German interest in Norwegian wastecombustion furnace

Svein Tønseth

In collaboration with scientists from SINTEF and NTH, the Norwegian engineering and manufacturing company Saxlund A/S has trodden new paths on the route to turning waste into energy. The result, a specially developed furnace for sorted burnable waste, could become an export product before the end of the year.

SINTEF Applied Thermodynamics scientist Helge Rosvold prepares to fill the prototype furnace with a new supply of dry sorted waste.

Three German paper mills and a German local authority have asked Saxlund to submit tenders for their furnace, which currently exists in the form of a large-scale prototype at SINTEF. The furnace was developed in order to utilize industrial and household waste as fuel in small heating plants installed in close proximity to users. The boilers in these plants will supply local heat or steam for industrial processes and electricity generation.

Interesting market

"An order from any of the companies that are interested would be an important foot in the door for us. Germany is a very interesting market for this product", says Torfinn Bakkelid, managing director of Saxlund A/S.

Before Saxlund can sign any contracts, the company will have to be able to document that the prototype furnace in Trondheim meets German emission standards. The company is preparing to demonstrate the furnace this autumn for the first of its potential German customers.

"If any of these four inquiries leads to a sales contract by the end of the year we will be very pleased" says Torfinn Bakkelid to Gemini. He also envisages the possibility of a sale to the Norwegian market by that time.

Smaller and cheaper

The furnace is based on a further development of chips combustion technology, and it is much more compact and reasonably priced than conventional waste combustion plants. It was developed to deal with dry sorted and derived waste.

"Both the combustion technique and the fuel itself help to ensure that total emissions of unscrubbed acidic NOx, SO2 and HCl gases are of the same order of magnitude as emissions from conventional waste combustion plants with conventional scrubbers", points out Helge Rosvold, the scientist at SINTEF Applied Thermodynamics who leads the development of the new furnace. "In order to reduce HCl emissions we are currently building a cleaning system based on calcium injection into the flue gas pipe. This will bring total emissions of acid gases down to one third of the level of emissions from conventional waste combustion furnaces fitted with scrubbers", says Rosvold.

Energy and aluminium

The background for the German paper industry's interest in the furnace is the German authorities´ large-scale offensive for recycling packaging materials. Their aim is to recycle 130,000 tons of drinks cartons a year from 1995, and it will be the responsibility of the manufacturers to ensure that this is done. The three factories that have turned to Saxlund A/S have either begun, or are preparing, to include fibre from juice and milk cartons in their recycled paper. They are interested in the furnace to deal with the plastic and aluminium mixture that remains when the paper fibre has been separated out.

The strict German recycling standards mean that the plastic cannot simply be dumped. The three companies are therefore considering using the Norwegian furnace to recycle the aluminium and utilize energy from the plastic.

Looking for an alternative

The German local authority is interested in the furnace in order to deal with that proportion of household waste that does not end up in consumers' sorting bags. It wants to utilize the energy in combustible waste at a local level, in order to avoid either having to dump it or transport it over long distances. The local authority has asked Saxlund to tender for two plants; one to supply the local power station with steam and the other which would supply steam to a paper mill.

The furnace has been developed with funding from Saxlund A/S and the Research Council of Norway. Via their industry organization, ELOPAK and other European manufacturers of drinks cartons have also supported the development project to the tune of a million kroner.