The Danish REnescience waste refinery technology is now ready for the commercial market and is experiencing a growing interest from countries starting to consider waste as a resource. The large crane lifts a grab full of ordinary household waste and releases it into a large funnel. First, the waste goes through a pre-treatment with water heated to 50° C. The waste is then moved to a reactor where enzymes and bacteria break down the organic material. After a mechanical separation process the waste is divided in to three main fractions: High quality bio liquid, which can be used in e.g. biogas, reusable materials such as plastics and metal, and solid fuels.
One of REnescience’s greatest advantages is its ability to treat and separate unsorted waste, which today would either get burned or deposited. Through REnescience one can use and recover the important resources from within the waste even without source separation. “The REnescience technology has been in the pipeline since 2004 and is now ready to be launched on the markets at a point in time when large parts of the world start to consider waste as a resource, says Thomas Dalsgaard, Executive Vice President in DONG Energy.
DONG Energy is in dialogue with several different business partners in Denmark and abroad in order to build a full-scale REnescience plant. “We’re experiencing a growing interest in the Netherlands and the UK, but also in China, the USA and the Middle East, there is an interest and a market potential for this technology“, says Thomas Dalsgaard, but he emphasizes that he would like the first full-scale plant to be built in Denmark: It would be a global showcase creating a demand for Danish know-how and competences to develop and construct similar plants, he says.
Written by Julie Søgaard, Head of Innovation & Communication, BioRefining Alliance.
