Arnhem-based waste processing company AVR is busy with initiatives to harness its waste processing for sustainable solutions. Earlier, it was announced that Carbon8 Systems, a British company that invented a process to combine residues from industrial waste with captured CO₂ emissions, will carry out its first Energy from Waste (EfW) pilot project at the company in Duiven. This was followed yesterday by a report that AVR will partner with The Ocean Cleanup.
Carbon8 Systems will capture carbon from the AVR plant and use it to make building material. This material is suitable for concrete applications. Carbon8 Systems' patented solution is known as CO₂ntainer - a modular, containerised solution - described as "carbon capture in a box".
For this pilot project, a CO₂ntainer will be installed in Duiven to demonstrate how fly ash produced by an EfW plant can be combined with captured CO₂ from the flue gas emissions of another plant to create a manufactured aggregate for compliant use in the construction industry.
Flue gas
Every year, the Duiven plant processes the waste of 1.5 million households, releasing around 400,000 tonnes of CO₂. The pilot in Duiven is expected to generate 100 tonnes of building product and there is potential to use more CO₂ from the plant in the future. At Duiven, Carbon8 Systems' CO₂ntainer will use the CO₂ from the EfW plant's flue gas that would normally be collected and sold directly.
Dr Paula Carey, co-founder and technical director of Carbon8 Systems, said earlier in a press release, "Working closely with AVR, we are going to roll out the strategy in two phases: first, we will run a pilot project and if successful, we will operate it commercially. Ideally, we will do this in Duiven or elsewhere within AVR's operations in the Netherlands. We see many opportunities for our CO₂ntainer worldwide anyway."
Logistics support The Ocean Cleanup
AVR will also make its site available to The Ocean Cleanup, the non-profit organisation developing technology to remove plastic from the world's oceans. The organisation can examine and analyse collected waste here, AVR writes on its website. The waste will be prepared at AVR for transport to specialist companies in the field of processing and reusing plastics. Both parties hereby emphasise that the cooperation focuses on logistical support (storage and facilities for sorting the collected waste) and research, and is not aimed at burning The Ocean Cleanup's material.
AVR is happy and proud that it can contribute in this way to the big problem of plastic in the sea. Jasper de Jong, commercial director of AVR: "The Ocean Cleanup is an organisation that is causing a stir worldwide, because it is able to remove plastic from the sea in an innovative way. That is enormously clever. This cooperation fits very well with our objective to contribute to a clean and sustainable world where nothing goes unused. As a waste processor, we supply heat on a large scale and captureCO2 for reuse in greenhouse horticulture. In addition, we have the Netherlands' largest plastic separation plant that extracts plastic from household waste."
The Ocean Cleanup recently introduced its first product made with plastic from the ocean, sunglasses.
