Recycling of building waste made efficient

Reducing emissions in crushing of building waste

The Hückelhovener Bauschutt Recycling GmbH (short: HBR), founded in 1994, processes road building materials and rubble to high quality and quality-tested minerals. In addition, the company offers non-proprietary products, including basalts, wall sands and concrete gravel.

HBR started with the recycling of rubble and, as part of the change in TASI (Technical instructions for recovery, treatment and other disposal of municipal waste), expanded its services with the acceptance of mixed waste, unused waste wood and green waste. Today, HBR is a certified disposal company.

When it comes to treatment of mineral building waste, 75% of the company's crushing and screening plants are powered by electricity. In addition to reducing emissions, there are also practical reasons for it. "Without harmful diesel emissions and noise, our staff can concentrate on the actual work. Annoying refueling and set-up times are gone, "says Managing Director Joachim Schnock.

HBR's customers come mainly from the municipal and commercial sectors and include especially demolition companies and road builders.HBR produces recycling material in 0/4, 0/8 and 0/45 size grades and the product range is constantly being expanded to include niche products. Among other things, the popular 0/22 intermediate size, which is suitable as a leveling material for 0/45 ballast, is in demand.

"With the Nordberg® CT80 crusher, which we acquired from Fischer-Jung in Krefeld at the time, we started our own operations in 1998. We have been following the technical development at Metso ever since." HBR has taken all precautions to reduce the noise and dust level in the recycling yard by equipping most screening plants with dust covering fabrics.

The Hückelhovener recycling plant just recently acquired and commissioned the new Nordwheeler, a semi-mobile processing plant with a C106™ jaw crusher from Metso, from Fischer-Jung Aufbereitungstechnik in Krefeld.

Less vibration, less dust, less noise - and more power

"The Nordwheeler has the charm of getting along without a chain drive and a diesel engine," says Joachim Schnock. "In my opinion, there is no manufacturer offering such a powerful system as a semi-mobile unit in this configuration. In order to the unit to stand on level and solid ground right from the start, we have renewed the asphalt surface."

In terms of process technology, Hückelhovener prefers the jaw crusher technology for its rubble recycling. "Impact or cone crushers may be more suitable for hard rock or asphalt processing. However, impact crushers produce too much sand in our applications. And as far as cubicity is concerned, we do not have to compromise. In addition, jaw crushers cause far less set-up and wear costs. We could not do better ...", Schnock says confidently. With the new jaw crusher, HBR is well positioned for the future to meet the increased recycling requirements of the current building boom.

The fully electric Nordwheeler was supplied with a vibrating feeder and a magnetic separator. To reduce the noise, the bunker was lined with a 4 cm thick rubber coating. For effective dust reduction, a water spraying system was located above the crusher feed and outlet while the main extraction conveyor was equipped with a dust cover.

An additional Trellex scraper on the conveyor belt prevents contamination of the subfloor. The IC automate takes over a continuous control of the feed level in the crusher and thus controls the material supply.

"Already just for emission protection reasons, the Nordwheeler is a great improvement over the decommissioned old system," says Schnock. "Less vibration, less dust, less noise - and more power. That's what matters to us. This fits perfectly with our environmentally friendly concept: we regularly exchange our systems in order to be up-to-date with emission protection technology. This puts us in a trend setting position and makes us support climate protection."