We have been constructing VacuDry® systems for our customers in Germany and abroad in which a total of >1,000 tons per day of hazardous waste are prepared for reuse, for 15 years. In Bavaria we have been trying to find appreciation for our work at various export and environmental awards. What we did not manage at home, one of our customers in Saxony-Anhalt (Germany) has now achieved:
The Federal Ministry of Economics has honored outstanding commitment to the (re)use of raw materials with the German Resource Efficiency Prize since 2011. This award has now been given to CRONIMET ENVIROTECH and hence also to our VacuDry® technology used there. The plant that was constructed in the town of Bitterfeld in 2011 recycles metal sludge from various sources as well as drilling cuttings from the oil and gas industry.
German “VDI-Nachrichten” (VDI News) on February 22, 2018: “The Ministry of Economy awarded Cronimet Envirotec from Bitterfeld for the sustainable treatment of sludges from the metal and oil industry. The company treats mud-type waste containing oil and metal in a distillation process and brings the recovered resources back into the economic cycle. The absence of oxygen in the distillation process used by Cronimet Envirotec prevents oxidation of the metals. Thus, the expensive reduction necessary in some metal powders is eliminated, which used to take place in electric furnaces. In addition, the characteristics of metals and alloys are preserved, the company explains. The recovered products then go back into the material cycle. The oil, for example, as a new grinding oil and the metal as raw metal or alloy for foundries or steelworks. The reuse of the oils and metals is also characterized by a lower energy balance compared to the extraction of primary raw materials.”
Together with the CRONIMET team we are happy and also again proud of the achievements. As the only company in the world for the construction of turn-key vacuum distillation plants for hazardous waste, we will continue to offer a sustainable and intelligent alternative for the reuse of such wastes, instead of landfilling or incineration, always true to our motto “Zero industrial waste”.