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Recovery of by-products

2009.04.25

Press room - News - Recovery of by-products

MAXAM Energy works on the basis of the policy of recovery and recycling of waste catalogued as by-products, based on the recommendations and directives of the European Union.

The approach to the issue of waste management the world over, and more specifically in the European Union, increasingly focuses on two aspects: on the one hand,  ontinued reduction efforts through BAT (Best Available Technologies) and on the other hand, cataloguing of by-products through identification of recovery procedures which generate added value.

 

In the case of waste catalogued as a recoverable by-product, the recommendations and directives of the European Union clearly indicate two lines of action, independently of those which can be recycled:

• Their application for the generation of electrical and thermal energy.
• The use of edaphological techniques in the fertilisation of soils and lands for agricultural cultivation or forestry plantations.

The most generalised criteria consists of avoiding to the extent possible any destructive procedures that inevitably end up producing negative environmental impacts, in addition to not generating value and causing appreciable costs instead. This approach recommends the avoidance of waste dumps and attack by thermal methods or  destruction by incineration or chemical reaction, which destroy, but give rise to new undesirable products.

The work of MAXAM Energy

MAXAM Energy has always been fully aware of these principles and has concentrated its efforts in the areas indicated by the recommendations and directives of the European Union. The most conclusive results of this policy have been: 

• The Edaphology Project, initiated in the Group’s centre in Páramo de Masa (Burgos), to treat and recover the effluents of dynamite and penthrite manufacture, along with waste from various origins, such as sludge from industrial and urban waste treatment, and agricultural farming and industrial waste. 
• The Projects on Gasification of Biomass and other substances, obtaining synthesis gases used to generate electrical energy.
• In the first case, the action has been  extended to the fertilisation of several properties in the environs of Páramo in light of the positive results obtained. In addition, work has begun with cooperatives and  gricultural associations of Castilla y León for application on low-fertility soils and degraded lands in other regions of the Autonomous Community, which has been welcomed by the Regional Government. A similar action has also been initiated in  Castilla-La Mancha, also with the collaboration of cooperatives and agricultural associations and companies interested in the development of energy farms, for use as a raw material in the production of biofuels or in the generation of electrical energy.

In the case of the gasification projects, positive results have been obtained n the experimental facilities with various types of biomass and industrial waste. For example, the project is practically complete for a demonstration plant of 1 MWe for the verification of this technology at a basic industrial level, which is to be installed at  Páramo de Masa. This demonstration plant, with different modules for pre-treatment of the different biomass and waste types, will be able to gasify all of the same in a single converter. To begin with, the synthesis gases obtained will be used to produce electrical energy. In the future other uses may be obtained, in light of the considerable hydrogen content of these gases. The Autonomous overnments of the above-mentioned.

 

Communities and the Central Administration have given their support to this initiative. In both cases the negotiations are well-advanced between industrial, farming and agricultural companies and MAXAM Energy to contract the management of the different types of waste which are recoverable with these techniques and technologies. Various cooperation agreements have also been reached with other groups for the joint  development of related projects.

 

Apart from the services that MAXAM Energy continues to provide for the different Business Units of the Group, its external actions have welldefined and important objectives which bestow this company a life of its own.

 

In Spain there are about 16 million degraded, deteriorated, lowfertility and even desertified hectares, an amount that increases year after year. Moments of economic crisis and increasin unemployment comprise a good opportunity to counter this trend by means of the application, at a national level, of the policies and techniques of MAXAM Energy.

 

Their advantages are clear: easing of the problem of territorial degradation, notable  environmental benefits, business savings and the opening of an important source of employment, quality of life and social welfare.