Equipment company adds dealers for Texas/Oklahoma and Central America.
Palfinger North America, Niagara Falls, Ontario, has named Darr Equipment Co. its new truck-mounted forklift dealer in Texas and Oklahoma. These regions cover 81 and 75 counties, respectively. Darr Equipment Co., in business since 1954, serves the earth moving and materials handling industries. The company also provides new and used forklifts and construction equipment. Palfinger North America also named Equipos Multiples de Guatemla SA as its new dealer in Guatemala. The company will be responsible for Palfinger knuckle boom cranes, truck mounted forklifts and Epsilon products in Guatemala. Equipos Multiples de Guatemala SA currently is responsible for Palfinger American Roll-Off and Equipment Technology LLC (ETI). In a release, Andrés Magallón, regional sales manager for Palfinger North America, says, "Equipos Multiples de Guatemala SA, covers the entire country with two branches and eight salespersons in addition to the sales oriented general manager, Edwin Reyes.” With Multiequipos’ location, it will be able to respond to enquiries from not only Guatemala, but Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize as well.
Company says the retrofit will triple the facility's capacity.
Phoenix-based Republic Services has announced that its Lorain County Resource Recovery facility in Oberlin, Ohio, has been completely retrofitted. The material recovery facility (MRF) can now process up to 150,000 tons of recyclables per year, close to three times its previous capacity. The facility, now open, processes commercial and residential materials from five counties in northeast Ohio. The retrofit project began November 2012 and was completed in March 2013. Republic Services points out that all the technology at the facility has been updated. Retrofits include custom-engineered, manufactured and installed conveyors, separation screens, magnets, optical sorters and balers. Additionally, the company has completed a 12,000-square-foot expansion of its warehouse. The equipment vendor for the program was CP Group, San Diego. Along with the MRF expansion, the Lorain County Resource Recovery Facility, which opened in 1992, has expanded the types of recyclables in can accept. Material now handled by the MRF includes plastics 1 through 7, all grades of paper, old corrugated containers, glass, aluminum and steel. Republic Services says the new system produces less than 10 percent residual waste, keeping more waste out the landfill. “Through expansion and redesign, this impressive facility uses advanced sorting equipment to identify and separate materials, increasing efficiency and maximizing recycling efforts,” says Eric VanHouten, general manager of Republic’s Elyria Business Unit. “The renovation shows Republic’s dedication to our local environmental efforts and has allowed us to enhance and grow the recycling efforts made by our customers.” The enhanced recycling center has been designed to run at 35 tons per hour. Prior to the expansion the facility was able to process 15 tons of recyclables per hour. In related news, Republic Services’ Lorain County Resource Recovery Facility, along with Elyria Hauling, are now accepting food and beverage cartons in the residential curbside collection programs. “We’re pleased to offer more recycling choices. Adding cartons to our recycling lineup is just one more way we are showing our strong commitment to recycling in northeast Ohio," says VanHouten.
The city resurfaced a historic road with rubberized asphalt made of ground up, recycled tires.
Equipment company hires Wesley Brubaker as part of its field services personnel.
Blue Sphere lands $7.5 million to build an organics-to-energy plant in Charlotte.
Israeli company Blue Sphere Corp., which describes itself as a clean energy project integrator, has received a signed term sheet from an environmental finance fund to provide $7.5 million in equity financing for the company’s Charlotte, N.C., organics-to-energy anaerobic digester project.
The deal follows the company receiving an earlier commitment letter from Caterpillar Financial Services Corp., Peoria, Ill., to provide Blue Sphere with $17.785 million in debt financing. With the two commitment letters the project is fully financed, says Blue Sphere.
Blue Sphere, along with Biogas Nord AG of Germany, is acting as the integrator of the Charlotte project through its joint venture company known as Bino Sphere. Biogas Nord has designed and built close to 400 waste-to-energy plants in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. With financing committed, Blue Sphere says it is in the process of completing all closing conditions, including investment tax credit monetization, feedstock supply and permits.
Blue Sphere expects to break ground on the Charlotte project by the third quarter of 2013. “The equity commitment from the fund means that, together with the debt commitment from Caterpillar Financial Services, 100 percent of the project financing is now committed to our 5.2 MW organics-to-energy project,” says Shlomi Palas, CEO of Blue Sphere. “We are now working on finalizing the definitive agreements to begin the disbursement of cash and commence construction. We are required to close the equity financing by the beginning of September 2013.
“Commencement of construction will allow Blue Sphere to begin earning revenue pursuant to the terms of our joint venture with Biogas Nord,” Palas continues. “Once the project is commissioned, approximately 12 months from the start of construction, Blue Sphere will earn operating revenue from the sale of contracted electricity into the local grid owned by Duke Energy, Inc., tipping fees for the organic waste the project will receive, as well as ongoing management fees.”
Palas added that Blue Sphere is also making progress on the implementation of its second project, a 3.2 MW organics-to-energy anaerobic digester project in Rhode Island. Blue Sphere could break ground on that project by the end of 2013, said Palas.