BioCycle March 2008, Vol. 49, No. 3, p. 39
Highlighting exhibitors attending the 24th Annual BioCycle West Coast Conference, April 14-16, 2008 in San Diego, California. For the full Conference Program, to register for the event, and to see an up-to-date list of exhibitors, visit www.biocycle.net.

A&L Western Agricultural Laboratories is an accredited environmental testing laboratory and a leader in agricultural testing. Its California and Oregon offices provide a range of analytical services – from soils and fertilizers to feedstock and microbiology testing – to clients in the western states, Hawaii, the Pacific Rim and Asia. It is accredited for the U.S. Composting Council’s Seal of Testing Assurance program.

AgrEnergy LLC provides anaerobic digester systems. Its goal is to supply the least energy consuming biogas plants, thus offering the highest net contribution of green energy. AgrEnergy has a unique financial implementation strategy to minimize the cost and risk to a project owner, improving the traditional funding leverage quotient.
An example of AgrEnergy’s application is a plant in Wisconsin, where it supplied components to Clear Horizons LLC for the development of a Stage 1 multisubstrate, complete mix digester. The primary substrate is cow manure, with a digester volume of 3,000 m3; a second digester will be built in 2008. Electrical generation currently is 230kW, but will be increased to 620kW with the new digester.

ALLU Group designs, manufactures and markets high-quality products for environmental and earthmoving applications, with a range of accessories for wheel loaders and excavators. It also sells compost windrow turners. The main products are screener crushers, stabilization systems and compacting plates.
The ALLU Screener Crusher bucket is a versatile accessory for a wheel loader, excavator or skid steer, allowing an operator to screen, crush, aerate and mix materials all in one stage. It has a rigid steel frame, on which horizontally rotating screening and crushing drums are mounted, and comes in several models. The ALLU windrow turner is a track driven machine equipped with its own engine for processing different materials. It can be used for stabilization and mixing of compost and soils.

Amadas Industries is a manufacturing company with 45 years of experience in manufacturing heavy-duty equipment. The company began by making peanut harvesting and processing equipment (including the world’s largest/highest capacity peanut combine, in conjunction with John Deere). Amadas Industries will be featuring bagging machines and screening equipment at the BioCycle West Coast Conference, which are used at mulch and compost bagging operations to manufacture products for wholesale and consumer markets.

Amerimulch offers a diverse line of colorizing machinery and mulch colorant. Equipment includes the Spitfire color injection pumps, the Mite series coloring machines and the ColorTrom.
Amerimulch will be featuring the portable Mega Mite mulch-coloring machine, equipped with the H2NO water saving system. The Mega Mite has a production rate of 300 plus cubic yards per hour. In March 2008, Amerimulch will be delivering a portable Mega Mite coloring system to San Diego’s Miramar Greenery/Landfill. It will be the largest mulch colorizer on the West Coast.

Andgar Corp. was established in 1935, and has specialized in all facets of construction and project management. Andgar Corporation and GHD Inc. have teamed up to market, construct and general contract GHD’s patented two-step plug flow digester. The GHD anaerobic digester is successful in hot and cold climates and works well with scrape, flush and vacuum collection systems.
A recent project completed at a 4,000-cow dairy in Outlook, Washington processes about 150,000 gallons/day of cow manure in a concrete anaerobic digester. The digester not only contributes to the farmer’s nutrient management plan, it also produces about 458,000 cubic feet of methane gas. This gas is fed to engines to generate 1200 kWh of electricity, the equivalent to power 720 homes, bringing a second income to the dairy.

Applied Technologies Inc. (ATI) & GSE Construction Co. have teamed up to offer design/build services for the conversion of organic material to biogas and the utilization of biogas as an energy source. The ATI/GSE team recently completed improvements to a wastewater pretreatment system for a California fruit processor. The system is designed to treat 160,000 gallons/day of wastewater by removing approximately 99 percent of BOD (biological oxygen demand), and produce methane gas to be used in the facility’s boilers. The process includes screening, equalization, anaerobic treatment, aerobic treatment, clarification and a biogas reuse facility.

ArrowBio is an integrated system designed to process mixed MSW. The ArrowBio system combines upfront separation/preparation, followed by two-stage anaerobic digestion. Resulting products are captured recyclables, water in excess of the plant’s needs, well-stabilized digestate and methane-rich biogas. A full-scale facility is operating at a transfer station located in Tel Aviv, Israel. A larger plant is under construction near Sydney, Australia (to be commissioned in July 2008).

BACKHUS North America manufactures turning solutions for professional composting, waste processing and bioremediation. Customer dialogue allows BACKHUS EcoEngineers to develop concepts for plants and machinery, which provide logical, long-term solutions for the treatment of waste. The company has four categories of turning equipment: the Bridge Turner is designed for a fully-automated plant with handling capacity of greater than 100,000 tons annually; the Lane Turner is for fully- or semiautomated plants and enables batch separation; the Mobile Trapezoid and Windrow Turner models are designed for aerating/turning compost piles. The windrow units offer turning capacities from 532 cy/hour up to 8,500 cy/hour. Added features include a side conveyor and cabin-controlled winding devices to pull on and remove fleece covers.

BacTee Systems Inc.‘s BioAer Aeration Floor provides uniform air distribution for a variety of environmental and industrial applications including aeration floors for biofilters, compost systems and soil remediation. The Baseplate units are typically placed on a concrete subfloor with a Class A finish. The Bactee aeration floor has been installed at several organic waste management projects in southern California, including the biofilter at the Inland Empire Utilities Agency’s cocomposting plant, and the in-vessel composting facility operated by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District.

Bandit Industries, Inc., entering its 25th year, manufactures an array of chippers and grinders used for composting, organics recycling and biomass processing operations. Last year the company introduced its Model 3590, a whole tree chipper that produces uniform-sized chips, ideal for biomass energy applications.
Bandit also introduced “Son of a Beast,” the Model 1680 tow-behind grinder ideal for municipal and small land clearing jobs. Larger models include the 3680 Beast Recycler, which can process over 400 yards/hour. “The grinders are more forgiving than the chippers if contaminants are encountered,” says Jason Morey. “The teeth on our grinders are built to withstand certain metals. The magnetic head pulley at the end of the discharge separates metals from the end product.”

Brown Bear Corp. makes a broad line of composting equipment and will be featuring its self-propelled windrow composting products with 130 to 350 HP engines and sludge aeration (drying) equipment, as well as specialized attachments for skid steer loaders, farm tractors and articulated loaders. All products feature a compound helical paddle (flail) design rotor that moves the complete windrow, eliminating the need for large open spaces between rows and guarantees that all of the pile is aerated, eliminating septic pockets and nonaerated layers near the pad.
Brown Bear specializes in the municipal composting and sludge drying market, composting for the agricultural dairy, poultry and feedlot industries, and composting of waste materials from the food processing industry. A new version of the HYDTPOLM24 compost attachment for small farm tractors was introduced in late 2007.

California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA), founded in 1974, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting waste reduction, reuse, recycling, pollution prevention and composting. The CRRA works to expand markets for recycled materials, promotes sustainable materials policies and is a clearinghouse for information, innovation and industry and governmental initiatives.
New in 2008, CRRA has launched a Resource Management Professional Certification Program. It is holding six workshops between February and September 2008. Sponsored in part by a grant from the US EPA, workshops will be held around the state, offering attendees opportunities to get certified as a Resource Management Professional. CRRA’s 32nd Annual Conference will be in San Francisco, August 3-6, 2008, on “Climate Change is Not a Game – We Can Lose.”

Community Recycling & Resource Recovery Inc. has a large-scale composting facility in Lamont, California, and a transfer station and Materials Recovery Facility in Sun Valley. Organics – primarily food waste and soiled paper – are collected from over 1,200 grocery stores, as well as restaurants and several communities. Food residuals from southern California are taken to the Sun Valley transfer station for preprocessing, a stage where the material is mixed with yard trimmings. It is then taken to Lamont for composting. Organics collected from farther north and east of Los Angeles go directly to the composting site. The bulk of the compost produced is sold to agricultural markets.

Emerge Knowledge Design, Inc. offers innovative environmental information solutions. Re-TRAC, to be featured at the BioCycle West Coast Conference, is a web-based data management system designed to help municipal, county and state governments collect, track and report information about all of their waste management, organics and recycling programs. Re-TRAC can combine data from weigh scales, haulers, contractors, commercial generators and communities, and help department staff instantly run aggregated reports. There are Re-TRAC users in 23 states in the U.S., including 6 state governments, 45 counties/solid waste management districts and 3 municipal governments. A new product called EcoVille is being launched in 2008, designed to help governments easily promote sustainability practices to residents.

Engineered Compost Systems (ECS) provides each of its customers with a solution tailored to best meet their needs for economic and environmental sustainability. ECS develops a detailed process design in concert with team members such as engineers, environmental consultants and contractors. From construction and start-up to once the project is operational, ECS provides the manufactured process components and broad technical support.
The AC Composter™ Covered ASP technology offers cost-effective control of air emissions and odors, while producing compost (patents pending); the SV Composter™ Concrete site-built in-vessel technology provides processing certainty for all climates and feedstocks; the CV Composter™ Modular in-vessel technology requires minimal infrastructure and easy expandability; the CompDog™ is an affordable aeration floor for new facilities, or is a logical upgrade path for existing windrow composters (patents pending); and the CompTroller™ is an automated compost process control and monitoring system with the largest number of installations in North America.

Environmental Credit Corp. (ECC) is a provider of carbon credits, renewable energy certificates and other air and water quality credits. ECC offers project development services as well, such as installing anaerobic digesters at farms in exchange for a share of the carbon credits. Carbon credits are created with organizations through a number of different processes, including reduction of methane emissions for agricultural operations, wastewater treatment plants and landfills; renewable energy production; and carbon sequestration from forestry production.

Filtrexx International/GroExx is an innovative solution provider for erosion and sediment control. Its expanding toolbox of compost erosion control products includes the use of FilterMedia™ and Growing Media that is custom installed within a mesh FilterSoxx.™ The FilterSoxx™ allows loose organic products to be contained and provides many environmental benefits. Composted feedstocks are used for material selection because they offer an available, high quality, low risk option for filtration and growing applications. Twelve erosion and sediment products are available, for use as silt fence alternatives, straw bale replacements or as a substitute for other BMPs commonly used on construction sites.

Green Mountain Technologies (GMT) has been a leader in the design and manufacture of in-vessel composting equipment since 1992. GMT manufactures a wide range of products for composting with windrows, static piles and concrete tunnel systems, and is offering two new product lines at the BioCycle West Coast Conference. The first is an aerated static pile (ASP) system for increasing capacity of windrow sites. GMT installed its first system at Washington State University last summer to add capacity to an existing windrow facility. The ASP system also allowed for odor control and air emissions treatment via a biofilter with the option of negative aeration.
GMT is also offering wireless temperature sensor probes for its Windrow Manager software package. The wireless probes allow for continuous monitoring of field data, including temperature and moisture, from the office.

Hamer LLC has been manufacturing bagging equipment since 1930. Commonly bagged materials are dry solids, soil/mulch, concrete/aggregates, packaged ice and chemicals. Equipment offered includes horizontal form, fill and seal machines, and units for conveying and handling, bag filling and bag closing. Hamer has sold a number of machines for bagging wood pellet fuel. “Typically, pellet fuels are packaged in 40 lb bags,” says Dan Brown of Hamer. “Dosing is accomplished with a Net Weight Scale that can be run in the 26 to 28 bags/minute range with a 40 lb bag. Then our Model 2080 Form-Fill-Seal machine does the actual bagging, and depending on the needs of the producer, we can install end-of-the line bag handling equipment – from a hand-stacking conveyor to a robotic palletizer with a fully automatic shrink wrapper.”

Hawker Corp., owned by Susan and Oren Posner of Eugene, Oregon, manufactures the Airlift Separator, originally developed to meet the needs of their composting process at Lane Forest Products. The Airlift Separator is a plastic removal system for organic waste. It is a portable, simple to install, vacuum system that plucks film plastic from compost as it travels up the conveyor belt of a screening plant. The Airlift is easy to operate, cost-effective to run and works with most screening plants.
Over 50 Airlift Separators are installed, and many companies own more than one, using the Airlift on both the “overs” and finished “fines” conveyors. The Airlift is also used in adjoining picking stations to assist with the manual labor involved in prescreening material.

HCL has been manufacturing agricultural equipment since 1947. HCL machinery is being used at many dairies to produce both compost and freestall bedding from raw manure – farm settings that require rugged, efficient and effective machines with low energy requirements. HCL machines are also used in cities all across the U.S., and in many different countries around the world, as part of an energy-efficient and cost-effective waste disposal system aligned with both municipal and private industrial needs.

Jordan Reduction Solutions is the OEM successor to Mitts and Merrill Size Reduction Equipment. Jordan Reduction Solutions manufactures a line of Organics Hog Mill Grinders used in various applications. It is currently working with several large engineering firms in the research and development of grinding applications for switchgrass, sorghum, sugar cane bagasse and other materials. Full testing capabilities are available in its Birmingham, Alabama manufacturing facility.

Komptech USA is a leading innovator in the mechanical processing of solid waste and biomass. Its technology is used around the world, to reduce landfill volumes, increase recycling efficiency and transform waste into valuable raw materials and fuels. Equipment featured at the BioCycle West Coast Conference includes the Crambo wood shredder, which consumes half the fuel to produce the same amount of material in a year. The low operation costs and availability of the Crambo with an electric engine make it the perfect machine for indoor facility use.

Managed Organic Recycling, Inc. (MOR) provides consulting, engineering and equipment for composting facilities utilizing in-vessel aerated static pile (ASP) cover systems. MOR’s line of compost covers is for all stages of the composting process, from active composting to stabilization and storage. Its covers are designed to meet specific client needs and/or regulatory requirements.
Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility (CVWRF) in Salt Lake City, Utah is currently in phase one development of a biosolids composting facility employing MOR’s Active and Stabilization covers. Once complete, CVWRF’s composting facility will have the capacity to compost 315 tons/day of biosolids and green waste under 72 compost covers.

Morbark, Inc. has been manufacturing dependable equipment since 1957, offering heavy-duty wood grinders and chippers. Morbark tub grinders and horizontal grinders easily process stumps, logs, storm debris and green waste into a saleable product. Its chippers include hand-fed brush chippers and massive whole tree chippers. Model 50/48 has a 48-inch diameter drum and can process over 100 tons/hour. The unit has larger teeth on the infeed roller, and rear stabilization legs. In addition to whole trees, the chipper is used to process brush and tangled slash. Model 30/36 has a production rate of up to 50 tons/hour. A knuckleboom loader feeds material into the drum-style chipper that has a 30-inch cutting anvil. The portable chipper is also used to process logging slash and railroad ties.

Norseman Plastics Ltd. is the manufacturer of curbside containers, in-home organics recycling containers and the Earth MachineTM compost bin. Through its Environmental Products Division, Norseman has led the market in backyard composting initiatives in North America and the United Kingdom for over 15 years. The Earth MachineTM is the most successful product of its type in the world, with more than two million units sold in successful partnerships with over 3,000 communities. Another major accomplishment has been the design, manufacture and home delivery of over two million manual curbside organics collection containers (The Green BinTM).
In September 2007, Norseman launched a new product called The MURFE (Multi-Unit Recycler For Everyone), providing an opportunity to increase recycling at multifamily residences.

NWCI is a nonprofit entity that advises on equipment used in forestry, yard waste processing and land clearing. Daniel Hathaway, one of NWCI’s founders, created the Brushworker package: a tractor with a Fecon shredder and a grapple loader that is a multitasking, tree-processing machine. “For suburban yard waste, this unit is the most practical for knock down and first shred for volume reduction,” explains Hathaway. “We get it to where the product can be handled … for baling, piling, screening or just for transport. This is a small-scale harvesting system for the organic infrastructure of towns and cities. You drive the tractor from job to job along the city streets, blinking flashers and turning signals, clearing land, cleaning inner city lots. It shreds piles of brush, mows overgrowth away from city parks and fence lines, along roadsides and in forested suburbs, and creates empty defensible spaces for firefighters.”

Pacific Rock & Recycle Equipment Co. is an equipment dealer with over 25 years of operational experience. Utilizing the products it represents, the company is able to assist customers in selecting the “right” piece of equipment for their needs. Customers are associated with many different industries including: composting and organics recycling, sand and gravel operations, remedial materials processing, recycling and landfill operations, land clearing and site contractors, mining, bark and topsoil production and agriculturalists. Pacific Rock & Recycle Equipment Co. sells equipment manufactured by McClosky, Scarab and Phoenix.

Peterson Pacific Corp. offers the Peterson line of horizontal grinders and chippers used in the composting and biomass markets. Its track-mounted horizontal grinders are well-suited for land clearing operations, and constitute more than half of the company’s grinder sales. The horizontal grinder line ranges from the new model 2710C at 475 HP, to the 6700 series at 1200 HP. One of the unique features of Peterson’s grinders is the multiple grate system, which allows a user to mix and match different grates to reach any material size with minimal difficulty. The Peterson Impact Release System is a patented feature that helps minimize damage from nongrindable material that inevitably finds its way into the feedstock.

REMU Screens USA, Inc. introduced its composting equipment to the U.S. market several years ago, and opened a U.S. office in Florida last October. Its product line includes screening bucket attachments for wheel loaders and excavators that are used for final product refinement. “Customers use the buckets for compost screening as well as blending compost with other soil amendments,” says Juha Salmi of REMU USA Inc. “Particle sizes range from 5/8-inch to 2 3/4-inches. The buckets are efficient with moist or even wet materials.”
REMU also manufactures the ST Combi plant equipped with variable sizes of conveyors and screening elements depending on the use; its capacity is up to 400 cubic yards/hour.

REOTEMP has been manufacturing compost instrumentation for over 20 years, offering a full line of temperature and moisture probes. The probe models include Heavy-Duty Thermometers, Fast Response Thermometers, Digital Thermometers, Probe Handles and Guards, Wireless Monitoring System, Data Loggers, Backyard Moisture Meters, Backyard Compost Thermometers and Moisture Meters.
REOTEMP’s newest product is the Backyard Moisture Meter. It has a 17-inch stem and is designed for monitoring the relative moisture in a backyard sized compost bin.

Resourceful Bag & Tag, Inc. knows that as Zero Waste events expand, the demand increases for an effective system that eliminates contamination in recyclables and food compost. Since January 1990, over 1,500 communities are using Resourceful to be their supplier for waste and recycling bags and tags.
Resourceful is featuring its BPI certified biodegradable bags and the ClearStream Compost Collection Unit at the BioCycle West Coast Conference. A new product feature in 2008 is custom printed biodegradable bags.

Roto-Mix LLC manufactures industrial compost mixers and spreaders in a wide range of sizes, offered in stationary, trailer and truck-mounted models. The rotary design of the mixers utilizes a large diameter staggered rotor and two side mounted augers for rapid and thorough mixing, with no tunneling. The new Generation II staggered rotor has improved lifting and tumbling action, with fewer revolutions, which means better fuel economy. It is available in 16, 19, 23, 27 and 34 cubic yard capacity models. The new design has staggered paddles for mixing heavier and stickier ingredients, and has eliminated the need for springs and spring boxes, lowering maintenance costs.

Sage Metering, Inc. will be exhibiting its line of high performance Thermal Mass Flow Meters (TMFMs) to measure the flow rate and consumption of digester gas, biogas and landfill gas, e.g., to meet Kyoto/CDM and CCX Greenhouse Gas Standards for GHG emission offsets. In addition, Sage measures the landfill gas used for energy, as well as the flare gas for environmental compliance. TMFMs have a unique digital-drive circuitry that results in extreme low-end sensitivity (suitable for the very low flows associated with biogas and digester gas), wide rangeability and direct mass flow. There is no need for temperature or pressure corrections. In 2008, Sage will be introducing a low power/low voltage (12 VDC) version of the Sage Prime Mass Flow Meter (for methane, biogas and digester gas flow), suitable for solar energy installations.
Sage Metering has worked closely with a GHG Emission reduction company focusing on livestock farms in Mexico and Brazil. The methane captured by digesters at pig farms is converted to 60 percent CH4/35 percent CO2.

Schmack BioEnergy LLC, based in Cleveland, Ohio, is a full-service technology provider in the anaerobic digestion industry. The company was jointly formed with Schmack Biogas AG, an anaerobic digester equipment manufacturer based in Germany. “We design-build and operate digester installations, and in some cases we also own them,” explains Mark Suchan of Schmack BioEnergy. “We are marketing Schmack’s complete mix digester technology that is designed for feedstocks of up to 25 percent solids, which is currently used at over 250 installations in Germany. Here in the U.S., we have a full service laboratory that converts samples of organic waste into very specific design and performance specifications.”
In December 2007, Schmack commissioned a digester to process wastewater biosolids for the city of Akron, Ohio. One-third of the biosolids from Akron’s wastewater treatment plant (5,000 dry tons/year) are being fed into the digester; biogas is fed to a Jenbacher engine to generate 335 kW of electricity. Plans are in place to scale-up and process all of Akron’s biosolids. “A project in Columbus will take food waste, manure and sewage sludge and produce pipeline quality gas,” adds Suchan.

Siemens Water Technologies will be exhibiting the IPS Composting System, an automated, agitated bin technology used in a wide range of applications, such as composting source separated organics (SSO), municipal solid waste (MSW) and biosolids, as well as Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT). The technology has changed and improved significantly over the past 20 years, as reflected in more than 25 facilities worldwide that use IPS. The latest equipment features and designs maximize capacity, require a smaller land area and enable greater process control and product quality than the earlier generations.
Biosolids are one of the standard IPS applications, such as at the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, in Calabasas, California. The District owns and operates a 14-year-old biosolids and sawdust composting facility, which is totally enclosed and utilizes a biofilter.

Trinity Trailer Mfg. has been making the “Eagle Bridge,” a self-unloading commodity belt trailer, since 1975. Due to its unique design, Eagle Bridge Trailers are very versatile and durable. They are also very low maintenance, high in quality and quick to unload. The Eagle Bridge Trailer has the highest resale value of any belt trailer.
One of the best assets of the Eagle Bridge Trailer is the variety of materials that can be hauled. Examples include: wet feeds, animal feeds, fertilizers, poultry litter, all composting materials, sewage sludge, fuel wood for cogeneration plants, fly ash by-product, green waste, construction debris, fruits and vegetables.

U.S. Composting Council is a national trade association representing the composting industry. It sponsors the Seal of Testing Assurance compost certification program, as well as the annual International Compost Awareness Week, in the U.S., which takes place May 4-10, 2008.

Vermeer offers a full line of horizontal directional drilling systems and accessories, utility and track trenchers, mini skid steers, surface excavation equipment, recycling and wood waste processing, composting, tree products and agricultural hay harvesting equipment. Its horizontal and tub grinders have been used in land clearing operations for the Vancouver Olympics site, as well as a new Toyota manufacturing facility. Vermeer will feature wood waste processing, composting and tree care equipment at West Coast. New products are scheduled to be introduced in the spring/summer.

W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. offers the “GORETM Cover System,” based on the membrane laminate technology similar to that of its world famous GORE-TEX® fabrics for outerwear and footwear. It offers an integrated system including GORETM Cover, in-floor aeration, aeration blowers, oxygen and temperature sensors, controllers, computers, software, cover handling systems, training, engineering guidance, installation support and the experience gained through installations of more than 150 plants in over 20 different countries worldwide. Over two million tons of organic wastes are treated using GORE,TM with annual throughput capacity of 3,000 to 260,000 tons.
The central component of these systems is the GORE™ Cover, a windrow cover made of a specially developed, microporous biological inert GORETM ePTFE Membrane, laminated between two ultraviolet resistant, highly robust support fabrics. Because of the special pore structures of the membrane, the GORE™ Cover possesses unique semipermeable properties that produce a constant microclimate in the heap. Being waterproof and windproof, the GORE™ Cover protects the composting material from the elements.

Wildcat Mfg. has been making compost turners, trommel screens and green waste sorting equipment since 1973. It now has 130 sales and service locations across the U.S., with equipment in 50 states and over 30 foreign countries. Because of this extensive network of service centers, and because John Deere engines are used, customers are never far away from someone who can provide parts and service, minimizing downtime. “We also are getting more involved with doing a site survey for a customer to find out exactly what material(s) they are processing, and then put together a unit for that specific application,” says Tim O’Hara of Wildcat.