Turn Industrial Waste into Profit with Real-Time Alternative Fuel Monitoring

Is your company looking for new revenue streams or to meet corporate green initiatives?  

By improving efficiency and utilization of low-carbon fuels in industrial waste, companies can secure energy needed for their business, all while reducing their carbon footprint or even achieving a net-zero carbon emission.

BUCHI NIR Process Specialist Ryan Vautherot joined us in the lab to discuss ways to optimize energy production by measuring key parameters like COD, total solids, TKN, pH, TDS, and VFA with NIR-Online. Watch the discussion now or read the transcript below to learn more.

Transcript

Concerns over the short and long-term availability of petroleum-based products and their environmental impact have caused more industries and businesses to seek alternative fuels. By improving efficiency and the utilization of lower-carbon fuels companies can secure energy needed for their business while also reducing their carbon footprint or even achieving net-zero carbon emission. The BUCHI analyzer provides real-time values for parameters such as chemical oxygen demand, total solids, TKN, pH, TDS, VFA, Acetic Acid, Alkalinity, and more. 

Frequently, companies would have to pay to dispose of their waste and to monitor their environmental output. Now companies are not only saving money but making money utilizing this same waste. From tires, wood, animal waste, and water/wastewater, all are being used to create alternative fuels.   

Keys to a fast ROI include minimizing influent energy and maximizing waste loading capacity. Simply put, spend less time and resources to produce more. 

Until recently, optimizing the process was a highly challenging task. Samples were pulled ad hoc and sent to a lab for analysis. Some of the data, like COD, and chemical oxygen demand, takes DAYS to measure. The slow feedback loop does not allow for any meaningful process adjustments to optimize energy yield or lower emissions.  

 A real-time measurement system was needed to fully realize the energy and revenue potential of these alternative fuel sources. Enter, NIR Online. 

NIR is short for near-infrared spectroscopy. It is a rapid, non-contact, non-destructive measurement that has been used for decades in some industries to measure sample composition and other sample qualities all simultaneously.  

Spectroscopy is the study of light interacting with matter. In the case of NIR, we are shining light of a specific energy and wavelength onto a sample – NIR light. The wavelengths of NIR light that are absorbed or reflected by the sample tell us about the molecular composition of the sample. Peaks and valleys in the spectra are the result of molecular vibrations from organic functional groups like O-H, C-H, C-O, and N-H. We can use this resulting spectra in combination with primary method data to build calibrations that predict multiple sample properties within the process simultaneously, all in real-time.  

The application of NIR sensors to monitor influent material, processing, and finished materials in real time has dramatically impacted alternative fuel production and ROI.  Let’s look at a real example.  

Valkyrie is a BUCHI customer that is currently utilizing the BUCHI NIR-Online process sensor to monitor Anaerobic Digestors’ (AD) real-time values for parameters such as chemical oxygen demand, total solids, TKN, pH, TDS and more of influent materials. 

Valkyrie then applies their knowledge and software to analyze the data to determine the next steps for the AD on increasing/reducing material input which improves the energy required, throughput of material, and production of alternate fuel. An animal waste facility implementing the BUCHI analyzer and utilizing Valkyrie improved their daily kWh/day from 4,000-8,000 to 10,000 to 18,000.    

Here’s what the animal waste facility had to say about the impact of Valkryrie and the NIR-Online sensor: 

 “The Valkyrie (using BUCHI NIR Online) System has provided a significant risk-mitigation factor. We have been able to operate the digester system at a higher level than anticipated in operational planning and this has resulted in increased gas production and revenues. Given available feedstocks and current production levels, we are in the process of sourcing an additional generator to increase our electrical output to match the gas production that the digester system is now able to produce.”   

Anaerobic Digestors’ are just one segment that The Valkyrie system can be applied to. Additional industries such as water/wastewater, pharmaceutical manufacturing, animal waste, recycled materials, and more can also utilize this real-time analysis 

If you’d like to learn how BUCHI NIR-Online or Valkyrie can help you with improving the efficiency of your alternative fuel production and reduction of emissions, please contact us at us-sales@buchi.com.  

I hope this discussion has helped you understand the potential that real-time data offers in the case of alternative fuel production. For more information or to get a consultation with a NIR-Online application specialist, visit www.buchi.com and fill out the Contact Us webform.