GEP Fuel & Energy Indiana plans to build two plants that process auto shredder fluff.
GEP Fuel & Energy Indiana has announced plans to build a recycling center and a scrap-plastics-to-fuel facility in Camden, Indiana. A number of Indiana government officials joined GEP officials for the announcement.
GEP Fuel & Energy Indiana is a joint venture between U.S. Energy Logistics, Toledo, Ohio, and GEP Fuels. The company says it plans to invest $100 million to build a 450,000-square-foot recycling facility in Camden. Construction on the project is expected to commence by the first quarter of 2017, GEP Fuel & Energy says, and the facility will process recyclable and nonrecyclable plastics into a host of commercially viable end products.
In addition to a recycling center, the companies plan to build an adjacent facility for $200 million that will convert low-value plastic scrap that cannot economically be recycled into a fuel for the transportation sector.
The facilities will be serviced by U.S. Rail Corp., which is expected to transport about 1,500 tons of plastics per day.
Don Willis, who will be heading up the recycling part of the project, says the high value plastic scrap will be processed and shipped to end markets such as the auto industry. The low value and no-value plastic processed at the recycling center will be transported to the renewable energy facility via conveyor.
In deciding to build the facility in Indiana, Steve Hogan, president of GEP Fuel & Energy Indiana, says, “Carroll County made sense because of its close proximity to consumer plastic. There was also a logistics advantage in locating the project on railroad operated by U.S. Rail Corp. Thirdly, state and local officials offered strong support.”
The combined capital investment for the project is $303 million to $410 million. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) offered GEP Fuel & Energy Indiana up to $2 million in conditional, performance-based tax credits based on the company’s job creation plans.
The majority of the plastics that will be processed and used at the recycling center will be recovered from auto shredder residue (ASR). Hogan estimates that the recycling center will accept 1 million tons of ASR per year, roughly 40 rail cars per day. Willis says the majority of the ASR will be shipped on rotary dump cars.
The recycling center will include magnets and eddy current separators. Green Machine will be the manufacturer of the sorting line.
Hogan says about half of the plastic scrap will go toward making fuel, with the other half, as well as other material found in the ASR, being processed and marketed to other consumers, including the auto industry. He estimates that the ASR will contain, on average between 80-83 percent plastic, with rubber, metal and other material making up the rest of the material.
In a statement, Jim Schellinger, president of the IDEC, says, “We are pleased GEP Fuel & Energy Indiana chose to locate here in a state that works. As the Crossroads of America, Indiana offers companies a central location and an infrastructure that ranks best in the nation, supporting companies like GEP Fuel & Energy as they ship their products across the country."
Schellinger continued, “Indiana’s low-cost, low-tax, limited-regulation business climate is why the state is recognized as one of the best for business, and as we enter our state’s third century, I am confident we will build on this momentum by advancing talent attraction and workforce development, allowing job creators like GEP Fuel & Energy to thrive.”
Hogan adds that it has taken the company 3-and-a-half years to get the right technology for the facility, which is supplied by Australian company Foy Group Ltd., a partner on the renewable energy project.
Testing shows that permanent magnets produced by additive manufacturing outperform bonded magnets made using traditional methods.
Magnet Applications Inc., Dubois, Pennsylvania, a North American manufacturer of compression-bonded magnets and injection-molded magnets, hybrid magnets and magnetic assemblies, has announced that its engineers have worked with researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to prove that permanent neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnets produced by additive manufacturing (commonly referred to a “3D printing”) outperform bonded magnets made by traditional methods while also generating less waste.
Magnet Applications, a Newton, Kansas-based Bunting Magnetics company, manufactured the starting composite pellets with 65 volume percent isotropic NdFeB powder and 35 percent polyamide nylon-12 binder in a precise ratio, blended to a consistent texture, the company says. The 3D printing was performed at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at ORNL with the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM system). Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a Tennessee-based science and technology laboratory managed by the United States Department of Energy. The complete study is published in Scientific Reports at www.nature.com/articles/srep36212.
NdFeB magnets are used in robotics, wind turbines, electric vehicles, cellphones, electric motors and other consumer and industrial equipment.
“Additive manufacturing in magnets provides multiple benefits,” says Dr. John Ormerod, senior technical advisor, Magnet Applications. “They have more design flexibility, which is especially beneficial in sensor technology, and it creates less waste than in the traditional sintering process.”
He continues, “With rapidly advancing technologies, the ability to manufacture the strongest magnet available in any shape without tooling, in any quantity, unleashes so many design opportunities. The work has demonstrated the potential of additive manufacturing to be applied to wide range of magnetic materials and assemblies.
“Magnet Applications and many of our customers are excited to explore the commercial impact of this technology in the future,” Ormerod says.
Further research will include printing magnets in various strengths with preferred direction of magnetization, Magnet Applications says.
Contributing to the project were Ling Li, Angelica Tirado, Orlando Rios, Brian Post, Vlastimil Kunc, R. R. Lowden and Edgar Lara-Curzio at ORNL, as well as researchers I. C. Nlebedim and Thomas Lograsso, working with Critical Materials Institute at Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa. Robert Fredette and John Ormerod from Magnet Applications contributed to the project through an MDF technology collaboration. The DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office provides support for ORNL’s MDF, a public-private partnership to engage industry with national labs.
The Sustana aluminum product is manufactured with both low carbon emissions and recycled content.
The aluminum company Alcoa Corp., Pittsburgh, has unveiled Sustana, its newest aluminum product, at the Aluminum 2016 trade show in Dusseldorf, Germany. The new product line is manufactured with low carbon emissions and recycled content. Alcoa says the new product is well-positioned to meet customer demand for sustainable aluminum products.
The Sustana product has been designed to help companies reduce the carbon intensity of their supply chain and achieve their sustainability goals.
According to Alcoa, the Sustana family includes two key products:
“Companies across a range of end markets have made sustainability a core business imperative and, as a result, they’ve prioritized the use of low-carbon aluminum products with proper certifications,” says Timothy Reyes, president of Alcoa Cast Products. “By introducing these eco-friendly Sustana products, which offer significant sustainability benefits when compared to the industry average, Alcoa is underscoring its commitment to helping customers reduce their environmental footprint.
“This global product launch also builds on our own long-standing commitment to sustainability, which includes several noteworthy reductions in our own carbon footprint,” Reyes continues.
Company adds scrap management services to its contract with Evraz Pueblo.
Harsco Corp., Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, has signed a multiyear expansion of its steel mill services contract at the Evraz Pueblo steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado. The expansion includes scrap management services.
Harsco has been supporting the mill’s production with a range of on-site metal recovery and slag handling services for nearly 15 years. The new services, which include scrap handling, processing and inspection, are expected to generate additional revenue of $50 million over the contract duration, the company says.
Evraz Pueblo produces high-strength rail, seamless pipe, rod and coiled reinforcing bar. The plant can produce more than 300 different grades of steel and serves as part of a network of Evraz North America production sites that rank as the largest North American producer by volume in the rail and large diameter pipe markets.
Harsco says its operations at the site have twice been recognized by Harsco’s senior management for outstanding safety performance, having completed three consecutive years without a lost-time injury and currently closing in on a fourth year.
New full-service office will expand the company’s footprint in a region with spurred economic activity.