Largest mechanical sorting plant in Brazil
Stadler recently signed an agreement with Orizon Valorização de Resíduos to build the largest mechanical sorting plant in Brazil. The agreement is of particular importance and aims to ensure the processing of 500,000 t/a of solid waste, in a country where the potential for recycling is growing.
The agreement is claimed to represent a technological breakthrough in the operations of the Jaboatão dos Guararapes Ecopark in Pernambuco, northeast Brazil, which will allow a greater reuse of recyclable waste. In 2020, the plant received 1.5 million tonnes, equivalent to the waste generated by 3.7 million people. This will be the largest mechanical sorting plant ever built in the Brazilian market. Stadlerv has designed and implemented the entire project with two overarching objectives: to modernise and to strengthen Orizon’s plant for the sorting process and select the recoverable products with highest value to serve increasingly demanding domestic and international markets.
Alexandre Citvaras, director of Business Development at Orizon Valorização de Resíduos, explains: “our biggest challenge has been to design a sorting process with proven technology that increases the efficiency of the waste treatment at the Jaboatão dos Guararapes Ecopark. With this machinery, we will achieve a sorting efficiency ranging from 75% to 85% of the economically viable recyclable material. It is a breakthrough in our operations, which have gained in productivity and will play a key environmental role by returning materials to the production chain, helping to move us towards a true circular economy.”
At the new sorting plant, 150 people will be employed, who will carry out this work in the project, which will start its operation in 2022.
This plant has been designed to process a large volume of material with initial separation of the coarse and heavy fraction through mechanical sorting and final separation of the fines by hand. In addition, the plant layout already envisages the possibility of extending the line to increase its capacity, as well as increasing the automation of its processes.
Orizon Valorização de Resíduos operates 5 ecoparks in Brazil, and its waste management and processing facilities receive approximately 4.6 million t/a of waste, serving approximately 20 million people and more than 500 business customers. Because of the efficiency and prominence of the new plant, the project will be replicated in the future in the rest of the company’s facilities throughout the country.
The Brazilian market has very specific characteristics, detailed analysis of the individual cases is needed before presenting a solution to customers. According to André Galuppo, project supervisor at Stadler Latam, “Stadler always seeks to develop products, methodologies and ideas that are specific to the Brazilian reality. We don’t “copy and paste” projects from Europe. The objective is to develop projects, studies and work focused on Brazilian waste and business model. This technical and intellectual development will be used in Brazil and for Brazil, benefiting the entire market.”
