High-performance garnet abrasives, often used for waterjet cutting and sand blasting in the surface preparation industries, are prone to contamination from paint, metallic particles and other impurities from the surface being cleaned, which greatly reduces their effectiveness.

However, an innovative new wash plant, designed and engineered by wet processing experts CDE, is helping to improve the lifecycle of spent garnet sand by reprocessing the materials to remove tricky contaminants and recover a clean blasting media that can be reused.

The plant has been designed for Middle East Garnet and Abrasive Supplies, also know as MEGA Supplies, one of the leading garnet abrasive suppliers in the UAE and Middle East for the last 20 years.

CDE business development manager Mr Abhimaan Desai says there are both economic and environmental benefits to recycling abrasive media.

“Simply put, getting more uses out of your existing garnet sand will help reduce operational costs over the long term. Purchasing abrasive media is a necessary cost of doing business for many industries, particularly in the heavy engineering sector, so recycling that material to extend its lifecycle will bring economic gains while also helping to minimise the environmental footprint associated with extraction, haulage and imports.”

The solution, which features CDE’s patented EvoWash™ sand classification and dewatering system and its ShearClean™ attrition cells for efficient contaminant CDE removal, is processing 5,000 tonnes of spent garnet sand per month with capacity to increase the rate of recovery.

Mr Saad Uzair Hussain, managing director of MEGA Supplies, said the plant is enabling the business to strengthen its sustainability commitments.

“Our new CDE plant has fundamentally changed our operation for the better. Previously, used abrasives, which where perhaps considered to be at the end of their operational life, were destined for landfill. Now, we’re able to divert this material from being disposed and return it to good use which is good for the environment and it’s good for business too.”

MEGA Supplies sources its raw material and finished goods from the best processing units in India and has strategic alliances in place on a long-term basis to ensure a consistent supply of the best-quality garnet and abrasives.

Australia and India are the world’s largest producers of garnet sand, which is mined for domestic and international markets. The Indian Bureau of Mines reported that production of abrasive garnet was 8,182 tonnes during 2021-22 compared to 7,114 tonnes in the preceding year, representing a 15% increase.

It is estimated that the import price of garnet sand is around $160 per tonne, which means the CDE wash plant is saving tens of thousands every month in material costs by recovering and cleaning the sand for reuse, in addition to reducing the overall carbon emissions associated with importing materials.

CDE’s head of operations for Middle East, Mr Bassem Idriss, said the pioneering plant is making a strong business case for the adoption of recycling solutions across a broad range of industries. 

“This is a first-of-its-kind plant for CDE and we see significant potential for its application in the marine and shipbuilding, steel fabrication and oil and gas industries. We understand that recycling garnet sand won’t fully offset the demand. The material has great recyclability, but there is a limit to how many times it can be reprocessed before its performance is impacted. This plant will however greatly ease the burden on raw materials, extending the life of reserves and really making use of their full potential as demand for abrasives increases.

“The project very closely aligned with our purpose to create our best world, a ton at a time. That means recycling materials, where possible, and ensuring our customers maximise their natural resources in the most sustainable way possible – with greater efficiency and less waste than ever before.”

For more information about CDE and its wet processing solutions, visit cdegroup.com.