ZA's Proprietary Technologies

ZA’s patented WCI process is a proven physicochemical waste treatment technology developed for incineration bottom ash (IBA) treatment. It can effectively remove or stabilize pollutants in IBA, including heavy metals, soluble salts, and organic pollutants. The WCI process consists of four key modules: 1. Size separation 2. Metal recovery 3. Washing and immobilization of pollutants 4. Treatment and reuse of washing water After treated by WCI, IBA is transformed into NEWSand, a material that is suitable for road construction, land reclamation, non-structural concrete and bricks, with minimum environmental impact and human health risk.

ZA’s proprietary CIP process is a proven physicochemical treatment technology for incineration fly ash (IFA). It is a simple and cost-effective process to treat wastes with heavy metals and other pollutants. CIP consists of a series of pretreatment and mixing steps. By virtue of the chemical immobilization reactions triggered by ZA’s patented specialty chemicals ZA-TECH™, CIP prevents the leaching of heavy metals in the waste by converting heavy metals into their least soluble, mobile, or toxic forms. CIP process is easy to operate and maintain, has a small footprint, and does not create secondary pollutions. IFA treated by CIP will have a smaller volume, much lower pollutant leaching, and a long-term environmental safety in the landfill.

SIL process is developed by ZA for the treatment of high plasticity and high moisture content wastes, including sludge, soft clay, sediment, and soil. The process employs ZA’s patented ZA-H™ series reagents to stabilize the pollutants in the wastes and meanwhile, solidify the soft waste into rigid particles to improve its engineering properties. SIL process consists of various pretreatment, batching, mixing, granulation, and curing steps. The process is simple, robust, universal, and scalable. SIL's reagents and process design can be tailored to suit soft waste with different nature. After treatment, the soft wastes will possess superior geotechnical performance and can be safely reused with minimum environmental impact.

With the fast depletion of landfill space, the utilization of some wastes that are previously landfilled is being considered and explored. The main concern is the environmental safety of the waste-derived products. IFA, as a byproduct of incineration, has the potential to be converted into construction materials, provided that the pollutants inside are properly treated. Our proprietary WCS technology is devised to treat IFA for utilization purpose. The process removes the pollutants in IFA with an intensive washing step, followed by a thermal treatment to decompose and encapsulate the remaining pollutants, including heavy metals and dioxin. The treated IFA will become inert ceramic powder that can be safely used for the manufacture of cement, aggregates, or bricks.

Industrial solid wastes, including hazardous and non-hazardous, contain different type and level of pollutants, and usually cannot be directly used as construction materials due to their toxicity or inferior engineering properties. ZA’s patented MIL technology is developed to tackle these non-incinerable waste (NIW). It is a thermal process that sinters the waste at elevated temperature and transform them into cellular ceramic aggregates, i.e., lightweight aggregates (LWA). The LWA can be used as high-value functional construction materials or gardening materials, offering unique features including lightweight, thermal insulation, soundproofing, and water and nutrient slow release.

With the rapid increase of global demand for rare metals by electrical vehicles (EV) and electronics industries and the fast depletion of metal resources, recovering valuable metals from waste has gained more interest and become more economically viable. On the other hand, e-waste, including used EV Li-ion batteries and solar panels, are being generated at an unprecedented rate. They often contain toxic metals or organic pollutants. If handled improperly, they will cause serious pollution to the environment. Nevertheless, the metals inside, e.g., Li, Co, Ni, Cu, and rare earths, could be extracted as new products, rendering the waste safe for disposal. ZA’s patented urban mining technology SER is the ultimate solution to the scarcity of both resources and landfill space. The technology efficiently recovers and refines the valuable metals from EV batteries, solar panels, and other e-waste. Almost 100% of the materials in the waste can be recovered and converted to high-value products, realizing true “zero waste”.