The IRRT® Process
Raw Materials from MV Ash
With IRRT®, you can process up to 65 % of your incinerator bottom ash and slag into high-quality raw materials.
Mineral Products in Accordance with the REACH Regulation as well as the Chemicals and Products Legislation (ECHA)
With IRRT®, you can process up to 80 % of the dry mass of your incinerator bottom ash (IBA) / grate ash into high-quality and directly marketable products. The quality of these end products fulfils the strictest specifications so that they are also legally assessed as fully-fledged raw materials. The IRRT® process can therefore not be compared with the conventional production of substitute building materials from IBA. In addition to a whole range of directly marketable products, only a small amount of residual material remains for landfill, which already fulfils high criteria.
Maximum disposal security through the transformation of the waste into products with a high demand through the next evolutionary stage of recycling: reutilisation of the ash after thermal treatment!
Products
Rock, glass and metals of the highest quality – take a look at the individual raw materials.
Advantages
From low water consumption to the reduction of landfill mass, our process has many advantages.
Process
We only achieve these high recovery rates and purities thanks to our innovative process.
proCLIR
We founded proCLIR with the aim of actively shaping the circular economy of tomorrow.
Products
Recoverable Raw Materials from Waste Incineration Plants
Minerals, glass and metal – these are the three good reasons why you should use the IRRT® process to treat your bottom ash. The quality of the glass and the minerals is so high that it fulfils the legal requirements for reuse as a raw material without further processing. Direct smelting is also possible for metals.
Using IRRT®, you can process the sintered bottom ash into a gravel substitute for concrete production. Due to the increasing supply bottlenecks and the growing awareness of gravel as a finite resource, there is a high demand for alternative options. According to the current legal situation, concrete manufacturers can replace up to 45 % of the aggregate with recycled material. The finished UltraLit fulfils the requirements of EU 305/2011 and DIN EN 12620, making it an excellent option for use in concrete production.
Glass wool is one of the most popular insulation materials. It is usually made from recycled glass. Produced using IRRT®, UltraSilit has both the necessary purity and the required properties to be processed immediately into glass wool.
Ferrous metals appear to be relatively easy to separate from MSW due to their magnetic properties. As they can also be easily commercialised, most plants have corresponding processes in place. However, this form of processing is only superficial – many magnetic components adhere to the aggregate and some of the non-magnetic metals are also lost. With the IRRT® process, on the other hand, you can achieve recycling rates of between 90 and 95 % not only for ferrous metals, but also for non-ferrous, ferrous and precious metals. Even large quantities of aluminium can be recovered.
Advantages
What Makes IBA Treatment with the IRRT® Process so Special
The IRRT® process is characterised by maximum efficiency thanks to innovative approaches and the combination of new treatment methods with proven classification systems. The extraction of raw materials is therefore not the only advantage. The process is based on tried and tested technologies and can be scaled to high throughput rates due to its modular design.
Around 70 % Less Landfill Mass
Landfilling waste is cost-intensive and a burden on the environment. With the IRRT® process, you can reduce the landfill mass of the bottom ash produced by up to 70 %. This increases the service life of active landfill sites many times over and significantly reduces disposal costs.
How Is this Possible?
Thanks to a well thought-out overall concept that literally turns conventional processes on their head. We first dry the fresh slag, thereby simplifying the subsequent steps. The water vapour is passed through a filter system and then simply released into the air after cleaning.
The remaining approx. 85 % is pure dry matter, which consists largely of minerals (sintered ash), glass and metals. With IRRT®, we can utilise a very high proportion of these as fully-fledged raw materials. The dried, granular material not only reduces caking and blockages, but also significantly reduces cleaning and maintenance costs.
What about the Landfill Residue?
After treatment with the IRRT® process, the remaining landfill mass is not only significantly lower, but is also ideally suited for landfilling in accordance with strict DK-1 specifications. Only the pollutant-contaminated fine fractions and the process water sludge still need to be disposed of. However, these solidify when mixed and automatically form a pollutant sink required by law in many countries.
Low Resource Consumption
There are currently only a few processes for treating MSW – on average, these require a water to solids ratio of 5 to 1. With the IRRT® process, a washing procedure takes less than a minute, with the water being kept in the cycle for at least eight turns. As a result, the water to solids ratio with IRRT® is a remarkable 0.3 to 1.
The process also requires no fresh water. This is not only a positive cost factor but is also very important for the authorisations, since the consumption of clean fresh water by industry often causes authorisation problems.
Space-Saving
IRRT® not only reduces the landfill mass but also reduces your space requirements. Conventional treatment techniques require the bottom ash to be stored for several weeks for carbonation. The IBA then becomes more moist during storage and therefore does not create as much dust during the conventional mechanical treatment. The IRRT® process works with fresh bottom ash, which is why there is no need for expensive intermediate storage. As the ash is processed in a closed system, the dust factor is also not a problem.
Another advantage is that the plant required for the IRRT® process is relatively small compared to other processing methods. It can therefore also be retrofitted to existing waste incineration plants.
Fast return on investment
No expensive storage, no fresh water consumption, less landfill mass and, on top of that, processing 80 % of the dry mass into directly marketable raw materials – all these points make the IRRT® process extremely economical. We therefore expect a return on investment within just 48 months!
It is also possible to set up the IRRT® process in stages, e.g. starting with dry treatment and then adding ultrasonic treatment in a second stage. As a large part of the added value is generated from metal recycling, the system can already be operated economically in this process step.
The Potential of the IRRT® Process
Comparison with the State of the Art
The particular cost-effectiveness of the IRRT® process lies not only in the quality of the recovered products, but also in the large quantities. With high recycling rates of 85 to 95 % per raw material, you get almost everything out of your bottom ash. We were able to achieve the following results with our test plant:
Recycling Rates
Contents of IB Ash and Slag
State of the Art
IRRT®
3,5 %
Non ferrous + precious metals
64 %
> 90 %
8,5 %
Glass (UltraSilit)
0 %
> 85 %
7,5 %
Ferrous metals / stainless steel
80 %
> 95 %
51 %
Aggregate for concrete (UltraLit)
0%
> 95 %
Would you like to know more?
Then get in touch with us!
Process
Treatment of MSW in Seven Process Steps →
With IRRT®, we combine traditional methods with completely new systems to recover the maximum amount of recyclable materials from grate ash – which is why we call it »Innovative Resource Recovery Technology«.
Step 1
Ferrous Metal / Ferrous Metal Oxide Extraction ≥ 500 µm
Step 2
Stainless Steel Extraction ≥ 4 mm
Step 3
Non-Ferrous Metal Extraction and Refinement ≥ 500 µm
Step 4
DyCAR System
- Material conversion with simultaneous moisture reduction
- Stores CO2 permanently
- Significantly improves the physical properties of the building material
Step 5
RoTAC System
- High-speed decomposition
- Releases trapped metal particles
- Significantly improves the physical properties of the building material
Step 6
ReUST System
- High-frequency cleaning
- Significantly improves the physical properties of the building material
- Reduces all mobile pollutants to well below the permissible limit values according to the regulations
Step 7
Glass Extraction ≥ 1 mm
- Product – UltraSilit
- Raw material for cellular glass products
Procedure
In addition to largely conventional process steps such as metal separation using magnets or glass extraction using optical sorting systems, the success of our seven-step process is essentially defined by the three systems DyCAR, RoTAC and ReUST that we have developed in-house.
DyCAR™
»DyCAR« stands for »Dynamic Carbonatation«. In this step, calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is produced (carbonation) by means of the chemical reaction of calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) with CO2 (from the air or specifically added). This not only improves the compressive strength of the aggregate, but also prevents the formation of hydraulically bound conglomerates. In addition, CO2 is permanently bound in the rock and the decomposition of aluminium is stopped.
RoTAC™
»RotTAC« stands for »Rotation Accelerator«. This high-speed digestion breaks down unstable conglomerates and exposes trapped metal particles. The resulting components can be precisely separated into unmixed fractions using conventional classification methods. Freeing the coarse stone fraction from adhesions also significantly improves its construction properties.
ReUST™
»ReUST« stands for »Reactor Ultrasonic Technology«. As with the high-speed acceleration in the RoTAC system, the aim here is once again to improve the physical building properties by separating unstable components. In order to reduce the aggregate of the sintered rust ash to its smallest and most solid particles, it is subjected to high-frequency ultrasonic cleaning. This also removes all light and impurities larger than 1 mm. At the same time, the pollutant content is reduced to below the permissible limits.
Would you like to know more?
Then get in touch with us!