9 papers at meetings/congresses
2 gasification units commissioned
1 journal article

Improve the preparation of high-LHV waste and develop new conversion channels (gasification).

CHALLENGES

Reducing solid waste is a key environmental concern. However, efforts to convert the waste that cannot be eliminated into energy must also shift into high gear if the targets set in the EU 2008 Waste Framework Directive and national targets are to be met, particularly with regard to landfilling waste. The French government set a target of reducing the amount of waste that is landfilled by half between 2010 and 2025. The purpose of the VaDéO project was to support these initiatives by improving waste sorting and preparation solutions for converting waste into energy (heating or combined heat and power) by gasification.

The industrial waste treatment chain is very well organized; waste is processed at sorting centers that separate recyclable waste from high-LHV (lower heating value) waste. A significant proportion of industrial waste is recycled or used to produce solid recovered fuel (SRF) that can be burned to produce energy while reducing the amount of non-recyclable waste that would otherwise be landfilled.

French energy agency ADEME estimates annual potential SRF production at 3 million tons. In 2010, France produced just 150,000 tons. The same year, Germany produced 6.9 million tons. The gap is due in part to how complicated it is to produce SRF. However, the lack of SRF users is also a problem.

SRF is very heterogeneous, containing wood, plastic, paper, cardboard, textiles, and ordinary industrial waste—which means that it cannot be used as-is. To become “fuel,” SRF must undergo specific sorting and preparation processes. Currently, concrete factories (whose potential is estimated at 1 million tons per year), lime kilns, and coal-burning power plants (which burn both SRF and coal), are the only facilities capable of using SRF.

The purpose of the VaDéO project, led by energy production solutions provider Leroux & Lotz, was to address the entire sorting, preparation, and conversion (gasification) chain to promote the use of SRF, a non-fossil fuel.

 

 

Results :

 

GROWTH

Leroux & Lotz has already commissioned two gasification units. The first is a €16 million, 12 MWth unit delivered to Eska Graphic Board, a manufacturer of high-quality cardboard in the Netherlands. The unit produces superheated steam from the 25,000 tons to 28,000 tons of pulper waste the factory generates each year, for annual savings of 18 million cu. m of natural gas and lower waste management costs. The second, in France’s Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, is a €34 million unit expected to inject 51,600 MWh/year into the grid and to generate heat (90,000 MWh) consumed by neighboring industrial facilities. Overall, the unit will convert 45,000 tons of waste into energy each year, eliminating 39,140 tons of CO2 emissions.

 

OUTLOOK

Leroux & Lotz has already commissioned two gasification units. The first is a €16 million, 12 MWth unit delivered to Eska Graphic Board, a manufacturer of high-quality cardboard in the Netherlands. The unit produces superheated steam from the 25,000 tons to 28,000 tons of pulper waste the factory generates each year, for annual savings of 18 million cu. m of natural gas and lower waste management costs. The second, in France’s Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, is a €34 million unit expected to inject 51,600 MWh/year into the grid and to generate heat (90,000 MWh) consumed by neighboring industrial facilities. Overall, the unit will convert 45,000 tons of waste into energy each year, eliminating 39,140 tons of CO2 emissions.

 

Financing

Isère General Council, Savoie General Council, ERDF Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, French Single Interministerial Fund