Kingfisher keeps material flowing for ERF plant
With such strict measures in place to reduce the amount of waste going out to landfill sites disposing of rubbish in a more environmentally friendly manner has never been so important. With each household waste measuring at 1000 tonnes a year, converting such large amounts of waste into re-usable raw material or alternative fuels is quite a challenge for both MRF and ERF plants throughout the UK.
Meeting demand and ensuring an ongoing functional process are all important aims to meet within the recycling industry. Site Maintenance teams are under immense pressure to ensure adequate health and safety, environmental aspects are met but most of all ensuring plants are receiving and processing correct levels of material and remaining within stringent emission levels.
Energy Recovery Facilities have similar activity to incinerators which were introduced back in the 1970’s, however todays systems include the latest technologies and are designed to help maximise the efficient generation of heat. Typical process begins with waste brought in by trucks and are dumped into waste disposal chutes, these chutes are expected to hold excessive loads of contaminated waste, and can include a mixture of material such as glass, metals, sharp edged fragments and even food.
Referring to a particular plant in Sheffield, maintenance engineers were approached by Kingfishers technical sales engineer. As part of Kingfisher’s service provision, a free on-site visit and consultation is provided to the customer, during which it was apparent as the waste is brought into the tipping hall and dumped into the waste pit, adequate amounts of material failed to flow down the concrete waste chute which further connected into the refuse pit, due to the large tonnages and different characteristics of waste being handled, significant damage was made to the concrete surfaces and dramatically decreased the life of the existing equipment causing it to decay, leaving a rough, uneven and degraded slope.
Causing waste to build up at the entrance and material was manually being pushed further into the pit to allow for a continuous waste flow, so it can be extracted out by a grab and further processed into the incinerator.
Kingfisher are known to have supplied many solutions for the recycling and renewal energy markets. Waste material running through any process plant and equipment can leave transfer points prone to wear and abrasion and restricts key material flow causing build up and blockages or surfaces to degrade.
Kingfisher recommended placing a new chute on top of the existing concrete chute which would not only promote the flow of waste, but would work as a defensive layer to combat varied characteristics of waste being handled. Engineers at the plant were presented with a number of solutions, however the best and most cost effective system recommended was Kingfishers K-FLOW Ferritic system.
The overall project awarded to Kingfisher was to manufacture 2 new waste chutes manufactured from Kingfisher’s K-FLOW material at 8mm thick. K-FLOW is specifically suited to applications which require protection from sliding induced abrasion and a key requirement to promote the flow of bulk solids.
Project Manager Peter Philips commented “investing in such a system will be a cost effective solution for the plant and maintenance team going forward, if any repairs are required in the future the plant will experience minimal disruption to the ‘downtime’ as it will be an easy one liner replacement of the existing K-Flow lining system, which can be carried out in a day, allowing the chute to be brought back online with minimal disruption and additional costs to the client, access and labour”
John Connolly Managing Director stated “There are many applications within EFW plants which require protection against harsh bulk solid, Kingfisher have worked with many OEM’s, EPC and End Users supplying the renewable market, therefore have the knowledge, solutions and expertise in providing systems fit for the purpose”
Publish Date: 03/03/17