AE&E - Von Roll

Source: Energy Digital

Date :31/10/2007 10:58:09

Green Steam Ahead

AE&E - Von Roll draws on seventy years of experience worldwide to help U.S. businesses be a little kinder to the environment

Written by Emmet Cole and Produced by Melissa Abbott

AE&E - Von Roll is picking up steam --literally-- in the U.S. marketplace. The company deals in renewable energy systems, allowing plants to get rid of waste and utilize the energy created from combustion to power the systems.

“We can produce a steam supply for process steam, power generation or both, and we can do it using a wide variety of fuels,” said Greg Ferrara, vice president of sales and marketing. “We’re very flexible with the fuels that we know we can combust – we have the experience to combust biomass and waste fuels, which is renewable energy.”

Worldwide Operations

In 2003, Austrian Energy and Environment bought Von Roll Inova, a Swiss company with over 30 years of experience providing waste management solutions to the US market, to create the new AE&E - Von Roll.

AE&E - Von Roll has hazardous waste treatment and other environmentally friendly programs operating in more than a dozen countries worldwide. Its fledgling U.S. operation is leading the way for North American companies interested in leaving a smaller black mark on the environment.

“In light of the reduction of fossil fuel use, people are now turning to biomass and to other renewable fuels, and the technology we offer is not only capable of utilizing those fuels, but does it at a higher efficiency than is traditionally found in North America,” said technical sales manager Ray Burrelle. “We displace fossil fuels with these renewable fuels and do so in a more efficient fashion, so the impact on the environment is lessened, not only by the displaced fossil fuels, but also because we’re using renewable fuel to start with.”

AE&E - Von Roll offers plans for companies to optimize plant operations both economically and environmentally, along with preventative maintenance and repair services and a specialized training program. The company has various types of boilers, wet and dry flue gas cleaning systems, grate technology, and other waste-to-energy systems.

AE&E - Von Roll offers extensive training programs for employees of companies that use its products to help safeguard against accidents and costly operating interruptions.

The company also keeps a service staff on hand for plant maintenance, repairs and operations assistance, allowing its clients to breathe a little easier when it comes to cost efficient operations.

In just three years, AE&E - Von Roll has nearly tripled its order intake. Worldwide, the AE&E Group employs more than 3,000 people and has completed more than 1000 facilities.

Green Technology

Waste is an inevitable byproduct of our modern way of life, but AE&E - Von Roll uses the latest technology to help company’s make ecologically responsible waste treatment a reality.

The company’s compact incinerators enable environmentally sound, cost-effective thermal waste treatment. Leveraging the expertise within the company allows incinerators to be customized to meet the requirements of regional and environmental treatment legislation.

“The bottom line is that we’re a technology company, so our main product line is related to technology and how that relates to energy systems,” said Brian Hare, director of business development. “We’re technologically oriented and that’s where our best innovations show up.”

Combustion processes used by plants generate hazardous nitrogen oxides, which, when exposed to solar radiation, create hazardous ozone gases. But AE&E - Von Roll’s Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction process (SNCR) uses aqueous ammonia to turn those gases into harmless nitrogen and water, allowing companies to cut down on air pollution and easily meet emissions standards. Extra ammonia is later removed by a flue gas scrubber.

As an extra step to minimize air pollution, AE&E - Von Roll offers wet and dry flue gas scrubbing. The company uses a specially designed multistage process to minimize residuals as it pulls pollutants from wastewater. The systematic pollutant extraction also minimizes wastewater.

A dry scrubbing system can also be used to eliminate production of wastewater entirely by removing water, allowing it to evaporate and leave a base of solids – primarily salt and heavy metals – with no wastewater.

Von Roll Inova’s semi-dry process functions as a cost-effective, high efficiency alternative to other flue gas purification systems and is designed to perform within the strictest regulatory standards. The process carefully removes contaminates from flue gases.

AE&E - Von Roll utilizes grate combustion technology, which offers the best track record for municipal waste incineration. The company created the process over 70 years ago and has been refining it ever since, developing a system that employs the most up-to-date technology and is ecologically sound, operates reliably and has the highest cost efficiency.

The combustion systems are currently in use in more than 300 plants worldwide and reduce the volume of waste and remove hazardous materials, while simultaneously using the energy created by the combustion to power the system.

AE&E - Von Roll is a company that quickly adapts to new technologies. For example, when they discovered that water-cooled grate technology is more efficient in the long term than the once ubiquitous air-cooled grates used by many companies, they immediately began implementing water-cooled systems. AE&E - Von Roll also found a way to take the extra energy generated in the combustion chamber and put it to use through a feature specifically designed for waste-to-energy plants.

For sewage and paper sludges, the company developed fluidized bed technology. The process offers complete combustion, while generating small amounts of flue gas with low concentrations of contaminates, all of which spells less pollution for companies using the system.

“Basically, although we’re relatively new to the North American market, we have long lists of references and people can see the technology in operation because it’s demonstrated in Europe and other parts of the world,” Hare said. “It’s not experimental, so it’s easy for a customer to go see it in action and talk to people who are already using that technology and discuss the results achieved from an environmental standpoint.”