Thermoselect

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Thermoselect describes a thermal process of recycling . It was offered by Thermoselect SA in Locarno , which opened for bankruptcy on October 29, 2009.

Basic principle

In this process, the first step is to compress the waste in a waste press to form a rigid waste package, which is pushed into a directly connected, heated degassing channel. This creates synthesis gas that is converted into electricity or used for chemical synthesis and thus recycled. When the synthesis gas is burned in a power station, Thermoselect technology works without polluting emissions. From the sewer, the outgassed waste then passes without interruption into a high-temperature reactor, in which the organic components of the waste burn completely by adding technically pure oxygen, whereby temperatures of 1200 ° to 2000 ° C are reached. These temperatures and a residence time of at least 2 seconds are important prerequisites so that halogenated hydrocarbons such as dioxins and furans are also completely destroyed. The end result is usable, solid products, e.g. B. an inert mineral granulate .

Practical use

Decommissioned Thermoselect plant in Karlsruhe's Rheinhafen

Karlsruhe : operation 1999–2004; Capacity 225,000 t / a household waste and commercial waste similar to household waste. The plant was closed because it never reached the desired capacity due to technical problems. In 2003, the facility in Karlsruhe (as well as the one in Ansbach ) was therefore written down by EnBW , which, according to the 2003 semi-annual report, reduced EBITDA by € 283 million. The total losses that EnBW suffered from the so-called Thermoselect business were put at various times in 2004 (for the final shutdown of the Karlsruhe plant) at over € 400 million.

Japan: Thermoselect delivered the first system to Chiba in 1999 and put it into operation. She worked for a profit in the years that followed. A license was granted to JFE (formerly Kawasaki Steel ) for the Japanese market .

The Japanese company Kawasaki Steel built four systems with Thermoselect technology. An article in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper on February 15, 2008 shows that the operating company JFE, a joint venture between Kawasaki Steel and Nippon Kokan (NKK), made a loss of 1.7 billion yen (approx. 10 million euros). For the term of the contract until 2021, provisions were made. B. be dissolved when treatment prices rise again.

Today the Thermoselect process is in commercial use in seven plants in Japan. Household waste, industrial waste and mixed fractions are used. The synthesis gas is used in different ways, e.g. B. to generate electricity in steam turbines and gas engines for tests in fuel cells, or it is delivered to a neighboring steelworks for use in a gas turbine:

  • Chiba: Start of operation 1999, capacity 300 t / d, industrial waste, household waste, sludge;
  • Mutsu: Start of operations in 2003; Capacity 140 t / d, household waste;
  • Osaka: operations started in 2004; Capacity 95 t / d, plastic, industrial sludge;
  • Kurashiki: started operations in 2004; Capacity 555 t / d; Household waste, bulky waste, industrial sludge, shredder light fractions, chemical waste, plastic;
  • Nagasaki: operations started in 2005; Capacity 300 t / d; Household waste, bulky waste;
  • Tokushima: start of operations in 2005; Capacity 120 t / d household waste, bulky waste;
  • Yorii: started operations in 2006; Capacity 450 t / d; Domestic and industrial waste

The Thermoselect process was licensed to IWT Interstate Waste Technology for the USA. Several large cities have expressed an interest in the process for an environmentally friendly solution to their waste problem. Among other things, the County of Los Angeles carried out a broad process comparison that put the Thermoselect process in first place. *)

Trivia

Due to the high susceptibility of the system in Karlsruhe to errors, the residents soon gave it the nickname “thermal defect”.

Literature and web links