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The upgrades, using WTT technology, at the facility in Duke Point at Vancouver Island, in the regional District of Nanaimo have reduced the composting times from six to eight months to only 15 days. During the re-opening event on Monday 29th of August, Convertus Group CEO Mike Leopold said new-tech in-vessel composting allows them to process much more organics, produce a great soil and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The facility is critical in allowing to meet the 90 per cent diversion goal from landfill, and the City’s committed to eliminate all organic waste from landfill by 2030. Sean Kawakami, business development manager for Convertus Group said the site was capable of processing 20,000 tonnes of organics per year, however, with the addition of four tunnels, they were able to nearly triple the processing up to 58,000 tonnes. This makes it the largest processing site by weight of organics on Vancouver Island. [...]

How does AD work? Anaerobic digestion is a process through which bacteria break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen. In this instance, “organic” means coming from or made of plants or animals. Anaerobic digestion happens in closed spaces. It can also occur in nature or e.g., landfills, but in AD facilities it is optimized, controlled and the biogas that is produced can be contained. The anaerobic digestion is aided by microorganisms, involving a series of steps such as hydrolysis, acidogenesis and methanogenesis. There are different types of digestion plants: Wet system, the biomass is turned into a soup, it is digested in a stirred tank reactor, this is a continuous system Semi-dry system, the biomass is like a sludge, it is digested in a plug-flow reactor, this is a continuous system Dry system, biomass is solid, digested in a tunnel without diluting, this is a discontinuous system, or a batch [...]

Humankind is facing tremendous challenges in agriculture; population and thus food demand is growing, cities are expanding, and climate is changing. Most agricultural soils have been, however, degraded by intensive modern agricultural systems. Sustainable soil management has never been more important. Especially if we consider the fact that in addition to providing us with our food,  agricultural soils have substantial potential to act as a global carbon sink. Soils are in fact the world’s largest terrestrial pool of carbon!1 It is estimated that soils can sequester around 20 Pg carbon in 25 years, which is more than 10% of the anthropogenic emissions.2 The compost effect We need to change our soil management practices and restore our degraded agricultural soils. Adding compost is an important tool to increase soil organic matter. Adding compost strengthens the incorporation of organic carbon in soil size fractions and reduces organic carbon mineralization.3 Compost is key to sequestering [...]

Closing the loop is about building a sustainable future for all our children through innovative waste management and treatment facilities. At Waste Treatment Technologies, part of the Convertus Group,  we aim to design and build facilities that have a minimal impact on the environment. Facilities that efficiently conserve and recycle resources and produce new resources such as energy, heat or products like quality compost. Energy, for example, can be produced in the form of biogas when we build anaerobic digestion tunnels. These tunnels convert organic waste from e.g., food and gardens into natural gas. This local gas can be sold or injected into the grid. Conservation of energy Where possible we use technologies that conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For existing facilities, we have innovative updates like the re-use of thermal energy, where we catch heat from the composting process and use it somewhere else as an alternative energy source. [...]

Get to know Casper Sales engineer Casper van Boggelen is responsible for the sales trajectory of new waste treatment facilities and large revisions of existing facilities. He is also involved in more complex projects that require upgrades or other service components. Building and keeping a good relationship with our customers is key to his success. Within WTT he works together with colleagues from the sales team, but also from the engineering and projects department. He has a challenging job, working at the office, at home, or in another country. Every day is different. Why I work at WTT I feel an obligation for future generations to at least contribute to a more sustainable world. I’ve had this feeling for many years. After my graduation I joined WTT. The combination of doing something good for our planet, by for example reducing landfill emissions and a great atmosphere amongst colleagues, made this decision [...]