Thursday, 9th September 2010, Maribor, Slovenia
Gorenje Surovina Opened a Production Line for Manufacturing Solid Fuel from Waste
On 9 September, a Gorenje Group daughter company Gorenje Surovina which boasts a 59-year tradition in extracting secondary raw material opened a production line for producing solid fuel from non-hazardous waste at the company’s headquarters in Maribor. The new business activity of the company is an important step for Slovenia in the transition from the disposal of waste to its thermal use and thereby to meeting wider environmental goals.
Gorenje Surovina is specialised in collecting, transporting, sorting and treatment of waste and expanded its integral waste management services by adding production of solid fuel from non-hazardous waste material. On 9 September, it opened a production line for developing and manufacturing solid fuel in line with the Solid Recovered Fuel system (SRF) which means that input materials needed for fuel production are controlled and accurately mixed according to standard formula so that the end-product fulfils clients’ requirements regarding its caloric value as well as chemical and physical properties.
In order to increase the market value of the fuel produced from waste in Slovenia research and development activities for the standardisation of the fuel have been conducted by Gorenje Surovina.
The investment into the technology and equipment accounted to 2.7 million euros. The project has been co-funded by the Public Agency for Technology of the Republic of Slovenia in cooperation with the Slovenian Ministry for Environment and Spatial Planning.
The Gorenje Surovina solid fuel production line is the first private investment of its kind in Slovenia.
Jure Fišer, the head of Gorenje Surovina: “The plant is an important additional element to our capacities and represents a solution for a significant part of waste collected that is being given new value by being used for energy. Producing solid fuel from waste has a number of positive effects for the environment as well as for Slovenian industry and people, since it enables extracting Slovenian energy sources from waste where they were being imported so far.”
As of Mid-April 2011 the full capacity of the production line will be 42.000 tons of solid fuel a year.