There are thousands of municipal waste dumps using anaerobic digestion to produce bio-gas from organic waste. This can be used for road transport, electricity generation or heating. However, the sludge that is left over represents a major challenge in terms of disposal and cost.
A new process is now emerging that will convert the bio-gas to hydrogen and have carbon as a byproduct. In addition, the process will dry the sludge and add carbon to it, resulting in bagged, dry organic fertilizer laced with carbon particles. These have the ability to neutralize harmful chemicals and metals.
The Vortair sludge processing system makes it possible to turn the sludge into a dry powder which can be stored, transported and traded at commercial terms.
The process converts sewage and biogas sludge into a fine dry powder in a matter of seconds, removing 98% of the contained water. The low pressure vortex ‘shakes’ the water from the input feed material and creates multiple hotspots resulting in a drying mechanism that is a mix of thermal and mechanical processes. Energy savings over conventional thermal drying are considerable, making it economically viable where conventional drying would not be.
The company behind this is Agroplas, a Norwegian company. (www.agroplas.no). It holds the promise of turning waste into profitable products whilst making it carbon negative.
This is a dream example of how the threat posed by global warming has stimulated inventive minds to find a solution that demonstrates that we can turn a problem into an opportunity.
