THE BIG PICTURE
7recyclinginternational.com | September/October | 2020
A royal kick-off
The EUR 70 million facility handles
steel scrap containing, among others,
asbestos and chromium-6 as well as
organic contamination from large
demolition objects such as chemical
installations, drilling platforms and
trains.
During the process, the asbestos dis-
integrates into harmless components,
while the chromium-6 is removed. The
contaminated steel is smelted at
extremely high temperatures that
decompose the asbestos. Chromium-6
is trapped in the flue while organic
compounds are burned. The end
product is a clean, premium raw mate-
rial for steel mills, branded Purified
Metal Blocks.
PMC’s approach is claimed to save
one tonne of CO2 emissions for every
tonne of steel produced when com-
pared to steel made from iron ore.
The company’s business model is sup-
ported by a ban on the landfilling of
asbestos-containing steel recently
imposed by the Dutch government.
‘This will certainly be a boost for more
materials coming to our Delfzijl plant,’
it says.
A former Soviet submarine that was
dismantled and scrapped at the
Janssen Recycling yard in the Port of
Rotterdam (see the feature article in
the May/June issue of Recycling
International) has the honour of being
the first major demolition project in
which contaminated scrap was pro-
cessed at PMC.
PMC expects to be profitable by 2021
with the workforce of 30 growing to
65 once the plant is at full capacity.
The company plans to set up similar
facilities at other locations around the
world.
Fotobijschrift
KADERKOP
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06-07_thebigpicture.indd 7 28-09-20 16:27
