"Green" Cement

Cement is one of the fundamental raw materials to promote the development of human civilization. From 2000 years ago pantheon art work of ancient Rome, to modern skyscrapers, highways, airports and docks, the trace of cement is everywhere. From the aspect of the total volume, the amount of cement used in the world is just after water.

However, cement manufacturing is one of the main emission sources of greenhouse gas, so cutting emission is naturally the top priority.  According to Mexico media reports, scientific research institution in Brazil had successfully developed a new technology using agricultural waste, such as bagasse or rice husk, as raw material to produce environment-friendly, and inexpensive “green” cement.

Using agricultural waste of bagasse and rice husk to make the “green” cement will not only reduce the pollution to the environment, it can also enable waste recycling, increase the added value to the agricultural products, and cut down the cement production cost at the same time.

Agriculture waste generated in many countries is mostly used as a fuel in the boilers for producing energy, processing paddy, through direct combustion or by gasification.  For example, in India, about a million tonnes of rice husk ash and sugarcane bagasse ash is produced annually.  Instead of dumping these ashes and cause great environment threat to the land and the surrounding area, making use of the ash as a replacement for concrete (about 15 to 20% of the whole cement material) certainly makes more sense.

Such replacement will significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, because the processing procedure of the agriculture waste is relatively easy, quick, and low energy consuming.  The manufacturing cost of such “green” cement is only one tenth of traditional cement.  Furthermore, its lifespan is longer than traditional cement, and the texture is much finer.

Brazil is rich in planting sugar cane. Its sugar cane annual production and export volume is ranking first in the world. Brazil sugar cane existing arable land is about 6.5 million hectares and sugar cane’s annual production is up to 550 million tons. Cement’s average annual production is about 45 million tons. If the bagasse ash in the cement mixture proportion is 15%, Brazil can reduce emissions of about 3 million tons of carbon dioxide a year!

Look into the future and stand at the angle of environment protection, it is important to continue making further research on how to fully reuse waste materials to make “greener” cement.

Sinobaler baling and bagging machine can help to press these loose materials into dense bales. Please visit us at http://www.sinobaler.com/application/rice-husk-baling-press/ for more information.

Used Clothes Recycling

According to a report from the Council for Textile Recycling (CTR), in the United States alone, people on average throw away 70 pounds of clothing every year, this equals to roughly 191 T-shirts per person. If these used clothes are directly sent to landfill, they not only take up space, it can also contaminate soil and groundwater and emit horrifying odors. Besides landfill, these used clothes may also be incinerated, which releases tons of greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming and climate change.

Hence, there are multiple benefits associated with recycling old clothing.  No only we can reduce the landfill space, we can also lower the amount of pesticides used in growing cotton, reduce the amount of artificial fibers made from petroleum to make into textile fabrics, lower water consumption needed to dye fabrics, and cuts down on the pollutants, greenhouse gases and volatile organic compounds released into the water and air from manufacturing processes. Moreover, used clothing industry creates job opportunities as well as provides people with lower income with affordable clothing.

To recycle your used clothes, the most straightforward method is to donate it to your nearest charity organization.  The donated clothing will then be collected and carefully sorted according to different grades by a textile recycling companies.  Those clothing in “wear-able” condition will be baled according to their grades, and be sold to third world countries such as Africa. Damaged textiles or clothing will be processed to make industrial wiping rags, or be used in high quality paper manufacturing, or material suitable for fiber reclamation and filling products.

Considering that majority of used clothes are sent abroad to countries where the demand for secondhand clothing is high, a baling machine plays an important role in recycling clothes. Lifting chamber baler from SINOBALER is specially designed for baling used clothes into dense, regularly shaped bales. The compressing chamber can be fully lifted up making it very convenient and easy to wrap and cross strap the bales.  As for baling wiping rags recycled from damaged clothes, the scale weighing bagging baler offered by SINOBALER is the right machine to go.  For more information, please visit our website at www.sinobaler.com, or contact us directly for a customized baling solution.

Other waste material recycling articles:

Which cardboard can be recycled? / What types does cardboard have?

Which Plastics can be recycled? / Plastic types?

How to recycle waste plastic bag? 

How to recycle Plastic Bottle?

How to recycle cotton waste?

Banana Fiber Introduction and Banana Fiber Recycling

How to recycle Used Clothes?

How to recycle used shoes?

How to recycle used carpet?

How to recycle Trim Waste?

How to recycle Aluminum?

How to recycle tire/tyre in Australia? 

Tire/Tyre Recycling in efficient and cost saving way

Used Carpet

Most of the carpets are petroleum-based product. It includes those made from synthetic materials such as acrylic, nylon, and polyester and are backed with latex, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or polyurethane. According to the data provided by www.informinc.org, every year there are 4 billion pounds of carpet being discarded in the United States. Owing to its bulky property, carpet poses waste management problems because it consumes enormous amounts of landfill space. Incineration of discarded carpet is also not a recommended method because it releases toxic chemicals, including dioxin, into the air. All these facts make carpet recycling a must.

As mentioned earlier, carpet is bulky. Therefore, at the beginning stage of carpet recycling, a baler or baling machine is usually used to compact these bulky used carpets into bales before shipping to carpet recyclers to work on the recycling process. And in order to well compact such bulky and heavy carpet, you will need a heavy duty balers to help you achieve the ideal baling effect.

SINOBALER recommends our Heavy Duty Dual Ram Baler for compressing used carpets into dense, regular shaped bales. This baler series are designed with high press force, from 80tons to 200tons, built in a heavy duty way with high strength, and features dual ram structure.

There are two standard chamber sizes available, which are 1100 x 700mm (43” x 28”) and 1520 x 760mm (60” x 30”). Considering carpets are bulky, it is suggested to go with 1520 x 760mm (60” x 30”). Bigger chamber size means wider feed opening which can make loading more convenient and efficient. As for what compressing force you should choose, it largely depends on your bale weight requirement and budget. Generally speaking, for machines with the same chamber size, the higher the compressing force, the higher the bale density will be. Higher bale density enables you to load more weight into containers and thus save more on shipping cost.

If the standard models cannot meet your requirement very well, customization is always available to tailor a machine that best suits your specific baling needs. Contact us today for your baling solution.

Other waste material recycling articles:

Which cardboard can be recycled? / What types does cardboard have?

Which Plastics can be recycled? / Plastic types?

How to recycle waste plastic bag? 

How to recycle Plastic Bottle?

How to recycle cotton waste?

Banana Fiber Introduction and Banana Fiber Recycling

How to recycle Used Clothes?

How to recycle used shoes?

How to recycle Trim Waste?

How to recycle Aluminum?

How to recycle tire/tyre in Australia? 

Tire/Tyre Recycling in efficient and cost saving way

How to deal with Used Drums or Barrels?

It is common to see steel drums or steel barrels around us in life.  Such cylindrical containers are generally used for transportation and storage of liquids and powders.  Many drums have a common nominal volume of 208 litres (55 US gallon), measuring just under 880mm (35”) tall with a diameter just under 610mm (24”). 

Regardless the drums were used to contain dangerous chemical or other harmless liquids or powders, storing the drums after their purpose has been served will always be a problem because empty drums tend to become massive containers that take up a lot of space.  For temporarily storage, you can simply just stack it up; but after a while, you will surely run out of space for these drums.

So how will you handle the disposal of drums? Used drums are not like any day-to-day end of used products which can be easily thrown away.  Such large drums are usually handled differently due to its size, as well as the residual material left over in the container which may be considered hazardous.  A waste may be considered hazardous if it is ignitable (i.e. burns readily), corrosive, reactive (e.g. explosive), or extraction procedure (EP) toxic.  Waste may also be considered hazardous if it contains certain amounts of particular chemicals.

A good solution for handling such kind of used drums is to use a Drum Crusher (also known as barrel flattener, drum press, or drum crushing balers) to flatten the drums as thin as three inches high.  This crushing baler can flatten almost any kind of metal containers, drums, or barrels, up to a full 220 litres (58 US gallon) size.  This baling machine is also equipped with Liquid Drainage Channel, which will efficiently drained the residual liquid in the drums out of the baler to keep your recycling area clean and safe.

One drum crusher can compact on average 60 pieces of drums per hour, and only require just 1 person to operate.  So with a volume reduction of almost 85%, and residual material drained, the flattened drums can now easily stockpile on pallets and move to a steel mill for recycling as per your country’s regulations.

Maybe you will feel purchasing a Drum Crusher is slightly costly during your initial budget planning.  But your return on investment is ensured if you choose a good quality machine, the drum crusher will be able to help you to maximize your storage capacity, as well as reduce your transportation cost.  Therefore, all these savings will be able to make your investment worth its while in no time.

Tyre Recycling Technology in Australia

In current day and time, car is an indispensable transportation tool in everyone’s day to day life.  Each year, more than 40 million tyres in Australia reach the end of their working lives.  As such, the volume of waste tyres had become a concern to the society as only a quarter of these waste tyres are recycled whereas most will end up into landfill.  This not only takes up a lot of space, tyres are also know to leach harmful chemicals into the environment; cause fires; and provide a perfect breeding ground for pests like mosquitoes and rats.

Australia Advanced Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has published a new technology on recycling waste tyres in 2011. Since then, this new technology had significantly helped to reduce the number of used tyres being sent to landfill or illegally dumped, and avoids long term land contamination due to the disposal of tyres in landfill, as well as fire risks caused by stockpiled tyres.  As you know, once a tyre pile catches fire, it is very hard to extinguish, and may continue to burn for days with black fumes visible for many miles.

This new technology was jointly developed by Melbourne company VR TEK, Deakin University and CSIRO. It is well recognized by the Federal Government, and was cited as one of the example of how innovation was helping to build a sustainable future for Australian companies and jobs for Australian workers.

In the past, shredded tyres could not easily be recycled due to its metal content. But with this new technology, the new patented process is able to turn used tyres to high quality rubber powders free of metal contamination, for redevelopment as new products, by using highly efficient mechanical segmenting method. The rubber crumb produced by this new process is even cheaper than virgin rubber.

A number of Australian companies have already started using this new technology to recycle waste tyres. They collect tyres from different sources and then process into range of rubber granules, chips, crumbs, or fine powders, which are then used for a variety of innovative applications, such as athletic tracks, children’s playgrounds, brake pads, new tyres, and many more.

So what exactly are the processes?  Following are the simple 5 steps:

– Tyre recycling companies collect the end-of-life from various locations, and transport them to their designated facility for processing.

– Tyres are sorted by size and composition for further processing. Tyres suitable for recycling are being separated and brought to production line directly.

– Tyres are shredded in preparation for further processing, and then further reduced in size by a granulator.

– The steel at the centre of each tyre is being removed and reused. Some factories can recycle over 3,000 metric tonnes of steel as a result of this process.  The steel free tyre granules are then stored separately.

– The tyre granules will be grinded into finished product depending on the particle size required. For example, buffings and shred (which can be used in matting, sport surfaces and turf), granules and chips (which can be used in horse arenas and asphalt), crumbs and powders (which can be used in road sealing, adhesives and paints), large shred tyre chips (which can be used in civil engineering and fuels).

By improving our knowledge and technology, understand how valuable resources are recovered and returned back into the circular economy and making changing to our purchasing decisions, we can all contribute to a more positive environmental future. :)

Other waste material recycling articles:

Which cardboard can be recycled? / What types does cardboard have?

Which Plastics can be recycled? / Plastic types?

How to recycle waste plastic bag? 

How to recycle Plastic Bottle?

How to recycle cotton waste?

Banana Fiber Introduction and Banana Fiber Recycling

How to recycle Used Clothes?

How to recycle used shoes?

How to recycle used carpet?

How to recycle Trim Waste?

How to recycle Aluminum?

Tire/Tyre Recycling in efficient and cost saving way

Bagasse... The Alternative Energy In India

Power shortage has been an ongoing problem in India. Facing the international oil price increase, and suffering from shortage of energy, India began to turn their attention to alternative energy – using bagasse to generate electricity.

India, as one of the top 3 sugar-producing countries in the world, has up to 4 million hectares of sugarcane plantation each year, and bagasse generated by sugar mills amounted up to 40 million tons each year.

India’s current central power system is still not complete as almost 70% of rural households still do not have access to electricity.  As such, there are huge potential for using sugar cane bagasse to generate power in India, because bagasse power generation can be easily transmitted to nearby rural households where a unit of heat generated is equivalent to the central power system with 2 units of fossil fuel power generation and transmission.

Unlike fossil fuel which contains sulfur matter, the bagasse can be burnt completely, therefore greatly reduce pollution. The Indian government realized the advantages of having local power plant by bagasse and began to change the power generation policy.  At the end of 20th century, the State Electricity Commission of India abolished the decades of discrimination policy to the local power plant, and had carried out a de-centralized power generation management rules.  They began to aggressively promote the use of bagasse power generation in rural areas, as well as encourage private sectors to investment in their factories.

Since India’s State Electricity Commission changed the power generation policy, the effect is very significant. Currently, India’s sugar manufacturing industry has about 87 sugar cane bagasse power plants, with a total power generating capacity of 710 MW. These bagasse power plants have changed hundreds of thousands of families’ life in rural India. In Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh, bagasse power plants are becoming the main power supply source.

Let’s see what benefits brought to Indian society by bagasse power generation.
From the aspect of electricity bill: by using local bagasse power plant to generate and transmit power, the farmers in rural areas can achieve a saving of approximately 31% of the electricity cost as compared to power generated by using coal or oil.  In another word, for every 100 USD a farmer used to spent, he now can save 30 USD!

From the aspect of emissions: the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are significantly lower than conventional fossil fuels, coal or oil.  This is due to the characteristically low levels of sulfur and nitrogen associated with bagasse.  It is expected that the bagasse power plants in India, including those still under construction, will be able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in India by 5.5 million tons each year.

Therefore, if the sugar manufacturing industry in India can tap into the full potential of bagasse power generation, more and more Indian farmers will be able to benefit from this new power energy, giving more people staying in the rural area with a better living condition in the near future.

Cardboard Baler.. an essential machine in cardboard recycling

Cardboard is the number one packing material used for packing almost all types of commercial products these days.  Therefore, it is no surprise that the most significant amount of waste that ends up in the landfills around the world is OCC (old corrugated cardboard).

Hence, a cardboard baling machine has an essential role in the cardboard recycling process.  This machine compresses the waste cardboard and bundles it into regularly-shaped bales.  A compacted cardboard bale can withstand external elements caused by environment so that you can just leave it exposed to the weather without any worries, unlike a bunch of loose cardboard which have to be stored under a roof.  Also, due to the well compacting process, the kindling point of a cardboard bale is greatly reduced, so it has lower risk on catching fire.  As a result, storage of the bales not only helped you to make full use of the space, it also increases the safety level of your workshop, as fire hazard is significantly reduced as compared to loose cardboard.

How to choose a suitable baler for your OCC baling? Below are some tips for you.

** Check the volume of OCC that you handle daily.
If your expected hourly output is below 1 ton, vertical baler should be the right choice for you. However if your expectation is above 1 ton, you can either acquire more than one unit of vertical balers or simply switch to a horizontal baler.

** Take into consideration the labor cost in your country.
If labor cost is not an issue in your country, you may consider more units of vertical balers or manual-tie horizontal balers, rather than the fully automatic series IF your daily output is below 20 tons.  However for areas with high labor cost, a fully automatic baler is definitely more favorable if you are handling large amount of OCC (15 tons and above) daily and with high output expectation.

** Check the size of OCC you are baling.
Large pieces of OCC will require bigger feed opening so as to easily feed the material into the chamber. Bigger feed opening corresponds to bigger chamber, and bigger chamber means higher efficiency because you can load more material in each shot.

** Check the bale size
If your bales are designated to be exported by containers, bale size needs to be well calculated based on the container size (normally 40’ HQ) to make sure the container can be fully filled without any wastage of space. Also, pressure force of the baler is also a critical factor and needs to be well calculated. Higher pressure force makes higher bale density, and high density bales means more cardboard can be filled into a container.

**

 Consider future growth of your company
Final advice to you is that when you choose a cardboard baler, do consider your future business expansion.  Always choose the one with the baling capacity above your current volume.

Sinobaler provides top quality baling equipment which was developed based on sound business/customer relationships. Customer satisfaction, product quality, eco-friendliness, and competitive prices are cornerstones in Sinobaler’s corporate philosophy. Visit us today for information on top quality baling machines at www.sinobaler.com, or request for a quote at info@sinobaler.com.