Stena’s newly-built facility in Mongstad will be able to deal with around 20,000 tons of hydrated hazardous waste such as sloop, oil emulsions, water-based paints and solvents every year. In addition, 5,000 tons of high-energy hazardous waste can be processed each year. The hazardous waste comes from offshore, petrochemical and other industries. The facility has been geographically sited to enable delivery of waste by both land and sea.
“With this new facility we can offer more of our services within the field of hazardous waste to a greater number of our customers. All in all, Stena Miljø is consolidating its position as a leading environmental service company,” says Jan-Erik Larsen, Country Manager of the Stena Metall Group in Norway.
Hazardous waste is converted into new products and fuel
Using two different types of evaporator, the water is removed from the hazardous waste and purified.
“It is the same basic principle as that used for reducing a sauce when cooking. The more water that is boiled away, the more concentrated the remaining substance,” explains Christer Forsgren, technical manager at Stena Metall.
“With evaporators and the rest of the process, the waste can be refined into pure products such as glycol and lye that can be reused, or turned into high-grade fuel for running the entire facility or for use in other energy-intensive industrial facilities such as cement kilns.”
A number of environmental benefits
If water-rich waste contains more than 10 percent oil, the facility can operate using this as fuel without requiring further external energy sources.
“In the end, no waste will be released from the facility, just new products and purified water that can be discharged into the environment again after a strict inspection. The incineration plant and flue-gas cleaning also comply with all requirements in the new directive for waste incineration,” says Larsen.
Stena Miljø is one of Norway’s leading environmental service companies and is part of the Stena Metall Group, which is the leading group of companies within recycling in Scandinavia. Stena Miljø performs collection and processing of environmentally-hazardous waste and other hazardous waste from industry, the printing industry and medical treatment and dental care. The company undertakes environmental recovery and recycles electrical and electronic waste and refrigerators, processing the freon and recycling scrap iron and metal. Their core business is carried out at a group-wide recycling plant at Ausenfjellet outside Oslo.