Many countries across the globe are harnessing the opportunities presented by green waste, but where are opportunities being overlooked in recognising the greater sustainability of this particular waste stream? Our MD Marcus Brew recently offered his thoughts on the topic when he spoke to ENDS Europe last month. If you missed the article on the official ENDS Europe site, you can catch up here:

A quick look to the continent will help to illustrate exactly where the EU potential exists for green waste. As is the case with many alternative fuel production markets, there are pioneering examples of closed loop green waste models in Austria, France and Holland, to name just a few.

Yes, commercial composting has a role to play in the European green waste landscape, as has long been acknowledged. But these countries have been quick to recognise the perhaps greater sustainability of transforming green waste into biomass.

Conversation on this topic is certainly getting louder, as more established and emerging players explore biomass opportunities, beyond standard wood processing. The splitting of carbon:nitrogen, to produce biomass, is arguably 80% of the way there. So, with considered treatment, green waste can make the perfect biomass specification, from a G50 to a P63, among others.

For many operators, this could represent a new area of Energy from Waste focus, so the key advice in getting started, is to secure feedstock supply, as well as the cleanliness of that feedstock. Non-contamination is crucial, which means the material stream must be free from plastics and other potential biomass ‘pollutants’.

The waste must then be shredded, screened and separated, so that the resulting carbon product can be processed down to the necessary chip. Innovation within this particular engineering arena means that the operation has never been so efficient and precise, with homogenous, on-specification material now achievable in a single pass, and technological reconfiguration feasible in as little as a couple of hours. This presents application flexibility, which is naturally important for forestation yards and timber merchants, handling different input materials and requiring the ability to produce varied output specifications for risk minimisation.

In summary, a shift, across the continent, is definitely underfoot in this market. In the UK, for example, green waste is one of the few material streams that isn’t exported for overseas treatment. Some waste specialists are consequently already manufacturing virgin biomass in this country. However, but given the number of new power stations being built and imminently commissioned, this market is undoubtedly set to grow exponentially.