chamber, company says.
HVT series centrifugal dryers from Herbold USA, Smithfield, Rhode Island, provide energy saving drying of regrind, especially hollow bodies, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, polyolefins and other plastics, the company says.
Herbold says the HVT features a vertical rotor shaft, which ensures longer dwell time in the drying chamber and offers the added advantage of significant space savings versus horizontal systems. The refinement of the HVT’s internal geometry, including the rotor and housing, minimizes the occurrence of fines and allows for greater yield, according to the company.
HVT dryers operate on the principle of centrifugal drying. Material is accelerated against a screened stator surface and simultaneously transported from bottom to top by rotor paddles. Feeding is via a horizontal drainage screw, which eliminates most of the surface moisture before material enters the dryer, Herbold says.
Energy savings are achieved by a reduction in motor size. A typical one- or two-stage drying system for PET flakes with a 150-horsepower motor would yield a throughput of 2.5 to 3 tons per hour, Herbold said. An HVT system can equal that performance with a 75-horsepower drive motor.
The HVT’s housing features large doors to provide easy access to components, which is designed to simplify routine maintenance. Rotor paddles and screens can be changed quickly and easily, and the unit’s housing is equipped with strategically located replaceable wear plates.
The machines are available in standard or stainless steel configurations.
Herbold Meckesheim USA, a subsidiary of Herbold Meckesheim Germany, designs, manufactures and installs size-reduction equipment and wash-line systems for the plastics industry, specializing in the recycling of industrial and postconsumer plastics.