Towards full automation in waste management

The advancements in waste management technology have been vast, thanks to the industrial internet. But just how big of an impact will it have on the Waste-to-Energy industry in the upcoming years? Jari Myyryläinen, Head of Waste-to-Energy Industry at Konecranes, sees that we are heading towards full automation of the processes.

If we look back a few years and compare it to where we are now, I can say that the industrial internet has had a huge impact in speeding things up. It helps conducting diagnostics in fault situations and it enables predictive maintenance, in other words helping to improve the availability of material handling equipment for clients. It actually helps to predict fault situations and fixing the fault can begin even before it causes downtime. There is also the benefit of optimizing material handling and automation processes through remote connections. The existing technology enables a device to be aware of its own condition and it offers the possibility to utilize the best experts for maintenance through remote connection, instead of sending one to the actual physical location.

But all of this has just been the beginning.

As the operational efficiency through remote monitoring and process automation increases, the next steps would be remote operation or full automation of the processes. Here are two possible scenarios from the near future:

As remote monitoring increases reliability, it might have a surprising effect to the investment costs of waste incineration plants in the future. The demand for redundancy insists on installing two or three cranes to the waste reception, mixing and feeding in waste incineration plants. One for operating and one for back-up when the primary one is being serviced. When we can improve the reliability of a crane through remote monitoring and optimization, there might not be a need for a back-up crane at all. This will directly lower the investment costs of a plant. I believe that this is where we are heading. A remotely monitored and professionally maintained crane is so reliable that one can operate the said process with just one.

Industrial internet enables remote operation. Today, when manual control of a crane is necessary, the customers require a control cabin with a chair and visual sight to the crane. With industrial internet, video controlled operation will become common. The driver can operate the crane from any physical location. Meaning that a solid, plant-integrated crane control room will slowly become obsolete, also lowering the investment costs of the plant. This will happen when the generation Z, which has grown up using joysticks and screen displays, start to enter work life in increasing numbers.

We are heading towards fully automated material handling, where only under exceptional circumstances someone is required to operate the crane manually, and even then using camera vision from any physical location. The industrial internet is the key enabler in all of this.

New technology enables automated separation

What intrigues me in the industrial internet and its possibilities is what it brings to material handling and service models in the long run. I see that the industrial internet and digitalization are huge game changers. When sensors in the cranes become more common and the gathered data from them increases, new business models will emerge very soon. These might include pay-per-ton models, where a customer pays only for the amount of material transferred.

As the necessity for sustainability becomes more important every day, the automating, the recognition and separation of waste have also taken huge leaps forward. Waste incineration technology has developed rapidly and the amount of energy recovery has increased. Meanwhile, composting and sensor technologies have also advanced further. Today, sensors are capable of recognizing different metals and materials.

There are interesting cases of waste treatment technology in the startup world. For instance, ZenRobotics¹ has created the world’s first robotic waste sorting system. The system uses multiple sensors, such as visible spectrum cameras and 3D laser scanners and it creates an accurate real-time analysis of the waste stream. Based on the analysis, the system makes automated decisions regarding the separation process.

We can already do a lot to improve the efficiency and reduce the emissions of the traditional waste incineration process, thanks to the rapid development of data collection and analysis, sensors and the industrial internet. We can, for example, collect and integrate information concerning waste characteristics with data regarding volume and ambient conditions. Transmitted to the combustion process control, this information enables us to optimize the traditional waste incineration process.

The above mentioned will not, however, be enough in the long run. New combustion technologies already offer as high as 80% better energy conversion efficiency and 33% lower CO2-emissions in comparison to the traditional technology. Modern combustion technologies require better quality waste, and so it’s time to take action. In my opinion, the end result will be a continuous chain from the consumer, who is sorting and recycling the waste, to the pre-treatment plant, where the waste is automatically converted into a homogenous fuel for a modern boiler and energy recovery unit. Cranes, served by expert maintenance teams making sure that the process is running smoothly, are a crucial part of this production chain.

¹http://www.zenrobotics.com