Egg breaker fires up

An egg breaker has hit on an ingenious solution to their waste problems, converting cardboard egg containers into an efficient fuel source for a range of burners.

D Wise Ltd, producers of blended egg products and eggshell products, was looking to reduce costs by finding another method of disposing of compressed cardboard egg trays than the landfill they were being sent to and hit on the idea of turning them into an energy source.

The egg cartons left over after the eggs have been cracked are shredded and then compressed in briquettes with energy release when burnt equivalent to that of brown coal.

They conducted trials with a Weima briquetting and shredding machine, supplied by Fercell Engineering, and decided on using a Weima WL4a single shaft shredder with high volume hopper, and 18.5kW three-phase belt drive and a 252mm diameter by 600mm “V” rotor.

The shredder and briquetter are connected by a worm screw feed conveyor, with the briquetter sending the finished product directly into a 10-bag carousel packaging. The “Trogs” briquettes are sold within their local area in Cheshire and will soon be available online.