Total Waste Recovery Facility

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Total Recovery Facility 

Trucks deliver unsorted waste materials to the facility,  dumping it on a tipping floor. An Inclined feed  conveyor carries this material into a Shredder, which  grinds up all of the waste into smaller pieces and  deposits it onto the next conveyor. An Eddy Current  Separator draws out non-ferrous metals. Cross-Belt  Suspension Magnets pull out any small pieces of  ferrous metal remaining on the conveyor. Next a Grinder shreds the  remaining waste into small bits before it is conveyed  into the Bio Separation Vessel. 

Bio Separation Vessel

Ground up MSW is delivered into the top of the vessel  via an inclined conveyor. The vessel contains a caustic  solution (i.e. Caustic Soda, Caustic Potash, or Slaked  Lime). A large stirring mechanism in the vessel helps  dissolve the organic or bio-materials (i.e. paper,  cardboard, wood, food waste, non-synthetic fibers/- fabrics, grass clippings, etc.) into the caustic solution.  To speed up the process, waste heat can be recovered  from the downstream process 

Bio Carbon Fuels (BCF) for Power Generation 

 Lighter materials (i.e. plastics, undissolved wood, etc.)  float to the surface of the solution in the BSV, where a  drag chain can extract these materials. The materials are  fed along conveyors into the patented BCF Dryers  which re-engineer these materials into a dry blend that is then  granulated. The dry materials can then be fed into  gasifiers creating syngas. The syngas is then cleaned  and used to power generators, a portion of the power produced is used to power this entire waste reclamation facility.  

BCF Recovery System can handle nearly any type of waste with minimal pre-processing and no need to separate wastes. Suitable wastes include municipal solid waste, auto shredder residue, construction and demolition waste, medical waste, hazardous waste, industrial waste and biomass. Exceptions are radioactive or explosive wastes.

The high temperature at which BCF Recovery System operate ensures that all waste breaks down at the molecular level. Organic material is vaporized and collected as a clean syngas. Inorganic material melts and is collected as metal and non-leaching vitrified stone. There are no major byproducts from the process that require additional disposal.

BCF Recovery System are designed for continuous operation with few moving parts. Their simple design translates into low maintenance costs, efficient processing of waste and high system uptime.

A BCF Recovery system occupies far less land than other renewable energy technologies. While some water is needed to create steam and cool the system, moisture in the waste can be recovered and reused. For the same amount of energy, a BCF Recovery system requires a fraction of the space needed for a solar array.

The average BCF Recovery system is more cost-effective than competing technologies, both as to capital needs and operating costs over the life of the system. This is due in part to its low parasitic load (16-20%) and low maintenance costs.

The syngas produced via BCF Recovery system can be converted into a wide range of sustainable and salable energy products, including electricity, diesel, hydrogen, and ammonia. The stone and metal tapped out of the system can also be sold.

Due to the simplicity of the blast furnace technology upon which BCF Recovery system is based, BCF Recovery systems have the capability to reach capacities of up to 2,000 metric tons per day. BCF Africa is commercializing its smaller gasifier at a minimum of 50MTPD and  larger systems.

The BCF Recovery system specific consumption’ (material consumed per day per unit volume) is related to the volume of the vessel. Therefore, a small increase in gasifier diameter will significantly increase waste capacity as well as thermal efficiency. All of the related system components would also increase proportionally in size.

If scale-up of a particular plant/project is anticipated, BCF Africa can adjust designs to accommodate the size increase with sufficient notice. In that case, additional diligence would be required during the design phase as well as attention to the capital required for larger equipment and change-out. If scale-up is not anticipated early in the design process, redesign would require additional engineering services to appropriately assess system modifications.

The primary engineering considerations that must be considered in the event of a scale up are the increases in system size and the assurance that gasifier support equipment, such as gas cleaning, oxygen/steam production, and back-end equipment, are capable of handling increased gas throughput. Scale up also must consider increase in capital outlay and future maintenance costs to ensure that the solution optimizes costs and profits.

Upstream and downstream equipment will vary as well depending on their particular specifications. Some equipment may need to be replaced with modules that can handle the increased capacity. However, costs associated with scaling-up can be minimized if BCF Africa is notified early in the design process.

The exact needs for a scale-up operation will vary with each specific project and requires a cost-benefit analysis for the scaled up operation to ensure the appropriate solution is achieved. Contact BCF Africa today for more information regarding your particular needs.

 MSW, the most abundant waste form on the planet, is an ideal feedstock for BCF Recovery System. Learn what constitutes MSW, where it comes from, and why it is great for BCF Recovery System.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is defined as waste containing everyday items “such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, newspapers, appliances, paint, and batteries,” which come from “homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses”.
The majority of MSW waste is sent to landfills 

For a landfill, the weight of the trash does not matter as much as the volume. Items like Styrofoam, crumpled paper, and empty bottles and cans take up a disproportionate amount of space for their weight. In other words, trash is very light for its volume, relatively speaking. 

All of BCF Africa’s modeled municipal solid waste (MSW) assumes that it is consistent with typical municipal solid waste at 10% moisture content by weight (unless otherwise noted). 

The energy content of bone dry (i.e. no moisture) municipal solid waste is roughly 15-16 megajoules per kilogram (MJ/kg), which translates to 14-15 million BTUs per metric ton (MMBTU/MT).
This means that from 100 metric tons per day of municipal solid waste, BCF Recovery® systems can generate one of following valuable end products:

•    67.3      megawatt-hours of electricity per day (MWhe/day)
•     2,982      gallons of diesel per day
•     5,400      kilograms of hydrogen gas per day