Energy Recovery
Energy recovery aims to make use of the energy content of wastes and by-products by way of efficient and sustainable alternatives, thereby providing added value to our clients' processes. GAIKER specialises in the exploitation of industrial waste, post-consumer waste and agrifood by-products. We develop ad hoc waste-valorisation and fuel-production processes, as well as chemical plastic-recycling and biofuel production processes.
Indeed, one of our main R+D+i activities is centred on the field of biofuels (biodiesel, synthesis of hydrocarbons and bioalcohols, etc.). We have a 50-L pilot plant for the synthesis of biodiesel which enables us to test different raw materials and catalysts and to study and optimise the process variables. In the past few years we have begun to study microalgae, assessing their potential as a raw material for energy-related applications and other value-added uses, including the development of technologies for the design of innovative and integrated biorefining processes.
We are also a reference centre in the field of waste valorisation. We work to characterise and develop waste-derived fuels (WDFs) and the chemical recycling of plastic and composite materials, amongst others. Our laboratory equipment, which ranges from tank-type reactors to two pilot plants, a fluidised bed reactor and a supercritical fluid plant, enables us to analyse the behaviour of plastics, biomass and waste in solvolysis, pyrolysis and gasification processes and to optimise the reaction conditions and scale these processes up.
Main lines of activity:
- Development of chemical plastic-recycling processes and the production of biofuels.
- Development of waste and sub-product valorisation operations and secondary fuels.
- Biofuels
- Biodiesel (heterogeneous catalysis)
- Synthesis of hydrocarbons (F-T) and bioalcohols
- Microalgal cultures
- Biomass valorisation
- Waste-derived fuels (WDFs)
- Chemical recycling
- Solvolysis processes (glycolysis, hydrolysis…)
- Thermal treatments (pyrolysis, gasification…)