Success stories

The debate on climate change, increased environmental awareness, high gas prices and emission scandals are making EVs (electric vehicle batteries) increasingly popular – but what happens when the raw materials used to manufacture the EV batteries run out? And where do discarded batteries go? A Scandinavian battery manufacturer set out to recycle EV batteries and reuse the rare earths they contain in new batteries. Using a new and safe recycling process from BHS, the company is able to achieve two things at once: Not only are the valuable minerals prevented from ending up as electronic waste, but the process also wards off the impending shortage of rare earths such as nickel, lithium, cobalt and manganese.

BHS-Sonthofen is helping a power plant in Scandinavia transform a waste product back into a raw material: high-purity FGD gypsum with a residual moisture content of 10% (90% solids) can be resold directly to the construction materials industry. Since 2007, the power plant has been operating a flue gas cleaning system that uses a BHS indexing belt filter (BF). An additional filter has now been ordered. The combustion processes produce flue gas that is contaminated with sulfur compounds. Milk of lime is used to remove the sulfur compounds. Gypsum slurry is produced as a by-product, the residual moisture content of which must be brought down to 10% and any corrosive compounds need to be removed. The BHS indexing belt filter performs both of these tasks using its efficient cake washing. The system has been running smoothly since it was installed.

Waste is turning into an increasingly important source of raw materials. Even incinerator bottom ash still contains a large number of materials that can potentially be recycled. Metals such as iron, copper, and aluminum make up about ten percent of the ash. But what happens to the non-recyclable fraction? It must be deposited in landfills in a safe manner for as long as possible. However, operators of waste incineration plants face the challenge that incinerator bottom ash emits a considerable amount of dust. A North American waste incineration plant operator therefore decided to humidify the ash using a total of five BHS pug mills. The mixers of type AVA HTK now reliably convert the ashes into a dust-free, transportable product at three sites.

Plant proteins often form an essential part of a vegetarian or vegan diet, which is why they are in high demand. However, several process steps are required to obtain high-purity plant proteins suitable for human consumption from almonds, sunflowers or quinoa, for example. One of the challenges is the final drying process. AVA is supplying a special dryer for this purpose to a German plant protein producer.

On Germany's most impressive construction site in Grünheide, Brandenburg, the US company Tesla is building its latest gigafactory for electric cars. The project worth several billion euros is to be completed in record time, with the first electric cars rolling off the assembly line as early as summer 2021. The construction of this gigantic factory requires huge amounts of concrete. To guarantee the required quantity, the plant operators involved also rely on high-performance mixers from BHS-Sonthofen. But what if a spare part is needed for these mixers? Every second counts in a case like this.

Bac Liêu Province Wind Power Plant in Vietnam is Asia’s first large-scale coastal wind energy project. Operating since 2013, it is being expanded continuously. During the current third expansion phase, 71 turbines are being constructed. The challenge of this project can literally be found at the bottom of the sea: the cement bases for the wind turbines cannot simply be produced on land and then placed in the ocean. Instead, they have to be poured directly into the ground, using a floating platform. To this end, a mobile batching plant was installed on a dredge. At its heart are two twin-shaft batch mixers from BHS.