Sphere No.34 (Dec 2013) - page 21

2.3
MILLION TONNES OF
WASTE PROCESSED
THIS YEAR
<<
village Business
Gate fees is a fancy way of saying people
pay to get rid of their trash. The majority
of gate fees have been secured through
long-term contracts from municipalities
and commercial customers. Rozenburg and
Duiven are the two locations of AVR’s plants.
Rozenburg is a small village close to
Rotterdam. It is actually on a former island,
home to a mostly bedroom community, a
Kuwaiti-owned refinery and AVR. Almost
50 per cent of AVR’s domestic waste is
delivered by water, to Rozenburg.
Duiven, a slightly bigger municipality, is due
east, closer to the centre of Arnhem on the
German border. Both the Rozenburg and
Duiven plants are qualified energy efficient
waste treatment plants. They are of “R1”
status, entitling them to import waste from
other member countries and states of the
European Union. With Antwerp and Brussels
in less than two hours’ drive, Rozenburg and
Duiven, sitting in the middle of a Dutch and
German concentrated population, have no
lack of waste being generated in a narrow
catchment area.
Apart from serving the residents in the
Netherlands, AVR also supports the UK,
Ireland and Belgium by importing their
waste to Dutch’s highly efficient plants.
This reduces landfill volumes across Europe
and increase recycling and incineration
volumes, producing renewable energy out of
domestic and international waste. AVR can
handle the incineration capacity – and more.
The Rozenburg and Duiven plants together
processed 2 million tonnes of Dutch waste
this year and 300,000 tonnes of imported
waste in 2012. This capacity means the
company commands a 23 per cent market
share of the waste processing industry in the
Lower Countries and will soon measure its
market share in terms of European output.
alChemy: leadtogold
The incineration of waste generates heat.
The steam and district heating are sold
via long-term contracts to local municipal
district heating networks. Steam is supplied
to neighbouring industrial users like Tronox,
a titanium producer, and chemical producers
EKC and AkzoNobel.
In developing a new approach to waste
management, AVR has encountered and
handled different challenges. They have had
to develop energy solutions to supply heat
and steam as well as the traditional “electricity
only” solution in EfW installations. In
developing processes, they faced challenges
in getting partnerships in place to acquire the
in-depth knowledge needed to operate
a heat/steam network. This experience
is valuable and could be transferred to
other countries.
In the future, AVR has a plan to increase heat
and steam sales to more municipalities and
nearby industries and import waste from EU
countries with high landfill volumes. With
the completion of the energy projects in
Rotterdam-Zuid (in 2014) and Rotterdam-
Noord (in 2015), AVR Rozenburg will double
its thermal output. In addition to being the
biggest waste processor, AVR is expected
to be a leading domestic renewable district
heating producer by 2015.
reduCe, reuse and ...reCyCle!
Not all trash ends up in steam and energy.
The sale of recycled materials is the third line
of income for AVR. AVR takes an active role
in bringing recycling and incineration
together, which are usually portrayed in the
public domain as contradictory waste
management handling techniques. The
waste material brought to AVR consists of
just about everything, from fruit, vegetable
and garden waste, plastic, waste wood and
paper pulp to refuse bags full of domestic
waste and wastewater from the production
process of local businesses. Everything
valuable to recycle, such as metals, is sold
on to industry.
HWL is contributing to cleaning up the
planet and AVR is a part of its global
investment strategy. As noted, this isn’t
the first acquisition in this sector and
AVR’s technology may have application
elsewhere. Many markets HWL operates in
are struggling with waste disposal and clean
energy generation. For those that cannot ship
their waste to Rozenburg and Duiven directly,
AVR’s technology and experience could
make all the difference.
In addition to being the biggest
waste processor, AVr is expected
to be a leading domestic renewable
district heating producer by 2015.
SpHere
#34
2013
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