Nothing matters more than sending our people at home safe every day.
According to Renewi's core value 'safety', our employees and managers' top priority is safeguarding the people running our processing lines. Like our ammonia (NH3) line from our subsidiary Coolrec, a market leader in recycling Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).
The NH3 line in our Dordrecht's site came to life to recycle discarded camp fridges from hotels or the camping industry. Still, the first challenges the operators faced in the pilot phase were the harmful chemicals leaking whilst cleaning up the fridges or drying the fridges' coolers. These can explode under high pressure and shouldn't be touched without gloves or inhaled. Coolrec's personnel is highly trained and was very cautious near this line, but the waste chemicals are also harmful to the environment and needed a third party for processing.
Things began to change once Michiel Doelman, a former TU Delft graduate in mechanical engineering, picked up the job to improve the NH3 line for his internship. Michiel, Rachid Anhari [Coolrec's site manager in Dordrecht, ed.] and the team co-found a simple yet innovative solution: washing the fridges with powerful jets of water and air with automated clamps. After successful tests, the team also decided to clean the wastewater by evaporating the NH3 inside it, recovering parts of the water used in the process and lessening the line's impact on the environment.
This innovative solution created a more sustainable, more productive and safer line that can function without external parties. The line then developed from its pilot phase into one that can process over 75.000 fridges per year. It's now the only processing line in Europe that is WEEELABEX certified for camp fridges.
To learn more about this circular innovation and how Renewi listens to everyone's ideas, Michiel Doelman [now Process Engineer at Coolrec, ed.] joined us today to answer our questions.
Michiel Doelman
Welcome, Michiel. How did you first connect with Coolrec?
"I wanted to do a hands-on internship in the field of sustainability during my studies. So I asked Renewi's HR department if they needed interns, and they connected me with Renewi's Continuous Improvement manager [Michiel Koenraads, ed.]. He offered me three challenges across the organisation, but I found improving Coolrec's NH3 processing line being the most appealing one. Especially since it targeted to improve the line's productivity and safety along with lowering its environmental impact. Thus, he got me in touch with Rachid, we saw that we could help each other, and I jumped on board."
What made you and the team develop this successful idea?
"The NH3 line's success was only possible thanks to all the people who worked on it since its pilot phase. The first innovation came from Rachid, who proposed to use a system of automated clamps to puncture the steel tubes from a safe distance and behind safety glass. In the meantime, I used a 'black box approach' to analyse the fridges' working principles and, consequently, I proposed an innovative system that uses high-pressure jets of water and air to fully drain the fridges' cooling elements. The team helped me to carry the tests and, after merging my idea with Rachid's, the fridges came out completely clean. Once the first fridge went into the shredder, I suggested warming up the wastewater in the drains as NH3 evaporates at 60 °C with the right pressure and concentration. And it worked! The final result was a huge success as we improved every point we set at the beginning. After ending my internship and graduating, I came back to Coolrec to discover that the team further developed the line and is now fully operative."
How did Coolrec help you in turning your idea into reality?
"We could easily test our assumptions at Coolrec thanks to its tools, machines and infrastructures, along with Coolrec's continuous investments to stimulate innovation. The project's success came from a diverse team, which grew in size after finishing my internship. Each of us had a different background and, together, we came up with great ideas to solve the problems we faced. And we faced many because what we did was never done before. I was happy to hear that the operators felt safer near this processing line, as well as knowing that our work is helping to advance the circular economy and re-input more secondary raw materials back into the market."
So what's coming up for you and Coolrec?
"The line now focuses on recycling fridges from Belgium, France and the Netherlands, and we plan to further increase the number of fridges it processes yearly. In regards to myself, I've learned a lot during this project. I saw first-hand how to successfully improve and maintain a processing line within a team, along with how to turn many problems into one positive improvement cycle."
Besides Michiel Doelman and Rachid Anhari, many people contributed to the success of the NH3 processing line. Some of them are Frank Van Der Zande (Maintenance Engineer), Yahia Anhari and Abdulai Jalloh (Supervisors Operations), Hakan Yilmaz (Service Engineer), Miloud Lekfif (Manager Operations) and Coolrec’s director Dieter Avonds. In addition, we wish to mention all the other service engineers and operation managers working at Coolrec’s site in Dordrecht. And, last but not least, we wish to thank all the operators that work daily to run our processing lines and advance the circular economy.
Share your innovative ideaAre you or your organisation interested in circularity and have an innovative solution? Do you wish to implement it at a commercial scale? At Renewi, we’d love to hear from you! Any solution is welcome, and we would love to start with those with the highest and direct impact. Can we help to scale your solution? |
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