Sand Recycling As A Service
According to Finnish company Resand Ltd, the earth is running out of sand. There is a recycling technology to stop wasting the needed material, which is able to clean the sand “so that it is better than new and good to be reused again and again. On location. As a service.”
Resand, a specialist in the regeneration and recycling of foundry sand, is – by its own account – the first company to launch an electric sand reclaimer on the European market. “The reclaimer unit is a modular system that is quick and customer-friendly for the foundry to install and commission, with a delivery time of only 4-5 months,” the company assured. CO2 emissions from using new sand and associated transportation could be reduced by up to 70 percent. “When using renewable energy, the reclaimer’s direct greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. Scope 1 emissions, remain low.”
The system is specially designed for medium-sized foundries and has a production capacity of 1,000 kilograms of recovered sand per hour. “With an electrically heated drive, the sand reclaimer is very easy to connect to the foundry’s mains, which means that clean sand is always available at the foundry”, Resand underlined.
In April, the first SAAS (Sand As A Service) agreement for the new electric reclaimer was signed with a Finnish foundry. “With the agreement, sand regeneration will take place at the customer foundry’s production facilities. After regeneration, the sand can be used again and again in foundry processes, effectively reducing the need for virgin sand.”
The technique
On Resand’s homepage, one can read that the modular sand reclaimer treats the used sand in a thermo-mechanical regeneration process, which combines elements of high-temperature treatment, mechanical polishing of the sand grains, and dedusting of the cleaned sand. In this way, the used sand is cleaned of binder residues and other impurities. The result: The regenerated sand has reached a 95 percent level of mold strength compared to virgin sand, “making regenerated sand one of the few things in the world, where used is as good as new.”
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2024, Page 37, Photo: Resand)
