HEXAGON - CONVERTER

α - CONVERTER from SOLID WASTE to normalised Recovered Derived Fuel (RDF)

OVERVIEW

The MSW is usually infected and made of a large quantity of heterogeneous materials, to allow its recovery in an efficient and safe way, it must be transformed into a homogeneous material deprived from virus and bacteria.

The sterilisation & normalisation process is performed by the CONVERTER.

The CONVERTER, performs a mechanical treatment that, through a fast-rotating blade, operates the sterilisation and the normalisation of the waste, generating a material with constant energy, granulometry, density, and humidity.

ADVANTAGES

The CONVERTER advantages:

Waste Sterilisation (programmable sterilisation cycle temperature from 95°C to 160°C)
Waste Shredding and Normalisation (totally homogeneous RDF production with granulometry < 3 mm)
Waste Drying (up to 95% programmable drying process)
RDF packaging (up to 650 kg/m3 under vacuum packaging option)

DESCRIPTION

The purpose of the CONVERTER is to transform the waste into RDF, a high-quality solid fuel, with constant LHV, granulometry, density, and humidity, to allow the energy recovery process to be easily controlled allowing a quality oxidation without pollution.

The treatment consists of a high-speed rotary blade mixer, able to reduce the size of the input feedstock in small particles (less than 3 mm in average), able to totally homogenise the feedstock, making the materials that made up the input matrix unrecognisable. The mixing operation is conducted in a batch closed chamber, maintained in a slight low pressure, to avoid any dust and odor escape.

WORKING PRINCIPLE

The CONVERTER is designed to finely comminute, to heat by friction, to dry and sterilise (if required) almost any kind of solid waste.

The process duration is a function of the starting humidity in the loaded feedstock.

The result of the treatment is a safe, dehydrated, stable, densified, finely minced, and not smelling product, no matter what the starting waste compositions was.

The sterilisation is achieved through the method referred as “heat sterilization” consisting in holding the material at high temperature in presence of superheated steam, condition promoting a reaction between water and proteins causing the micro-organisms’ death.

The CONVERTER can perform the following cycles:

- Normalisation (Temperature: < 60°C; Cycle time: < 15 min)

- Pasteurisation (Temperature: > 120°C; Cycle time: > 20 min)

- Sterilisation (Temperature: > 150°C; Cycle time: > 30 min)

The CONVERTER works according to the following batch cycle:

1. Waste loading in the treatment chamber.

2. Crushing

3. Shredding, Mixing, and heating

4. Overheating at > 150°C (sterilisation) or < 120°C (pasteurisation)

5. Cooling down through a rotor speed decrease

6. Unloading of the treated product by centrifugal forces, into the collecting bin

The CONVERTER uses temperature, pressure, and friction sensors to define the appropriate process time for every single phase, optimising the total process time and energy consumption, according to the defined working cycle.