Applications

Latest situation

In the waste of households and industry, masses of gold and silver treasures are stored – in discarded electrical appliances. And there are plenty of them: 40 million tons of electronic devices end up on the garbage worldwide every year, according to a report of the UN environmental program Unep.

Current problem

The electronics recycling business is becoming increasingly lucrative, reports the German Association for Secondary Materials and Waste Management (BVSE). Many recycling companies have now established themselves in Europe. They have benefited from the high metal prices of recent years. However, the high costs of processing the metals are squeezing their profits.

AGT solution

Conversion is the optimal solution for recycling electronic waste. As part of the LTC process, the various materials (plastics, metals, minerals) are gently separated. The organic materials are converted and processed into a strong gas comparable to natural gas, while all metals and minerals such as gold, platinum, rare earths, copper, etc. remain undamaged for reuse. The recycling of these treasures in landfill sites could be described as modern resource mining.

Benefit

Even high extraction rates seem paltry compared to the treasures in mountains of waste: according to Christian Hagelüken from the recycling company Umicore in Brussels, there are millions of computer circuit boards containing 250 grams of gold per tonne. AGT’s low-temperature conversion (gasification) makes recycling worthwhile, as the costs of processing are significantly reduced.

Latest Situation

The mountains of waste are currently growing in every civilisation. Savings that have been made cannot be realised. Incineration of waste is currently the solution.

Current Problem

Old dumps are getting full, new dumps are hardly authorised any more. Waste is just stored; it putrefies and the gas that is created is burned off without being utilised. Noxious substances trickle away and must be collected and processed at high expenses.

AGT-Solution

With low-temperature conversion, mixed household waste can be converted into gas and used to generate electricity without any major waste separation effort.

Benefit

The main advantages

• Useless waste becomes cheap energy.
• Closed system, no emission of noxious substances to the environment
• Small and profitable plants, since very expensive components needed for waste combustion facilities such as exhaust gas purification, slag stabilisation etc. are not required. The same is also true with regard to the running operating costs.
• Compared to an incineration plant, this system is significantly more favourable in terms of investment, as far lower construction costs are required.
• Much higher efficiency compared to incineration.
  Cost-effective operation of the system, as no additional energy is required for firing, for example.

Latest Situation

Incineration is used to dispose of sewage sludge, although the PE or lime-conditioned press cakes are not actually suitable for an incineration process. Sewage sludge press cake has a water content of more than 60%.

Current Problem

Therefore, incineration only works after prior drying or with an appropriate supporting fire. In any case, however, the energy consumption is so high that it is completely unrealistic to want to use sewage sludge incineration for a significant net energy gain for electricity generation.

AGT-Solution

The situation is completely different for sewage sludge conversion. Of course, 60% water content cannot be easily utilised here either, but in a reform stage downstream of the actual conversion process, the sludge’s own waste heat can be used for sludge drying.

The dried organic fraction contained in the sludge is then converted into high-grade gas and converted into electricity using a turbine-generator station.

To maximise the net energy gain, it is crucial whether the converted sewage sludge is digested sludge or not.

Benefit

• The residual organic content in the ash is less than 5%, which means that it is suitable for landfill throughout the EU.
• A significantly more cost-effective plant operation results from the continuously more favourable operating costs due to lower personnel requirements, sludge drying through waste heat, no additional supporting fire.
• The LTC process enables a considerably higher degree of efficiency in electricity generation through the operation of gas and steam turbine combinations.

Utilization of locally available biomass e.g. loppings, wood cut or straw – even when polluted!

Latest Situation

Conventional biomass power plants use fluidised bed technology to burn the fuel, heat water and generate steam, which is used to operate steam turbines to generate electricity.

Current Problem

Conventional biomass power plants use fluidised bed technology to burn the fuel, heat water and generate steam, which is used to operate steam turbines to generate electricity.

AGT-Solution

If, on the other hand, biomass is converted to medium and high calorific gas, gas turbine-steam turbine combinations can be operated with high efficiency.

Benefit

The conversion technology for biomass-based electricity generation has a significantly higher efficiency and is therefore more economical.

Latest Situation

Successful industrial locations require inexpensive electrical energy. However, a high proportion of the electricity costs result from the line charges alone. If the required electricity is generated directly at the consumer, these specific costs for grid transmission can be saved. In addition, there are no connection and supply costs.

Current Problem

However, the costs for the fuel required are decisive for the production of one’s own electricity. With modern, fully automatic gas generators, every industrial company could easily generate its own electricity requirements.

AGT-Solution

If conversion gas is used to generate electricity in the company’s own turbine-generator stations, a much cheaper turbine fuel is available compared to natural gas.

Benefit

• With this concept, large electricity consumers, such as producers of machinery, production lines, presses, ovens, etc., can be operated with the much cheaper self-generated electricity.
• The amount of CO2 saved by converting the biogas into electricity can be credited or sold.
• Energy-intensive businesses can thus be set up and operated independently of the regional supply. (Building construction and civil engineering, mining, tunnelling, quarries, etc.) In addition, existing energy consumers can also be converted to environmentally neutral electricity operation.
• This biogas can also be used to operate forklift trucks, crawler loaders, lorries, etc. in an environmentally friendly manner.

Latest Situation

Various machine and plant manufacturers have developed tyre shredding systems that allow the extraction of pure tyre rubber substrate. With such systems, large quantities of used tyres can be processed quickly and inexpensively.

Current Problem

Increasingly, the large volumes cannot be processed any more in recycling products and combustion, the method practised up to now, is limited by law. Therefore, there is an urgent need to search for innovative solutions to the problem.

AGT-Solution

Conversion is the optimum solution for the energetic utilisation of tyre granulates. As part of the process of converting tyre granulate into energy, the usable components are released, extracted, temporarily stored and then recombined in such a way that the released energy content is available in a synthesis strong gas.

In the hermetically sealed process, which is completely emission-free, the organic valuable components from the benzene and butane derivatives can be processed into a high-efficiency gas comparable to natural gas, which can then be converted into electricity in a gas and steam turbine combination with a high degree of efficiency.

Benefit

The conversion of used tyre granulate makes it possible to convert even large quantities of shredded tyre material into electricity economically.