Vecoplan says its pipe belt conveyors are energy-efficient in transporting bulk materials.

With its VecoBelt series, Bad Marienberg, Germany-based Vecoplan offers pipe belt conveyors that it says are ideal for transporting almost all bulk materials, including processed industrial and production waste. The company says it has now enhanced the system by implementing a roller-free belt return.

To reduce the use of expensive primary fuels such as coal and oil, alternative fuels and raw materials are increasingly being used, even in the production of cement. These materials, consisting of high-calorific waste, such as plastic and packaging waste, paper, composite materials and textiles, must first be processed to be furnace-ready. Vecoplan says its VecoBelt is a completely closed transport system that conveys this material mix safely.

Vecoplan says it has further developed this series in all belt widths, and the conveyor belt is now supported by an air cushion in the belt feed and belt return. This is advantageous for users, the company says, because the idlers in the feeder section and the return rollers are no longer required, meaning little or no roller maintenance.

Each drive station is equipped with two scrapers. Operators can adjust the front head scraper and the carbide scraper from the outside and the components can be retightened with a ratchet. The front head scraper is flexible, yet strong enough to remove impurities from the belt, Vecoplan says. The carbide scraper is designed to ensure thorough cleaning, removing430 belt dirt. More scrapers in the weight tensioning stations reduce maintenance time even more, increasing the availability of the systems while reducing material carry over.

According to the company, the VecoBelt can convey bulk material over a length of up to 430 meters (1410.76 feet) and with a volume flow of 1,000 cubic meters per hour (35314.7 cubic feet per hour). The belts in the series run at a speed of 2.5 meters per second (8.2 feet per second). The conveyor system is quick, easy to install, stable and lightweight. The spacing between the individual supports can be up to 75 meters (246.06 feet) with possible gradients of up to 18.5 degrees.

Additionally, the VecoBelt series consumes about half as much electricity as conventional roller conveyor systems, the company says.

The Norway-based company says it will spotlight its X-tract machine and its LIBS technology.

Asker, Norway-based Tomra Sorting Recycling has announced it will showcase its sensor-based sorting technologies at Aluminium 2018, the world trade fair and conference in Düsseldorf, Germany, Oct. 9-11. Tomra’s exhibition stand will spotlight the company’s X-tractT machine and laser-induced breakdown spectoscropy (LIBS) technology, the company says.

According to Tomra, the X-tract machine separates valuable materials from metal waste and LIBS technology sorts and separates different aluminum wrought alloys.

Aluminium 2018 is expected to attract more than 27,000 visitors from 100 countries and will share latest insights into aluminum production and processing, finished goods and recycling. Tomra’s technical experts will be available at its stand during all three days of the event.  

Tomra says its participation at Aluminium 2018 allows the company to provide its own insight into technical solutions to industry challenges.

“High levels of aluminum production plus the high accuracy of modern alloy sorting techniques make it more and more worthwhile to unlock the value from secondary materials that would otherwise be lost,” Frank van de Winkel, Tomrasorting business development manager, metals, says. “What’s more, reusing scrap metal is an environmentally friendly practice, which demonstrates the industry’s commitment to sustainability. For these reasons we’re looking forward to discussing our technologies at Aluminium 2018 with recyclers, smelters and remelters.”

Tomra’s X-tract separates heavy metals from aluminum alloys with precision regardless of the materials’ size, moisture or surface pollution level, the company says. This technology employs an electric X-ray tube so broadband radiation can penetrate the material to provide spectral absorption information. This data is then measured with an X-ray camera to identify the atomic density of the material. Material is sorted into high- and low-density fractions with Tomra’s Duoline sensor technology that uses two independent sensor lines with different spectral sensitivities.

Tomra’s LIBS-based sensor sorting technology extends the options for the use of scrap and secondary aluminum. By employing a dynamic laser that can monitor the entire width of the belt, the unit eliminates the need to separate materials into single lanes, the company says. This enables the sorting and separation of different aluminum wrought alloys with high levels of efficiency, achieving sorting accuracies of 99 percent purity with high throughputs of 3 to 7 tons per hour.  

Aluminium 2018 will also be an opportunity for recyclers, smelters and remelters to learn how Tomra designs its technical solutions to fit customer requirements. Tomra says more than 60 of its units have been sold worldwide for the separation of different scrap sources, such as taint tabor from sheet scrap, extrusion profile scrap, used beverage can scrap, production scrap and new scrap from manufacturing waste.

Company specializing in hydraulic hose repair advances 23 places on “Entrepreneur Magazine’s” Global 200 list.

Rocklegde, Florida-based Pirtek has been ranked No. 42 in Entrepreneur Magazine’s latest Top 200 Global Franchises list. The new ranking puts Pirtek in the top 50, a gain of 23 places from last year’s ranking among franchising companies around the world, the company says. 

Every year in its Franchise 500 list, Entrepreneur Magazine assesses the top franchises in terms of international size and growth, costs and fees, franchise support, stability and other factors. It then publishes the list of its top 200 companies. 

A provider of hydraulic and industrial hose replacement sales and services, Pirtek says it has a strong base in the U.S. but is more widely known for its global presence, with locations in 23 countries. The company began in Australia and branched out to the United Kingdom, then around the globe.

“Getting into the top 50 on Entrepreneur’s global ranking is a tremendous milestone for Pirtek,” Glenn Duncan, CEO of Pirtek, says. “All this progress is indicative of the great people who make up Pirtek worldwide, especially our long-term franchise owners who have been so successful and who continue to expand their businesses into new markets. At the same time, I want to recognize the new owners who bring fresh enthusiasm and talent to Pirtek. We have so many outstanding people in our organization.”

During the past year, Pirtek has expanded the reach of its U.S. franchise locations, because, in part, to the new mobile only option now available to franchisees, the company says. Under the Tier 2 plan, an owner can keep inventory in a storage facility and operate the business with two or three mobile service vehicles only. In three years, Pirtek will require that the Tier 2 locations become Tier 1 locations with service and supply centers. One of the main benefits of the Tier 2 option is that it allows franchisees to become Pirtek owners at a lower point of entry, the company says. 

“Our existing Pirtek owners have taken advantage of the Tier 2 option, expanding geographically without having to set up a brick-and-mortar location right away,” Duncan says. “This expansion has taken place in U.S. metro areas, greatly benefiting the Pirtek organization in the process. It’s been an important building block in our success.” 

Pirtek says it is building a new 10-acre headquarters in Rockledge, Florida. According to the company, the two-story facility will contain 120,000 square feet of warehouse space and 20,000 square feet of office space. As Pirtek USA continues to expand, the international company says it plans to move its global headquarters to the Rockledge facility.

During the past year, Entrepreneur Magazine has also ranked Pirtek No. 33 on its list of the most veteran friendly franchising companies. The publication recognized Pirtek USA for sponsoring causes that help U.S. military veterans and for offering veterans a $5,000 to $15,000 discount on franchise fees.

The new hire brings more than 20 years of experience to the role.

Wastequip, Charlotte, North Carolina, has announced the appointment of Mike Marchetti as the chief information officer (CIO). In this role, Marchetti will lead Wastequip’s information technology (IT) strategy to focus on enhancing security measures, integrating a number of disparate systems across the company to increase efficiency, and identifying areas to leverage data and technology to grow the business.

Marchetti brings more than 20 years of IT experience to his role. He most recently held the position of vice president of Truck Hero, Inc, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Previously, he spent six years as chief information officer and vice president at Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P., Indianapolis, where he managed and planned IT integration for 11 mergers worth more than $3 billion in revenue.

“We are very pleased to have Mike on board,” Wastequip CEO Marty Bryant says. “As CIO, he will be instrumental in advancing Wastequip’s business strategy by helping us better leverage technology to achieve measurable results, ensuring that our company will be at the forefront of digital solutions.”

Marchetti earned a Bachelor of Science in computer technology from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in accounting from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Lithium ion batteries have gained market share, but the recycling market to serve them may need support.

Automotive and electric power industry leaders facing flat sales envision a more prosperous future with massive new investments in an electrified vehicle-to-grid infrastructure.

These leaders say they are confident people will want to travel in “clean” vehicles seamlessly integrated with the electric power grid and connected to all forms of communication. This modernized grid will function with clean energy from wind and solar facilities rather than pollution-emitting fossil fuels.

This would seem like a can’t miss proposition, but there are hurdles. One is avoiding new hazardous pollution risks from the use of rare earth and specialty materials to achieve the goal of clean energy.

Advocates of this transportation and electric power convergence must confront the consequences of moving away from highly recyclable materials like copper and lead and replacing them with materials that are very difficult to recycle.

Specialty metals like lithium used in batteries and rare earth materials like samarium and neodymium used in magnets for electrified drive trains are among the least recycled materials in the world. Automotive and electric power industry executives could find themselves at odds with another worldwide environmental movement, the circular economy, which calls for discarded materials to be recycled and reused in new products rather than simply dumped in landfills.

The challenge for the automotive and electric utility industries is fairly simple to define, but very difficult to resolve. For nearly two hundred years, electric utilities have produced electricity with turbines (powered primarily either by hydro dams or fossil fuels) that maintained inertia for a stable flow of power through transmission lines. With the auto industry, inertia has been provided by the internal combustion engine powered with gasoline and diesel fuel. Both industries depend on insulated copper wires for electric power flow. Lead batteries are essential for automotive ignition and provide vital backup power for electric utilities.

For many years, hydro power, particularly pumped hydro storage plants, have supplied instantaneous bursts of power to ensure the stable flow of electricity from unanticipated power outages and a modest introduction of windmills and solar panels. But, because hydro power isn’t available everywhere, batteries have become an option. Some electric utilities are turning to powerful lithium-ion batteries of the type already used in appliances.

Lithium-ion batteries have become commonplace in cellular phones, handheld tools and appliances. They also are becoming a serious hazardous waste problem as consumers throw used appliances with lithium-ion batteries into the trash rather than take them to recycling centers. Explosions and fires are taking place in material recovery facilities (MRFs). In some cases, MRFs have been forced into shutdown for expensive repairs because of lithium battery explosions and fires.

This hazardous waste problem is becoming an important issue for automakers and electric utilities. A typical lithium-ion “18650” cell widely used in a small electric appliance is only slightly larger than a standard AA alkaline battery. These 18650 cells are used in electric vehicles as well. A Tesla battery pack is comprised of some 7,000 lithium-ion 18650 cells carefully arranged with a sophisticated cooling system to keep their temperature low to avoid a phenomenon called “thermal runaway” in which one over-heated cell can start a chain reaction among others in a battery pack.

Using 18650 cells in an electric power system puts this challenge on an even larger scale. A 30-megawatt lithium-ion battery system recently commissioned in California uses some 400,000 of these cells. Keeping the cells operating safely at low temperatures is a major engineering challenge. But, what happens when the cells no longer work?

Presently, federal law does not mandate the recycling of spent lithium-ion cells, primarily because no economically viable recycling program exists. End-of-life battery owners either toss them into landfills or pay extra to have them reduced into lower grade uses such as road slag. (Federal officials have only issued strict regulations on how they can be transported.)

The situation is considerably different with copper wires and lead batteries. Recycling these materials is a highly profitable business because recycled copper and lead are literally the same quality as “virgin” metals mined from the ground. Recycled copper and lead are traded on open commodities markets alongside their virgin counterparts.

What is the solution to hazards created by the use of lithium-ion batteries and rare earth magnets? A ban on their use until a recycling industry is established? Impossible. The wireless communications industry, for example, would collapse. New government regulations mandating the recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries? At least five states already have such mandates, but their impact has been negligible. Consumers still are throwing lithium batteries into the trash.

Automakers and utilities are working feverishly to come up not only with management systems to keep these batteries running safely, but also to devise an economic process to recycle them and keep them out of MRFs and landfills.

This research requires a major commitment by industry and government. Automakers are working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Program, which is supporting work by a consortium of national laboratories and the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium. Utilities are working with the Electric Power Research Institute and DOE.

Recently, these DOE programs survived cuts proposed by the Trump Administration to save money on research. Congress not only rebuffed these proposed cuts, lawmakers actually increased research budgets. This was because U.S. national laboratories have some of the world’s most powerful research equipment to study the behavior of materials to make them perform more efficiently and sustainably. No single industry, for example, could possibly afford equipment like the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory or the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

In the case of the auto industry, the DOE Vehicle Technologies (VT) program, with an annual budget of $337 million, is spending about half that amount on battery research, mostly lithium-ion batteries, not just to make them more powerful, but safe and recyclable. The DOE Basic Energy Science office is supporting work at Argonne to develop better alternatives to the lithium-ion battery.

But, what if all this research still does not result in major cost reductions required to make lithium batteries recyclable, electric vehicles more attractive to consumers and renewable power more cost effective for utilities?

There is a fallback. DOE’s VT program also is allocating more than $65 million to improve the performance of internal combustion engines. DOE’s fossil energy programs have more than $700 million. The lead battery industry is working with Argonne on a program to analyze the crystallization of lead plates. The copper industry is working with Oak Ridge on an ultra-conductivity program to increase copper wire performance. Both programs can help improve the competitive position of these highly recyclable metals.

The vehicle-to-grid revolution to green technologies may not happen all at once, but rather incrementally. The automotive and electric power industries, therefore, will have to assure consumers and investors they’re making the right choices on the way to a clean future.

(The author is a principal of Redland Energy Group, a Washington-based firm that focuses on marketing and policy consulting services to the energy sector.)