Event
Ferrara, Italy
18 - 20 Sep
RemTech Expo
Feiring Bruk invests in a new crushing and washing plant to process quarry waste.
With the new plant at Bjønndalen Bruk, Feiring can recover crushed rock fines to produce 300 tons of industrial sand per hour. The plant, engineered and supplied by CDE and our Norwegian partners, Nordic Bulk, washes by-product materials from crushed stone production to make high-quality industrial sand.
The new wet processing plant enables Feiring Bruk to maximise the potential of its quarry by utilising 100% of what is extracted and recover old residual material from the crushing operations. Most importantly, the wash plant makes it possible to produce industrial sand that has the same properties as natural sand and therefore perfectly suitable for concrete production.
WET PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY
Natural sand is the most consumed natural resource after water, and in some places this non-renewable resource is already in short supply. At the same time, crushed stone quarries face a recurring problem in that around 20% of their output consists of low value “waste” materials for which it is difficult to find a use.
“We are proud to work with Nordic Bulk and Feiring, who dare to invest in innovative solutions," says Eunan Kelly, our Head of Business Development for Europe.
“When conventional dry processing equipment struggles to handle fines from crushed rock, which often has a high fines content, our wet processing technology proves to be better equipped to tackle these challenges. By using this technology, Feiring is able to produce high quality sand and maximise the product yield from the crusher," explains Kelly.
"With the new crushing and washing plant, we will go from having 20% by-product materials resulting from extractive operations in Bjønndalen/Nittedal down to around 3%. In the long term, we will achieve 100% resource utilisation. So this is a win-win in terms of both resource use and emissions associated with transportation," says Fredrik Brubakken, site manager at Bjønndalen Bruk.
By recovering resources that were previously unused and took up large areas of the site, Feiring Bruk can now reduce the need for natural sand, a limited resource that has to be sourced from increasingly further distances.
HIGH QUALITY INDUSTRIAL SAND
“The new wash plant enables Feiring to reduce operating costs through better resource utilisation, while offering significant environmental benefits," says Steen Sanddahl, project manager at Nordic Bulk.
Feiring Bruk has collaborated with NTNU, SINTEF and Betong Øst to find the best possible solution for replacing natural sand in concrete. As early as 2021, the company began producing industrial sand in its Lørenskog site, where a first CDE plant has been operating since 2015.
The rock in the crushed stone plant in Nittedal is very special. It is therefore mainly used for applications that place high demands on the stone to achieve the desired strength or service life. "Initial tests have shown that this rock has particularly good properties as industrial sand in concrete," says Brubakken.
This means that you can both potentially reduce cement consumption and improve the concrete without compromising its structural properties or durability.
GROWING INTEREST
Although the investment has come at a cost, Brubakken believes that this is the right way to go.
“Processing by-product material into high-quality industrial sand is both cost-effective and sustainable. With stricter environmental requirements and long transportation routes for natural sand, we're noticing that more people in the Oslo area are now looking at industrial sand," says Brubakken.
The great interest in the product means that 50% of the production capacity at the plant has already been sold.
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