Israeli Engineers Come Up With Way to Recycle Industrial Sludge

By Aviva Grunpeter for NTD News

Photo by Anat Markram, CDEGlobalTags:

Environmental legislation and its enforcement require industrial plants to take care of the sludge created during the purification of their waste, which at times can be poisonous and dangerous.

So far, disposal of the harmful materials in Israel included transfer to the southern, less inhabited part of the country, where they were burned and buried.

“Ecology Serviced,” an Israeli plant, has readjusted an existing technology to work towards reducing the harmful substances and recycling another part of them.

And the cost of treatment was lowered in the process.

[Alexander Mangold, CEO, Ecology Serviced]:

“This is a method we refer to as 20-80: 80% decrease in volume, 20% saving in costs. Instead of burning 100% of the material, we burn only 20%. The cost for treating one ton of sludge as is prevailing in today’s industry is 1,000 to 1,200 dollars. The cost we suggest is 20 to 40 percent lower.”

It appears that the technology is not a new one.

[Oded Kakhla, System Designer]:

“Here we have a technology of a double-jacket drier built of two layers. The substance is inside, and is surrounded by hot water. The hot water causes the evaporation of the liquid inside the sludge, which evaporates in the form of gas. After the gas is condensed into clear liquid, it is sold to be reused in industry. The solid material may use as a source of energy, or be buried as a harmful substance".

The process is supervised by a computing system which enables control to prevent any mishaps in the plant.

The system can handle different kinds of sludge, from the printing industry or the pharmaceutical industry, for example.

What, for instance, would be the advantage for a printing manufacturer such as Hewlet Packard?

[Alexander Mangold, CEO, Ecology Serviced]:

“The law today does not exempt manufacturers from their responsibility for their waste after the product has reached the client. Therefore, HP is still responsible for its waste at the end site".

The unique technology will be presented for the first time in the WATEC, the international exhibition of water technologies and cleantech technologies, which will take place in Israel in November this year.

[Oded Kakhla, System Designer]:

“We took an existing technology from the food and pharmaceutical industry and adjusted it to the treatment of wastes.”

[Alexander Mangold, CEO, Ecology Serviced]:

“Our dryer was previously used in the American toothpaste industry, by the Colgate company, where it served to thicken the paste.”

The plant handles not only sludge, but also other kinds of industrial waste, and is operating according the principle of the “4 R’s” – Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and Recover. There is a visitors’ center at the plant where these principles are explained to groups, among them are of school students who come to visit.

Treatment of sludge is economically beneficial to industrialists.

No less important, perhaps, is that we leave a cleaner world for future generations.

NTD News, Beer Tuvia, Israel

Reporter: Aviva Grunpeter

Photographer: Anat Markram

This article appeared on www.nocamels.com

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