Abengoa, based in Spain, has announced that its Befesa Industrial Residue Recycling Division is planning to construct two recycling-related projects in Turkey. Both projects are targeting steel dust recycling efforts and are scheduled to be built in Izmir and Adana, Turkey.

Befesa, also based in Spain, operates in Turkey through a joint venture with the Canadian company Silvermet Inc. The joint venture will invest around $120 million to build the two plants. Each of the facilities is expected to treat around 110,000 tons of steel dust per year and will produce more than 80,000 tons of washed waelz oxide, a zinc-rich final product, which will be exported.

M. Ilker Ayci, president of Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT), notes, “This investment is very important, not only for bringing technology, creating employment and contribution to Turkey’s export, but also contribution to the environment. Befesa has added Turkey to its existing operations in Germany, France, U.K., Spain and Sweden. We are proud to win this investment for our country.”

Javier Molina, Befesa CEO, says, “We are very glad to contribute to Turkey’s sustainable development in the field of recycling and recovery of industrial waste with this investment. I would like to thank to Ilker Ayci and his team for their efforts and contributions to this project since the very beginning, in 2011. Regarding our plans, we are now at the stage of obtaining all the necessary environmental and construction permits that would hopefully be obtained by early 2013. We have also started to contact local Turkish banks to discuss financing options. At the same time we are developing the detailed engineering and procurement of works and equipment, so we should be able to start operations on site on schedule. The execution time of the works is planned to be around 18 months and we estimate the second half of 2014 for the plants to be in operation.”
 

Terex, Westport, Conn., has added SES Inc., West Chicago, Ill., as a full line distributor of Terex compact construction equipment and Terex Fuchs material handlers. SES has three locations to serve customers in the greater Chicago and northwest Indiana areas.

The Terex compact equipment line includes 45 product models, including compact track loaders, skid steers, loader backhoes, wheel loaders and excavators.

The Terex Fuchs line includes tracked and wheeled material handlers with operating weights that range from 41,888 pounds to 145,505 poundsand reach ranging from 30 to 68 feet.

“We are pleased to welcome SES as a Terex equipment distributor,” says Dean Barley, vice president and general manager, Terex Construction Americas and Global Aftermarket. “With their reputation for excellence, Terex is privileged to have such a well-known, well-respected equipment distributor representing our products and services to customers in the greater Chicago and Gary, Ind., area.”

SES was founded in 1968 by Steve Martines. Today, SES provides sales, rentals, parts and service of equipment to contractors, municipalities and government agencies, and also serves customers in specialty markets such as scrap, recycling, demolition and snow and ice management.

“We believe that we perform a unique role in developing equipment solutions for our customers that reduce manpower, increase productivity and promote the best service,” says Bob Jones, SES vice president of sales. “The Terex compact equipment and Terex Fuchs material handler lines are a natural fit for our markets and expertise. With all our years of industry experience and the right equipment available from manufacturers like Terex, we offer our customers custom-tailored solutions to meet their business requirements.”

In addition to offering a full line of products and services for Terex compact equipment and Terex Fuchs material handlers, qualified SES customers can take advantage of financing options through Terex Financial Services, which offers finance and leasing solutions, structured to accommodate customers’ cash flow and budgets.

Murphy Tractor and Equipment Co., based in Park City, Kansas, has been named exclusive dealer of Genesis Attachments, Superior, Wis., for Western Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Southern Ohio.

“Now carrying a wide range of attachments for use on all sizes of excavators and skid steers presents a great opportunity for our company to provide additional products and support to our existing customers,” says Matt McNett, Murphy Tractor and Equipment region manager.

Genesis says Murphy Tractor and Equipment Co.’s commitment to quality and customer service is well aligned with its own.

“Partnering with Murphy Tractor is a very good fit for us, but more importantly, it’s also beneficial for area companies interested in improving their operations through the use of attachments," says Leif Strandberg, Genesis Midwest regional manager.

Adds Jon Fodor, Genesis Great Lakes regional manager, “Genesis and Murphy Tractor working together is a winning combination for the southern Ohio region. Our partnership will provide customers with excellent local service as well as a wide variety of rental and sale package options. It’s rejuvenating working with such an ambitious group as Murphy Tractor.”

Murphy Tractor and Equipment Co., one of John Deere’s largest North American construction equipment dealer organizations, has 28 locations throughout the Midwestern states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nebraska.

Genesis Attachments designs and manufactures shears, grapples, concrete processors and specialty attachments for the scrap processing, demolition, material handling and decommissioning industries.

The Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center Inc. (RMC)  has formed a new business partnership to collect and recycle plastic well pad liners from gas drilling sites in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania.

News conference speakers, from left: Brett Fulk, CFO of WellSpring Environmental Services; David LaFiura, right, vice president of the Ultra-Poly Corp.; Robert Bylone, president and executive director of the PA Recycling Markets Center; Deputy PA Environmental Protection Secretary Vince Brisini; and PA Secretary of Community and Economic Development C. Alan Walker.“This is a first-of-its-kind venture that will produce major and dramatic benefits for Pennsylvania in addition to new jobs and growth for the companies directly,” says RMC Executive Director Robert Bylone Jr.

According to the RMC, the benefits include reclaiming millions of pounds of plastic, slowing the consumption of landfill space, reducing truck traffic around drill sites and increasing jobs in the area.

Partners in the venture are WellSpring Environmental Services LLC, headquartered in Orwigsburg, Pa., and Ultra-Poly Corp., based in Portland, Pa.

Both companies are members of the RMC’s Center of Excellence, a network of recycled materials processors and end users of recycled materials.

“The new recycling venture with WellSpring and Ultra-Poly is expected to take at least 20 million pounds a year of plastic well pad liner material out of the waste stream and turn it into useful new products,” Bylone says.

An estimated 100 million pounds of high density plastic were used for well-pad liners by drillers in the Marcellus Shale region in 2011. Currently, most of that material is disposed of in landfills when it needs to be replaced or removed.

Ultra-Poly, a North American recycler of polyethylene and polypropylene plastic, has designed a way to process the liner material and has built a recycling plant specifically for that purpose.

“We are supplying the recycled plastic to several existing customers, including Axion International, which turns the material into composite railroad ties and other composite building components,” says David LaFiura, vice president of Ultra-Poly. “The market is potentially huge, we have developed an environmentally responsible method, we are the only company doing this and we are in position to recycle as much of the liner material as we can get.”Wellspring tractor-trailer (in front of gas flare) ready to haul shredded liner pieces to Ultra-Poly plant for recycling.

Similarly, WellSpring says it has developed equipment for separating well pad liners on site so the pieces from one well site can be trucked away for recycling in a single trailer load. In the past, excavators were used to rip well pad liners into large sections, and it typically took eight to 10 trips with roll-off containers to transport the sections from a single site to a landfill for disposal.

“There’s not one well pad in Pennsylvania where this new approach doesn’t make sense,” says Jonas Kreitzer, president of WellSpring. “We can do liner removal more efficiently, at less cost, while cutting down truck traffic, protecting the environment, and generating commercially reusable material.”

An estimated 20,000 pounds of liner material is used per drilling site. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued 3,510 Marcellus Shale well permits in 2011 and another 1,243 through mid-May of this year. The department has already issued permits to the two companies for the process.

Bylone says the recycling process used for well-site liners may also be applicable to recycling agricultural film plastic.

Vince Brisini, deputy secretary for waste, air, radiation and remediation in the state DEP observes, “The development of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania is progressing, and to their credit, the natural gas industry and the associated industries and services, are becoming more efficient in the management of resources. I am pleased to see another solution that has found a market which allows the recycling and re-use of these plastic well pad liners.”

Jay Alexander, general manager of the Wayne Township landfill in Clinton County, says, “Since the beginning of 2011, the Wayne Township landfill has been very active in looking for sustainable recycling opportunities for the plastic liner material being removed from the natural gas well sites. In working with WellSpring Environmental Services, we have found a solution.”

WellSpring and Ultra-Poly have so far invested about $4 million in research and development.

LaFiura says the partnership will generate at least 80 jobs for Ultra-Poly, provide added job security for another 180 existing company jobs, and add an estimated $1 million a year to state and local tax revenues. Meanwhile Kreitzer says WellSpring will be adding another dozen employees and expanding its truck fleet.