Diversification into environmental protection bolstering firm's prospects

Birtley Industrial Equipment is looking to expand its business five years after building a 70,000-square-foot facility in Lexington, Kentucky.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Shandong Borun Process Industrial Technology Co Ltd, Birtley experienced a downturn in the coal-mining industry right after Borun acquired it in 2013. To survive, the company transitioned toward the environmental protection sector, while maintaining its operations in coal processing equipment.

Over the past year, as the coal industry has recovered in the United States, Birtley's coal-related business has revived. Also, now the company enjoys a wider scope of operations, in particular a range of environmental projects in China.

"We had to develop our business in the environment protection sector to mitigate the mining industry downturn. We have had good success in this aspect over the last two years," said Zhao Chaoxun, general manager at Birtley.

By working with US partners, Birtley has completed more than 10 projects related to industrial hazardous waste treatment in China so far, covering solid, water and gas waste treatment, Zhao said.

One type of project deals with dangerous emissions produced by refineries, chemical plants and similar industrial facilities. The waste these produce is collectively called volatile organic compounds.

"A lot of emissions contain volatile organic compounds, which are harmful if directly released into the air. We employ technologies such as the regenerative thermal oxidizer to destroy the compounds in the waste gas, thus preventing the harmful matter from entering the environment people live in," Zhao said.

Birtley is also involved in dealing with the treatment of hazardous wastes such as fly ash, which is produced from municipal solid waste incineration in China.

"The United States has the luxury of landfills to dispose of most waste, including fly ash, but China does not due to its high population density, especially on the eastern and southern coasts. Also, incinerator-generated fly ash contains toxic heavy metals that cannot be sent to landfill," Zhao said.

Working with US partners, Birtley has also helped to bring plasma gasification technology to China.

"Plasma gasification technology uses extremely high temperatures to process harmful wastes and convert the organic components into synthetic gases for power generation or creating fuels. The inorganic components can be turned into inert slag," Zhao said.

Birtley has secured contract work from larger corporations, including the US subsidiary of Japanese manufacturing multinational Komatsu.

"We have just completed and delivered a more than 15.24-meters-long conveyer feeder for Komatsu and are getting ready to work on the next one," Zhao said.

Birtley is also working with the US subsidiary of South Korea's Clark Material Handling Co, as well as other companies in Kentucky.

"I think we have established our credibility on our quality and ability to deliver. We are getting more and more business now," Zhao said.

Like many other enterprises, Birtley is currently affected by ongoing trade tensions between US and China.

"We had shipments from China in July, August and September, and every shipment was caught by the newly imposed tariffs. We have to pass that extra cost on to our customers," Zhao said.