Ghent based Organic Waste Systems (OWS) has strengthened its position in Europe and Asia with DRANCO-technology in spite of the on-going global pandemic.
Ghent based Organic Waste Systems (OWS) has strengthened its position in Europe and Asia with DRANCO-technology in spite of the on-going global pandemic.
The first half of 2020 was a strange and uncertain period for many companies worldwide, but this period turned out very well for OWS and in particular its DRANCO division.
Construction works started for the new DRANCO plant in Japan (Yorii) ánd three more DRANCO digesters are being planned, one in China (Chongqing) and two in Belgium (Dendermonde & Leuven). When these plants will be commissioned, the total installed digestion capacity by DRANCO for reached over million tonnes per year of household organics.
“These four new projects are very important for OWS,” explained Piet Smis, General Manager of OWS nv. “Projects in Belgium are of vital importance to OWS as a showcase close to the main office”. OWS is therefore very pleased to gain once again the trust of two Belgian intermunicipal associations.
“But the new projects in China and Japan are both very important for the geographic expansion of OWS. China and Japan are promising but at the same time very demanding and difficult to access markets. We had to jump through some hoops but we feel that these projects might be the snowball that creates the avalanche of change in that region.” Besides Europe and Asia, the company is also focusing a lot on the US. “It is the objective of OWS to become a leading player on the US-market in the next years, just as it is the case in Europe.”
Japan: DRANCO plant for 27,000 tonnes per year of food and paper waste The Food Recycling Law in Japan has set goals for the reduction and reuse of food waste. The Japanese company ORIX Environmental Resources Management Corporation (“OERM”) decided to jump on this train and implement a dry DRANCO digester in Yorii (Saitama Prefecture). The facility will process up to 100 tonnes per day of food and paper waste.
OERM decided to implement a dry digestion technology, in order to be able to accept more waste containing impurities and avoid problems with flotation and sedimentation. Kurita Water Industries, the DRANCO license partner of OWS for the Japanese market, will construct this installation in cooperation with OWS. The plant will start to produce biogas in autumn 2021.
China:A DRANCO plant for 35,000 tonnes per year of kitchen waste The Chinese megacity Chongqing wants to be top of the class in sustainable waste processing. There is already a digestion plant up and running in Chongqing and recently Chongqing Sanitation Group Co. Ltd. ordered two more digestion facilities. One of these new facilities was awarded to OWS. The plant will process about 35,000 tonnes of food and kitchen waste per year. Purac Environmental System,
The DRANCO license partner of OWS for this project will construct this installation in cooperation with OWS.
Belgium: A DRANCO plant for 30,000 tonnes per year of food and garden waste With four digesters installed, DRANCO was already well-represented in Belgium.
At the beginning of 2020 the intermunicipal association ‘VERKO’ awarded a contract to OWS to construct a digester on its site, bringing the number of DRANCO plants in Belgium to five. The existing composting plant will be redesigned with a new reception hall, pretreatment, anaerobic digestion with a DRANCO digester of 2865 m³, modernization of the existing tunnel composting, biofilter, biogas engines and a biogas upgrading for a part of the biogas.
Belgium: A DRANCO plant for 50.000 tons per year of food and garden waste In June 2020, the general assembly of the intermunicipal association ‘ECOWERF’ also decided to build a DRANCO digester on its site. The site in Leuven disposes of an existing pretreatment and composting facility for about 50.000 tons per year of source separated organics. The pretreatment has lasted 20 years and will be renewed. After this, the whole site will be upgraded with a DRANCO digester. The total investment is about €15 million .
The startup is scheduled for spring 2023 and will bring the total number of DRANCO digesters in Belgium to six. According to the company, it’s technology is in many cases the first choice for biowaste (source separated organics) digestion because it produces a maximum amount of biogas. In mixed or residual waste, the remaining organic fraction accounts for the largest fraction in the MSW, and therefore it represents the largest potential for increasing diversion and recycling rates.
The company concluded that its DRANCO technology is very and suitable for organic material and In combination with SORDISEP as a post-digestion technology to ‘wash the digestate’, creates a clean compost -similar in quality as compost from source separate collection- can be produced out of this (dirty) mixed or residual waste and high diversion rates can be obtained.
In Bourg-en-Bresse (France), biogas and clean compost are being produced from (mixed) residual waste in a full-scale plant since 2016.
Fuente: WASTE MANAGEMENT WORLD