Sustainable Production of Composite Construction Materials from Biosolids and Alkaline

Project Information Sheet

Sustainable Production of Composite Construction Materials from Biosolids and Alkaline Waste (BACOM)

Programme area: Environment, Construction

Coordinator: Logent Logent d.o.o., Slovenia E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +386 40 450 828 Website: www.logent.si

Benefits Project BACOM enable conversion of the biosludges into composite (max. 150 construction materials using for construction of the non-demanding characters incl. constructions. space):

Keywords: Biosludge, Recycling, Construction Materials Sector: Recyling, Buildings, Green Business, Food and Drink Type of solution Diverting biowaste into recycling processes.

Duration: 06/09/2010 – 06/09/2013 Budget: € 1.312.076,00 (EU contribution: 50%) Contract number: Eco/09/255934

Summary - The BACOM project diverts biosludge generated by municipal and industrial biological waste water treatment plants from landfilling into the recycling process where it is converting into composite construction materials. This is sustainable solution where the wastes from one industry sector are used as raw material in construction industry sector. Traditional techniques for biosludge management are composting, land spreading and energy production. Composting serves only for biosludge stabilisation and has no sustainable dimension and land spreading of biosludge as fertiliser is limited due to inadequate C:N ratio and toxic substances (mainly heavy metals). Energy production is economically questionable due to high investment costs and due to high content of moisture which decreased calorific value of biosludge. On the other hand BACOM technology offers stabilisation of biosludge with ash or other alkaline waste with simple equipment at low costs. Additionally the produced composite material can be sold as construction material, primarily as replacement for clay for the impermeable landfill,capping and road bed or sports courts construction. The BACOM project is a sustainable solution and it is in accordance with eco-symbiosis conditions due the bio waste from municipal waste water treatment plants and wasted ash from energy production industry are used as raw materials for production of the composite construction materials.

Expected and/or achieved results

1. During the project four BACOM installations will be installed in Slovenia, Austria, Poland and Greece. 2. The BACOM technology stabilise biosolids and prevents its decomposing means that one installation which processed 9000 tonnes of biosolids per year will reduce the emissions of methane for 167 tonnes/year and 461 tonnes/year comparing to landfill. As methane has 25 times higher global warming potential (GWP), the overall GWP reduction per BACOM processing line with a capacity of 9000 tonnes of biosolids is 4640 tonnes of CO2 per year. 3. The BACOM technology is simple and fully transferable between different markets. 4. The BACOM installation is low cost solution for biosludge management. The investment costs are at least 20 times lover than comparable digestion installation and operational costs are lower due to using waste for production of added value construction materials.

5. The

project team expected the 74 BACOM installation will be sold in the next 10 years, due to low investment costs and due to European legalisation on biowaste.

The information sheet will be published in the Eco-Innovation website. The EACI reserves the right to edit the information sheet for content and length