Australian grid operator Transgrid has partnered with German machine manufacturer Zeck to use its innovative steel separation technology. Zecki’s machine can process electricity transmission lines to be ready for recycling on site. In the past, Transgrid sent old transmission lines offshore for this process at a much higher cost.
Transgrid, the grid operator for the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), has partnered with German manufacturer Zeck to use the ZECK AI/Steel Separator (ZAS), an innovative machine that enables the recycling of old power lines. – enables significant cost and emission reductions.
The network operator said that before ZAS technology was introduced, used conductors had to be sent abroad to remove the outer aluminum layer for recycling. The ZAS machine is able to do this on site – an innovation that Transgrid claims will reduce 90% of the emissions associated with conductor recycling.
Transgrid also predicts that its scrap metal recycling will improve by up to A$3 million ($2.06 million) over the next 3 to 5 years.
By feeding the conductors into the ZAS machine under tension, the previously outsourced task of removing the outer aluminum layer is now performed on-site and efficiently, and the aluminum is cut into 30-70mm pieces to facilitate melting. At the other end of the ZAS machine, the undamaged steel core of the conductor is wound on a cable drum, which is also ready for recycling.
It was one of Transgrid’s field coordinators, Mitch Coppock, who first proposed the idea of ​​using the ZAS machine.
“Something like this hasn’t been done in Australia before,” Coppock said. “Anything innovative that we can do is very important in our industry, especially anything that can have a good long-term impact on the environment.”
Coppock says it’s a “win-win” situation, as Transgrid can get three times more return on its scrap metal than before, while “the environment wins by reducing emissions and local businesses also benefit by having readily available and processed aluminium.”
The test has already processed 40 kilometers of wires through the ZAS machine in Sydney, and each meter of wire produces about a kilogram of aluminum.
It has been a first for the network operator, which recently started its experiment the first electric pickup truck Among the 400-person diesel car fleet.
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