Catalonias Night Crawler: Lithium ion powered RCVs help deliver night collections in Spain

To help expand a collection service on the northern coast of Barcelona, municipal waste management company I' Arca del Maresme has purchased two Hybrid LI-ON Power N2-series refuse collection vehicles from Geesinknorba Spain. Timothy Byrne looks at why they were suitable for night collections... In July 2014, L' Arca del Maresme won the waste collection and street cleansing contract for the municipality of Argentona in the Comarca del Maresme region of Catalonia. The contract runs for an initial period of four years, with the option of an extension for an additional two years. It involves the collection of non – recyclable waste, organic waste and dry recyclables from a population of 12,000 people as well as providing street cleaning services using both manual labour and mechanical sweeping equipment. As part of the new contract, the company also empties all of the litter bins in the streets of the municipality, using a fleet of small Piaggio collection vehicles. Waste Collection Service The waste collection service in Argentona differs from that in other cities and towns in Spain. L' Arca del Maresme carries out a door-to-door waste collection service for 75% of the municipality’s population. This involves the collection of non - recyclable waste in plastic sacks, and the collection of dry recyclables such as paper, cardboard, plastic (PET, HDPE, TETRAPACK and LDPE) and steel and aluminium tins and cans (commingled) in categorised containers. Organic compostable waste is also collected. Residents place this in a storage container of 10 and 25 litres capacity which has a closing lid to prevent foul odours being produced in the warm Mediterranean climate. There are light coloured green igloos placed along the streets in Argentona for the deposit of commingled coloured glass bottles and jars. A spokesperson from l’ Arca del Maresme, explains that: “It is more practical, efficient and financially viable to introduce door-to-door selective collection systems in municipalities where there are populations from 5.000 – 15,000 people. This, combined with effective communication with the residents, helps to achieve higher recycling rates, thus reducing the quantities of non – recyclable waste which still requires treatment. “There are currently 900 cities and towns in Catalonia with 113 of them being provided with a door-to-door selective waste collection service, and it’s growing more and more. Argentona is one of the top 10 – 15 municipalities in Catalonia achieving consistently high tonnages of high quality dry recyclables. This compares with other Spanish cities and towns where 65-85% of waste is collected using communal collection points and only achieving a 35-40% recycling rate.” Night Shift To help reduce traffic congestion, l' Arca del Maresme collects 75% of waste at night, arising from the collection service. Residents are required to place their plastic sacks containing non - recyclable waste and their dry recyclables and organic waste containers out for collection between 8-10pm. Two rear loading waste collection vehicles, each manned with a driver and two operatives, commence collecting the waste at 10pm. A smaller collection vehicle is used for collecting waste from the narrow streets in the centre of the town inaccessible by a larger collection vehicle, while the larger vehicle collects waste from the periphery of the town. Both collection vehicles finish their collection rounds by around 3am. The remaining 25% of waste and recyclables are collected in Argentona from the 1000 litre and blue and yellow 3-5 cubic metre containers at communal collection points in the daytime. The light green igloos containing glass are emptied across the whole of the municipality in the daytime using a roll – on – off vehicle with an open top container and truck mounted crane. This vehicle is single manned i.e. only operated with a driver. By the end of 2015, Argentona municipality want l’ Arca del Maresme to implement door-to-door selective collection to the remaining 25% of properties within the municipality to help increase its recycling rate. Waste Collection Vehicle Upgrade To enhance the waste collection service, I' Arca del Maresme has purchased two Hybrid LI-ON Power N2-series intermittent loading waste collection vehicles from Geesinknorba Spain. These two new units will accompany an existing Geesinknorba KT2 24H25 24 cubic metre capacity waste collection vehicle fitted with a roof mounted crane operated by l’ Arca del Maresme, mounted to a Renault Premium 340 DXI 6x2 rear steer 26 tonne chassis. This unit is used to collect dry recyclables e.g. paper, cardboard, plastics and steel and aluminium tins and cans from the blue and yellow coloured 3-5 cubic metre containers used to service 25% of the municipality’s population. The new Geesinknorba Hybrid LI-ON power units recently added to the collection fleet include a N2 8L22 of 9 cubic metre unit mounted onto a Renault D16 Euro 6 16 tonne 4x2 chassis. The second unit is a N2 18H25 of 18 cubic metre unit mounted onto a Renault Premium D26 Euro 6 26 tonne 6x2 rear steer chassis. Both Renault chassis feature the Allison 3000 Series automatic transmission to reduce driver fatigue in the start and stop operations experienced in waste collection operations. The municipality of Argentona had previously studied the use of Geesinknorba waste collection equipment from their experience of the KT2 24H25 unit and Renault chassis already being used in their fleet. The use of hybrid technology was further strengthened by the municipality and I' Arca del Maresme’s longer- term environmental strategy being based on reducing carbon dioxide and noise emissions and also improving the general air quality of the local environment. This is underpinned by the municipality working in conjunction with the Diputació de Barcelona in reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 to meet the requirements of the Climate Change Act 2008. Each of the two Geesinknorba N2 series units are fitted with the L200 Combi- Lifter which consists of a comb bar for emptying DIN 30740 type containers of 80 - 1100 litres capacity. Trunnion arms have also been fitted to both units to enable the emptying of DIN 30700 type containers of 660 and 1100 litre capacities too. This gives the crew the versatility of using either the comb or trunnion arms. The N2-series has an intermittent packing mechanism using the patented GEESINKNORBA slide block system. The compaction mechanism achieves a high compaction ratio of 6:1 yielding a high payload. Technical Benefits One of the technical and operational advantages of the vehicles are that the units are electrically operated and provide a noise free waste collection service when collecting waste in the middle of the night. Other benefits include the use of a special industrial type lithium ion battery which has been specially designed and manufactured for Geesinknorba. The LI-ON power units weight 500kgs which includes the weight of the battery, electric motor and electric pump so it does not have any effect on the Geesinknorba N2's payload that the waste collection unit can legally carry. The Renault truck chassis recharges the LI-ON power battery when the vehicle is moving from one collection point to another. The chassis starts to recharge the batteries once it reaches a speed of 8kph. The LI-ON power unit also achieves a fuel saving of 30% when in operation. The LI-ON power batteries only need charging from an electrical connection at the workshop once a week to make sure they are stabilised. The Lithium ion batteries are not expected to fall below the 60-70% level. If the batteries did fall to around 25% because of a technical or diagnostic issue, the LI-ON power unit would automatically disconnect and the hydraulics for operating the packing mechanism and bin lifting equipment will be provided through the chassis power take off using the Geesinknorba SmartPack system. This reduces the chassis fuel consumption by 15% when used. The benefit to using the SmartPack system in conjunction with the LI-ON power hybrid system is that it will make sure that, if the conventional chassis PTO is used, it will maintain a high level of operational productivity for the waste collection service. Miguel Angel Morales, commercial director for Geesinknorba Spain, says: “Geesinknorba Spain have sold sixty hybrid waste collection vehicles to Spanish cities and towns. The first unit was delivered in 1996 which demonstrates Geesinknorba´s continual commitment to continually investing in developing its hybrid systems to provide sustainable waste collection systems for Spain, Europe and the wider world underpinned by the company’s twenty years experience in this field.” In conclusion, the Argentona municipality, in conjunction with l' Arca del Maresme and Geesinknorba Spain, are providing an efficient waste management system for the residents of Argentona mirrored by the other waste collection, street and beach cleaning, household waste recycling centres and waste transfer station contracts l' Arca del Maresme operate within Catalonia. ### Timothy Byrne is a MCIWM Chartered Waste Manager and member of ISWA (International Solid Waste Association).