Diffusion of waste-related cleaner technologies: how R&D contributes to sustainable solutions

Transcription

1 Diffusion of waste-related cleaner technologies: how R&D contributes to sustainable solutions A workshop at the CRETE rd International Conference on Industrial and Hazardous Waste Management, September 2012, Chania (Crete, Greece), organized by André Martinuzzi and Francesca Montevecchi, Research institute for Managing Sustainability, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Cleaner technologies are expected to increase efficiency, reduce the consumption of energy and natural resources and minimize waste generation. They reduce environmental impacts and at the same time create benefits for businesses. Many international RTD programmes, such as the 7th EU Framework Programme, are oriented towards the development of cleaner technologies, putting emphasis on waste prevention, reuse and recycling. While all thus funded projects put their efforts into the development of innovative technologies, only a few of them explicitly take the diffusion of their technologies into account. Approaches and experience of these projects are at the core of this workshop. The aim of this workshop is to discuss the most promising diffusion strategies for a broad implementation of waste-related cleaner technologies (WRCT). The workshop will consist of four paper presentations and a moderated discussion focusing on implications for research, business and policy making concerning take-up and diffusion of innovative WRCT. A. Martinuzzi, F. Montevecchi (Research Institute for Managing Sustainability at the Vienna Unversity of Economics and Business): HOW FP7 FUNDED PROJECTS CONTRIBUTE TO SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS T. Curran, I.D. Williams, A. Kent, K. Bush (Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton): MAXIMISING RESOURCE USE FROM BUILDING DEMOLITIONS: UK CASE STUDIES A. Lazzeri, P. Cinelli, T. Vu Phuong, I. Anguillesi (Department of Industrial Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pisa): BIO-COMPOSITES BASED ON FOREST DERIVED MATERIALS AND BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS E. Balomenos, I. Gianopoulou, D. Panias, I. Paspaliaris (Researcher Laboratory of Metallurgy at the National Technical University of Athens): A NOVEL RED MUD TREATMENT PROCESS Contact: Dott.ssa Ing Francesca Montevecchi Research Institute for Managing Sustainability Vienna University of Economics and Business francesca.montevecchi@wu.ac.at phone:

2 How FP7 Funded Projects Contribute To Sustainable Solutions André Martinuzzi, Francesca Montevecchi Research Institute for Managing Sustainability, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Franz Klein Gasse 1, A-1190 Vienna Austria Waste Related Cleaner Technologies (WRCT) play a key role in the transition to a resource-efficient and green economy. Through the application of life-cycle thinking, prevention, reuse and recycling they aim for a zero waste society and a 100% utilization of waste. Research and development of such technologies is therefore crucial, but for the quick uptake of innovations, so that they can compete with and even substitute existing technologies, certain additional conditions seem to be necessary. These include supply of scientific and technical services to third parties, adaptation of political and economic framework conditions, design and implementation of standards and professional coordination. In order to shed light on the framework conditions and pathways for a fast diffusion of WRCT we undertook an analysis of recent trends in waste-related research. We conducted a combined qualitative and quantitative analysis using publicly available data and information on 50 projects funded from the 7th EU- Framework Program (FP7), the largest funding programme for R&D in Europe, to study their chosen approaches, technologies developed and types of leading organizations. From all the methods for waste reduction we were able to identify three key approaches focusing on waste treatment, waste usage and waste prevention, respectively. For deeper insights into the diffusion pathways we conducted an additional series of telephone interviews with 30 coordinators of the analyzed projects and obtained valuable information on networking mechanisms, future research needs and strategies for ensuring high impact of WRCT. Based on these interviews we were able to analyze the types of actors, markets, policies and actions needed to support dissemination and diffusion of deliverables of large WRCT projects. Most of our interview partners shared the view that pilot plants, demonstration of feasibility of innovative processes and development of guidelines for better implementation of waste management systems and optimization of industrial processes would be key to achieve high impacts of WRCT. Training of operators of new technologies are needed, as well as changes on the policy level in order to foster the use of recycled materials or raw materials and energy from renewable sources in production processes. In addition, the importance of consumer behaviour, funding opportunities and networks has been mentioned as important drivers for the diffusion of project results.

3 Maximising Resource Use From Building Demolition: UK Case Studies T. Curran (presenting and contact author), I.D. Williams, A. Kent, K. Bush Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK The Construction and Demolition (C&D) Sector consumes a huge volume of resources and generates a substantial proportion of the total waste in Europe estimates range from 33% to 49%. Currently only around half of this is recycled, despite estimates that 90% is achievable. The major barriers to improving recycling and reuse in demolition operations are the mixed and hazardous nature of materials and the established work practices rapid demolition and site clearance, with the focus on wholesale disposal rather than material segregation and recovery. Traditionally poor measurement and reporting of resource use (water, energy and materials/waste) has made environmental assessment of demolition sites difficult. ZeroWIN (Towards Zero Waste in Industrial Networks) is a 5 year project running , including 30 partners across 10 countries in Europe. It is EC funded under the 7 th Framework Programme. Zero waste demands a whole system approach to redesigning resource flows to minimise emissions and resource use. The zero waste concept represents a shift from the traditional industrial model in which wastes are considered the norm, to integrated systems in which everything has its use. Project ZeroWIN is both developing methodologies to move industries towards zero waste and applying the methods in pilot applications to test feasibility. ZeroWIN member Remade, a not-for-profit company operating in south east England to research and develop new markets for waste materials, is working with demolition companies to implement zero waste methods in demolition projects. In stage one, three demolition sites were fully audited to act as baseline scenarios; stage two will involve three further sites, in which improvements can be applied and measured against the baseline demolitions to demonstrate progress towards meeting the ZeroWIN project targets to increase reuse/recycling and reduce water and energy use. The objectives in these projects were to: Identify solutions to address the issues hindering maximisation of resource recovery in demolition; Develop an industrial network; Test the selective demolition methods; and Investigate to what extent the zero waste approach is feasible in a competitive market. This paper reports on the principal aspects of the zero waste approach implemented in these demolition projects: development of industrial networks for resource exchange and waste prevention, demolition techniques to maximise material segregation and recovery and timely on-site auditing and monitoring. Results from the first stage are presented, and potential improvements beyond the baseline projects are highlighted. Partners in the industrial network were identified and potential reductions in emissions, water use and waste by capturing and reusing/recycling key materials were mapped out. The pre-demolition audit to identify key materials and allow measurement of improvements, selective demolition in stages to segregate the key materials, and setting up a resource exchange platform to enable reuse/recycling are the principal means by which to improve resource management at demolition sites.

4 Bio-composites based on forest derived materials and biodegradable polymers Andrea Lazzeri, Patrizia Cinelli (presenting and contact author), Thanh Vu Phuong, Irene Anguillesi Department of Industrial Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science University of Pisa, Via Diotisalvi, 2, 56126, Pisa, Italy The EC project FORBIOPLAST Forest Resource Sustainability through Bio-Based Composite Development (Figure 1), grant agreement no , started on the 1st July The research activity in FORBIOPLAST is focused on the use of by-products from wood as raw materials for the production of composites with biodegradable and recycled polymers as well as for the production of hard and soft polyurethane foams by innovative sustainable synthetic processes with reduced energy consumption. The materials produced in the project are devoted to applications in automotive interior parts and in the packaging and agriculture fields The cooperation of research centres as the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry and Pisa University (UNIPI, Italy) with industries Ritols Ltd (Latvia), PEMU Plastic Processing Co. (Hungary) and FIAT Research Centre (Italy) lead to the production of prototypes of soft and rigid foam. The Budapest University for Technology and Economics (LPRT-Hungary) is cooperating in introducing also wood fibres into these foams. Figure 1 shows some examples of the prototypes produced. Partners Incerplast (Romania), and PEMU produced items for agriculture and packaging applications based on the formulations selected by UNIPI and LPRT based on biodegradable polymeric matrices and wood fibres (Figure 3). Wood fibres were used both as raw material than after being pre-treated by Fundacion CARTIF (Spain) or modified by enzymes by University of Almeria. Figure 1. Examples of prototypes based PU foams Figure 2. Materials based on biodegradable polymers and wood for applications in packaging and agriculture The prototypes were tested by University of Bucharest (Romania) and University of Almeria (Spain) for toxicity, and for agriculture applications. RODAX IMPEX S.R.L (Romania) and Norconserv A.S. (Norway) tested properties relevant to packaging, and Organic Waste System (Belgium) evaluated the degradability, the anaerobic digestion and the Life Cycle Assessment of the most relevant products. The end users Neochimiki and Cosmetic (Greece) are performing the validation of the packaging on their products (chemicals and cosmetics). Partner Wiedeman (Germany) has evaluated the best market opportunities for the product portfolio.

5 A Novel Red Mud Treatment Process E. Balomenos 1, I. Gianopoulou 2, D. Panias 3, I. Paspaliaris 4 1 Post -Ph.D. Researcher Laboratory of Metallurgy,NTUA 2 Ph.D Researcher Laboratory of Metallurgy,NTUA 3 Associate Professor in the Laboratory of Metallurgy,NTUA 4 Professor in the Laboratory of Metallurgy,NTUA A novel energy and exergy efficient process is being developed under the EC-funded ENEXAL project ( for the direct transformation of red mud into valuable products, such as pig iron and mineral wool. The novel process utilizes a dust treating electric arc furnace (EAF) to achieve the carbothermic reduction of the red mud waste towards the production of pig iron and viscous slag suitable for direct mineral wool production. Thus the environmental footprint of the Bayer process is reduced substantially, as the initial bauxite ore is exploited in full and no solid or liquid residues are produced. Economically, besides solving the red mud disposal problem, the single step co-production of two highly valuable by-products (pig iron and mineral wool) has the potential to significantly increase the versatility and profit margin of the alumina producing industry, thus ensuring the immediate industrial application of the process. Thermodynamic and CFD modelling has been applied in order to simulate the process, which has been confirmed in lab scale experiments. Experimental campaigns in 400 KVA EAF are underway in order to optimize the process, while a 1 MVA EAF pilot plant is being set up in the Aluminion S.A. plant of Greece in order to demonstrate the process under actual industrial conditions. Photo: Right Red Mud process Slag Fiberization test in NTUA Acknowledgements The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme ([FP7/ ]) under grant agreement n ENER/FP7EN/249710/ENEXAL (