Article from Industrial Technology Magazine issue 2 - 2022
Promeco was founded in September 1996 when the Maastricht Treaty placed environmental protection among the fundamental aims of the European Community.
Its main mission has always been to develop efficient and effective proposals for the disposal of waste and industrial wastes, so that they could and do go from waste to resources.
Promeco has therefore developed recycling plant solutions, in terms of supplying individual machines or turnkey plants. Since then, research and development activity has been growing steadily, and thanks to a strong propensity for self-analysis, interaction with suppliers and customers, and above all, thanks to the skills of a historicized, close-knit and highly competent staff, Promeco has steadily increased its offerings with customized and highly technological solutions.
Promeco's organization is simple and organic, so that it can adapt promptly to the dynamism of the market on which it operates. This contrasts with the relationship the company holds with its stakeholders, namely customers, suppliers, employees and participants, with whom the relationship is based on mutual trust in a long-term perspective.
Governance is based on the company's core values, which are represented by transparency, trust, integrity and innovation. Promeco's strategy orients its focus toward all those involved in the company's business, who are considered a main resource for it. According to this principle, a highly inclusive working environment is promoted, free of discrimination, in the awareness that diversity and inclusion, together with meritocratic criteria and constant training, are the prerequisites for the success of any business in terms of profitability and overall sustainability.
It is in these terms that Promeco offers its clients effective technological and profit solutions, supporting them in achieving their goals for a result that is effective, efficient, fair and sustainable:
passion, expertise, technological research under the banner of sustainability and a circular economy with customer profit.
PROMECO SOLUTIONS TO SUPPORT THE ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION
Many plant solutions are offered and can be found in summary on the company website (www.promeco.it)
In the plastics sector, next to the more traditional, plastic recycling plants, especially of mixed and heterogeneous plastic-post-consumer waste of primary interest stands out the Promeco Chemical Recycling plant, which makes it possible to produce from mixed plastic waste, today hardly recyclable by common mechanical recycling, hydrocarbon feedstocks/nafta, i.e., substances that the chemical industry can re-purpose to re-create new plastic materials with consequent savings of fossil resources. This is basically a process that could be seen as the missing link for 360 recycling of plastics.
The solution, which has been developed for 10 years now by Promeco (with plants sold in Singapore), rests on the belief that plastics, assuming their recycling and reuse, are not a material to be demonized.
Also of interest are the plant line for recycling fishing nets with references in Ljubliana, Slovenia, and a third line soon to be delivered to an innovative Italian group.
While among the latest environmentally sustainable solutions in the polymer sector should be mentioned the "dry" plastics washing/cleaning plant, designed to reduce water consumption to zero, lower investment and maintenance costs: an absolutely eco-friendly solution for injection molding granule production and the deodorization process capable of removing odor-causing molecules with which the pellets are deeply impregnated.
Promeco's commitment to CO2 abatement is most explicitly exemplified in the
plant line for the production of wood fiber, which is an innovative, km 0 material that can be used as a substitute for peat in the production of potting soils. Peat, although there is a definite lag in Italy in registering this commitment to environmental protection, is now banned in Europe.
At the moment interest is very high internationally certainly also thanks to the PNRR concessions. In Italy, moreover, reliefs for the dii technology 4.0 solution are being added.
Promeco has published in the News section of its website a very technical and comprehensive report that is of primary support in understanding the technological advantages and consequently in applying for the incentives. It is a comprehensive analysis on the qualities of the environmentally sustainable material produced by the Promeco plant (wood fiber/wood fiber) and analyzes its differences with peat, as a traditional material, and the for the purpose of sustainability and real environmental protection. In addition to significant CO2 emissions, extracting peat implies the loss of peatland biodiversity and the destruction of ecosystems: these are natural habitats formed over millennia where rare and endangered animal and plant species live. The international scientific community has already decided to take concrete action on the structure of production processes and consumption criteria of Western countries and those of countries with emerging economies, before the climate changes already underway become self-perpetuating, and therefore unstoppable and increasingly' threatening. 5-10% of the CO2 produced by humans originate from peat extraction calculated at 300,000 tons of CO2 per year. (from: Jardin Suisse, Information Sheet 2012, Arau, Switzerland).
The study published by Promeco shows that replacing 50 percent of the peat currently used with wood fiber would provide savings in climate-changing gas emissions. The calculations, made on the basis of factors established in the report (and shown in the table published here) estimate a lower impact (avoided/saved emissions) of about half a million tons of CO2e (CO2e:: carbon dioxide equivalents. Measures the amount of global warming provided by a particular greenhouse gas as a function of the amount or concentration of carbon dioxide gas) n the case of 50% replacement of peat with wood fiber and up to about one million tons of CO2e in the case of total replacement (respectively equal to the emissions produced by about 25,000 and 50,000 cars each traveling a distance of 100,000 kilometers).
Completing the newly developed fiber recycling is the plant to produce dry pulper from recycled paperboard, with three plants in the United States. This is a highly profitable technological solution as it is the only one that allows the recycled cardboard to be exported to China where the need is such that there is an incentive to import dry pulper as a secondary raw material.
In the area of alternative energy, i.e., energy valorization of agricultural and animal waste, it is worth mentioning the
Promeco process aimed at optimizing pretreatment in anaerobic digestion. Valuable operational references are in Germany where the E.ON plant produces biogas from the valorization of hops waste and in England where GMT Biogas valorizes straw and cattle manure.
Promeco's sustainable strategy aims in the long run to contribute to
to decarbonization,
to the growth of renewables,
to the protection of the environment,
to technological innovation,
to research and development,
to digitization and technology 4.0
with the intention of enhancing its territory with local support projects.
Promeco's solutions are solutions that enable diversification of energy sources and ensure sustainable growth.
Fully aware of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the UN 2030 agenda as well as the European directives on the Green Deal, Promeco is projected into the future by combining its activity of developing high-tech recycling solutions with a personal sustainable development program in the name of a circular economy to achieve sustainability in terms of consumption and production.
PHOTOS ACCOMPANYING THE ARTICLE
1 Promeco chemical recycling
2 matrix detail for LDPR (...)
3 (0986): detail Bioextruder ® of Promeco's wood fiber production plant
4 (Promeco oriz.) Promeco plastics pretreatment line detail
