#1 Chem Recovery : Money in Waste

Onehunga business ChemRecovery Industries is a 9-year-old company that extracts heavy metals from those waste materials.
Its greatest success to date has been in the recovery of copper, the metal in such demand that thieves have been stripping it from live electricity transmission lines, sometimes with fatal consequences.

It has already reached that stage with another copper product, copper powder, which the company says has been shown by University of Auckland and University of Waikato analysts to be of world-market standard. It is attracting interest from buyers in the US, China and other countries.

The business fulfils New River’s environment-improving criterion on two fronts: by reducing the quantity of toxic waste that must be disposed of and recovering rare elements. It’s an activity Iran-born Davari, a chemical engineer, is glad to be in.

“It’s the whole philosophy of the business,” he says.

Full NZ Herald Article

New Zealand's top 30 green companies
Total Revenue: $1.148 billion
Revenue growth rate: 17.5%
Read the full article here 

RANK COMPANY ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFIT

1

Chem Recovery

Resource recovery, reduce pollution
2 Stonewood Homes Save energy, renewable resources
3 Reid Technology Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce pollution
4 Progressive Engineering Reduce pollution, resource recovery
5 Solar City Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, renewable resources
6 EROAD Save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions
7 Earthwise Reduce pollution, renewable resources
8 Energy Mad Save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions
9 Outgro Reduce pollution, improve soil
10 Ecostock Resource recovery, reduce pollution
11 CrestClean Reduce pollution, save resources
12 Precision Irrigation Save water, reduce pollution
13 Wellington Drive Technologies Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy
14 Powersmart Solar Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce pollution
15 Ecostore Renewable resources, reduce pollution
16 Transpacific Industries Group Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, resource recovery
17 Revital Fertilisers Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, resource recovery
18 Hella New Zealand Reduce pollution, save resources
19 HotRot Organic Solutions Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, resource recovery
20 Resource Recycling Technologies (NZ) Reduce pollution, resource recovery
21 URS New Zeland Reduce pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions
22 Envirowaste Resource recovery, reduce greenhouse gas emissions
23 Kiwi Fertiliser Company Improve soil, sequester carbon
24 Watermetrics Save energy, save water
25 ESG Asia Pacific Resource recovery, reduce pollution
26 Cartridge World Resource recovery, reduce pollution
27 Cortexo Save energy, save resources
28 TRC (Toner Recycling Centre) Resource recovery, reduce pollution
29 Agrisea Reduce pollution, improve soil
30 Revolution ID Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy
Company Profile

Chem Recovery is a limited liability, Metal Recovery Company registered in New Zealand.

The company was established in 2003 and its main purpose and activity was to extract heavy metals from any material containing high concentrations of these metals.  Research and development (R&D)was also conducted during this time to bring the manufacturing process stage to full production.   The first project was to extract Copper from Copper Etch (Copper Ammonium Chloride liquid from circuit board manufacturing process) and convert to blue Copper Sulfate powder which is used in fertilisers. This project was successfully carried out and the company produced 150 tonnes of Copper Sulfate penta hydrate which sold to a fertiliser company in New Zealand.   The second project was extraction of Vanadium oxide from spent Vanadium Catalyst (this catalyst has been used for manufacturing Sulphuric Acid) and converting it into Vanadium Pent Oxide which is used in the Steel making process and is also used for making new Catalysts for the Sulphuric Acid process and other applications. Chemrecovery R&D found a new recipe for the extraction and implemented this into full production, successfully making 56 tonnes of Vanadium Pent Oxide out of 220 Tonnes of Spent Catalyst and selling to a Chinese company(all design and performance of projects has been carried out by Chemrecovery engineers and experts).

 

During these projects the team of Chemists have been developing several different processes including extraction of Cobalt, Nickel and Zinc. All of these projects have been developed on a lab scale and Chemrecovery is in the position of taking them to the next stage.

 

Also after 3 years of extensive research on recovery of Copper from liquid containing high concentration, Chemrecovery is now in the position of producing Copper Metal Powder on a commercial basis and selling to a broad market.

 

The extraction of Copper Metal Powder from liquid has been developed in the Chemrecovery company laboratory and is based on the project design planned by a qualified Chemical Engineer. For production purposes, all required equipment for the first and second stage of the process has been implemented.

Chemrecovery has started the process of producing Copper Powder on a full scale and the final stages of drying and grinding and bagging.

 

The Copper Powder product has been analysed by highly qualified professionals at Auckland University, as well as Waikato University, in New Zealand. The results show a high quality ultra-fine Copper Powder product that meets the World Market Standard, which is already attracting interest from companies in the United States, China and other countries.