Cool assignment for the environment
MeWa puts refrigeration equipment processing system into operation in Austria
Germany-based MeWa Recycling Maschinen und Anlagenbau GmbH has put a highly modern refrigeration equipment processing system into operation at Kematen, in Austria. The virtually complete recycling of the materials and the environmentally harmful CFCs with just one machine could hardly be carried out more efficiently.
The use of CFCs in refrigeration equipment was banned as early as 1996. The coolant was revealed as the number one ozone killer at the time. Despite this legislation, the number of CFC-powered refrigeration equipment in Europe is still put at more than 200 million. These equipment generations are now to be found in the recycling process. Only recently, specialist associations drew attention to the improper disposal of refrigeration equipment in Europe and the illegal export of old equipment. That it can also be done differently is shown by the new plant in Kematen/Austria which was put into operation last week, after a construction time of just eight months.
'The system makes it possible to process CFC and pentane equipment at the same time, without them having to be sorted beforehand,’ says MeWa managing director, Helmut Oberguggenberger, highlighting one of the benefits of the system. In the new disposal facility, up to 300,000 refrigeration systems or 90.000 tonnes of CFC a year will be processed. This equates to savings of around 900,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Not only the recycling quota of the CFC is extremely high; the investors were also impressed by the cost-effective operation and the result. The MeWa Querstromzerspaner (QZ) exposes the individual fractions in just one processing step. The QZ first separates the material composites of the refrigeration equipment into iron, aluminium, copper and plastic. At the end, the secondary raw materials roll into the container for collection as class 1 refrigeration scrap ready for sale.
´State-of-the-art technology makes it possible for almost 95% of the materials to be recycled from a refrigeration system as raw materials for new products,’ explains Dr Helmut Kolba, managing director of newly established UFH RE-cyling GmbH, which has its registered office in Vienna. The future operating company is a joint venture of UFH Holding GmbH, the market leader among the Austrian collection and recycling systems and REMONDIS, one of the world’s largest service providers in the recycling sector. At the inaugural event on 11 February 2009, the future operators as well as the politicians and invited guests present were in agreement that ‘new standards would be set in refrigeration equipment recycling in Europe’ with the project in Austria.
In a first step, all recyclable components, such as cables and glass inlays are removed. Afterwards, the specialist staff then remove the environmentally harmful coolants and compressor oil with extraction tongs and dismantle the compressors of the old refrigeration equipment. The patented Querstromzerspaner then processes around 60 refrigeration devices per hour in an isolated system. With its rotating chains, the machine entirely dismantles the individual fractions. The shredded PU foam is sieved off and freed from the CFC residue. The environmentally harmful gas is subsequently cooled in the cryo-condensation and liquefied; then collected in special containers and later disposed of.
After the MeWa-QZ has done its work, mechanical procedures then separate the iron, other metals and the plastics from one another. When cleanly separated, the products continue to generate high revenues, even in the current difficult market climate.
With UFH in this project, a collection and recovery system has been directly involved in the recycling process for the first time in Europe. This means that primarily manufacturers of refrigeration equipment will benefit from the efficient system. Using state-of-the-art machine technology, thirty employees ensure in 3-shift operation the high throughput of a good 1,000 cooling devices per day. The new plant should therefore meet the entire requirements in the Alpine republic.