Orchid, formerly Fairport

A new and unique process concept for producing a fuel from MSW

Full Review:
Although Juniper has been evaluating this process for some time, this is the first 'off-the-shelf' report available from us, or any other independent analyst, of this new approach to waste processing. Because the process is based on mechanical heat treatment (MHT) and not mechanical biological treatment (MBT), it was not included in Juniper’s comprehensive review of MBT systems published in 2005. This review is therefore a new, fully comprehensive, assessment of the process, including a detailed appraisal of their semi-commercial demonstration trial.

The Orchid technology utilises a novel process concept for processing municipal waste. This has attracted considerable interest since it may have the potential to offer some significant advantages over alternatives such as incineration and some types of MBT. Moreover, the Orchid process offers some unique features which single it out from other MHT processes. These key attributes are assessed in the report. This independent review can help you to assess whether this process is a contender for your specific application and whether or not you might decide to include it on a shortlist.

The company claim that they can produce a wide range of products, some qualifying for premium prices as renewable fuels. The report assesses how justified these claims are.

One of the key conclusions from our analysis is that this process may be of interest for processing the types of highly putrescible wastes that are often typical of tropical countries.

What’s in the review:
This analyses the current status of the process, and examines the issues which would be of most interest to potential customers. It includes the following:

• Advantages and disadvantages of this approach to managing wastes
• An assessment of the technology concept and its strengths and weaknesses
• Details of the development work which has been undertaken to prove the process
• Objective analysis of the quality of the outputs

Examples of specific potential issues identified and discussed within the report include:

• Can the process operate as a stand-alone solution or does it need to be used in conjunction with other technologies
• How marketable are the products from the process and can they command a price from users

It also reports on the concept being promoted by Orchid of integrating their MHT technology with an on-site gasifier and discusses the positive and negative features of such an approach.

Table of Contents

Published: 13th August, 2007
Price:   180 UK pounds
Number of pages: 39
Format: downloadable pdf.