Advanced Resource Recovery Technology
Corio Waste Management operates the Western Composting Technology Advanced Resource Recovery Technology (ARRT) facility at Shepparton in Northern Victoria. The main objective of the ARRT facility is to minimise the amount of recyclable and putrescible waste disposed of to the landfill by the implementation of sustainable waste management processes including sorting, recovery and composting, all by mechanical equipment. The Shepparton ARRT was the first facility of its kind in Australia to achieve certification to AS/NZS ISO9001:2008, AS/NZS 14001:2004 and AS/NZS 4801:2001 for its Integrated Management System.
The ARRT facility is capable of processing approximately 12,000 tonnes of waste per year. Whilst not essential to the composting operation, the facility also has the capability to receive and treat up to 4,000 tonnes per year of biosolids in addition to the waste.
When operating at design capacity and based on the typical composition of waste, the ARRT facility is expected to recover recyclable materials (steel, aluminium, plastics, glass, paper and cardboard) and produce up to 4,000 tonnes per year of compost, leaving an inert residual of around 100 tonnes per year suitable for disposal at the Greater Shepparton City Council’s Cosgrove Road landfill.
The ARRT is a manual sorting, mechanical separation and biological treatment process. The processing sequence consists of:
- Separation : weighing and manual removal of hard waste and recyclables and mechanical separation of organic and non-organic fractions.
- Composting : after the separation process, the organics are loaded in to ventilated static pile bioreactor tunnels. Overall batch cycle time for the completion of the pasteurisation phase is 14 days to ensure the destruction of harmful pathogens and weed seeds. Continuous processing requires three identical bioreactor tunnels, operated concurrently, each one week out of phase with the next. The process control system is fully automated. Sensors monitor the conditions within each tunnel, set and vary the flow of air and water, thus regulating moisture, temperature, pressure and oxygen.
- Refining : trommel homogenisation, pulverisation (attrition of the softer organic fraction), screening and subsequent processing of component fractions. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals are removed using magnetic separation and glass and plastic is removed from the organic fraction using a trommel screen.
- Product maturation : final stage of biological treatment of refined compost. The batch cycle time for the completion of the product maturation phase is 28 days. The product complies with the requirements of the Australian Standard AS 4454:2003 and is sold to the local market.
- Recycling and Disposal : transportation of recyclable materials to a materials recovery facility for recycling and inert residual waste to the landfill
Rather than investing significant capital in the design and patenting of its own technology, and exposing Clients to unnecessary financial risk, Corio Waste Management selected a bioreactor tunnel technology developed in Europe, which is proven, i.e., 600 similar facilities around Europe, and can be modified according to the characteristics of the waste stream. Constructed on a modular basis, bioreactor tunnel facilities can be increased in size progressively to meet the needs of Councils or regions and would range in capacity from 20,000 to 150,000 tonnes per year. The bioreactor tunnel process can also be modified to incorporate anaerobic digestion and the production of renewable energy, i.e., Biogas and Green Electricity and pyrolysis of the residual organic fraction to produce Biochar.
As one of the fastest growing and most experienced and innovative companies in the Australian waste collection industry, Corio Waste Management has the multi-disciplinary expertise, access to proven European technology and operational experience to provide a total ARRT solution to Council's, Regional Waste Management Groups and Commercial and Industrial facilities around Australia.
One of the key components of this technology, the bioreactor tunnel, is already implemented at the Shepparton project in northern Victoria, where green waste, biosolids and grease trap waste are composted into a high quality material, certified to Australian Standard AS4454, and sold to the local market.
