How to make a marketable commodity out of bovine organic waste? Agrikomp is a new PVC system to assemble digesters used to produce biogas from it. Developed by Fainplast, it’s used to build circular tanks that are lightweight and resistant to sunlight and chemicals.
“It took a year of testing in our lab to develop this modular system, built in modular fashion. We can build those tanks ranging from 3 metres high by 4 metres in diametre, to 8 metres high by 35 in diametre,” says Ottavio Tulli, Technical Sales Manager at Fainplast.
Agrikomp is a team effort between Fainplast, which produces the PVC granules, and E.T.P., which makes the profiles from them to build the tanks.
“These granules have high resistance to acids and other chemicals, UV rays, and are fully gas- and water-tight,” Ottavio says.
Other advantages: with Agrikomp there’s no need for concrete moulds. The PVC panels have a wide range of service temperatures, low thermal conductivity, and are light enough to fit in standard trucks. “That means reduced transport costs and fewer CO2 emissions,” says Ottavio.
Fainplast produces a wide range of materials, with 20 compounding lines – nine for PVC compounds and 11 for polyolefin-based products. Those compounds make everything from shoes, cables, connectors, caps, seals and flooring to medical devices, window profiles, shutters, drainpipes, electric conduits and piping or other materials for the construction or furniture industry.