North Shore Sanitary District (Zion, Ill.)
North Shore Sanitary District (NSSD) selected Minergy’s GlassPack® system as the technology of choice for sustainable biosolids management at a Sludge Recycling Facility in Zion, Ill., U.S.A. NSSD’s Sludge Recycling Facility incorporated the GlassPack® System to convert biosolids, produced at three of its facilities, into an inert glass aggregate product. The facility demonstrated that glass aggregate could be successfully produced from municipal biosolids. Due to there being more economic alternatives (partly as a result of rising energy prices), the GlassPack® system was shut down in 2009. Read more – Project summary sheet.
The Sludge Recycling Facility integrates both the GlassPack® System closed-loop oxygen enhanced combustion process and thermal energy recovery into processing up to 187 tons of biosolids at 17% to 20% solids per day. Heat energy, required by a fluidized bed dryer to produce up to 35 dry tons of granulate per day, is recovered from the melter flue gas using a thermal oil heat transfer system.
Videos
GlassPack Process at North Shore Sanitary District
Drying Process at North Shore Sanitary District
Plant Characteristics
Owner: North Shore Sanitary District
Location: Zion, Ill., U.S.A.
Sludge type: Municipal biosolids
Melter: GlassPack® GP35
Heat input: 26 mm Btu/hour
GlassPack® System configuration: Closed-loop oxygen enhanced combustion with energy recovery
Sludge capacity: 187 wet tons per day (as received), 35 dry tons per day
Glass aggregate production: 7.5 tons per day
Thermal energy recovery system: 16.5 mm Btu/hour thermal oil
Dryer technology: Fluidized bed (12,800 pounds/hour evaporative capacity)
Oxygen technology: Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption (VPSA)
on-site generation
Operational: 2006 – 2009