When municipal waste is incinerated, its volume is greatly reduced. However, the process generates residues such as slag and fly ash. To prevent the fly ash from escaping through the incinerator chimney into the environment, it must be filtered out of the incineration gases and then cleaned. This cleaning stage is AIK Technik AG’s core competency: the company is a general contractor that designs and builds plants for fly ash washing – an essential component in ensuring incinerators are operated in an environmentally friendly manner.
AIK Technik has developed a leaching process that removes heavy metals from fly ash. The chemical process is so efficient that heavy metals such as lead, cadmium or zinc can be removed and reused through this washing system. The remaining fly ash residues are used as a cement substitute or disposed of in landfills.
Environmental technologies such as AIK Technik’s cleantech processes are in high demand. Since its establishment in 2018, the company has quadrupled its workforce to close to 40 people. AIK plants are primarily used in countries where there are legal requirements for fly ash treatment. Alongside Switzerland, these include the Scandinavian countries and Singapore. In the latter, AIK Technik has built an integrated waste and wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 6000 tonnes a day. This major contract came from Keppel Seghers, which offers turnkey waste management facilities. Other customers are the Swiss plant manufacturers Hitachi Zosen Inova and Selfrag.
AIK Technik runs its own laboratory, where chemical engineers optimise the company’s cleantech processes in collaboration with a number of universities. The developers benefit from the many years of experience accumulated in a predecessor company, BSH Umweltservice AG. AIK Technik has other processes in its portfolio for treating residues and recovering valuable materials. They have been developed to treat incinerator bottom ash, sewage sludge and drilling muds as well as to clean contaminated soil from hazardous waste landfills or from the bullet traps of shooting ranges.
AIK Technik AG
