Afval Energie Bedrijf (AEB) will begin operating a dedicated facility for the removal of nitrous oxide (NOS) canisters from household and commercial waste this week. In its new "laughing gas warehouse" or "laughing gas shed", waste destined for AEB's waste-to-energy (wte) plant will be shredded and any laughing gas cylinders removed or rendered safe, the Dutch plant operator said on Monday. The company said that it had been forced to take measures to reduce the frequency of NOS canister explosions inside its municipal waste incinerator.
In an earlier attempt to prevent damage to its wte plant, AEB had run its own cylinder return system, at first offering a bonus of €10 and then €5 per tank. When it abandoned the project after five and half months in early 2024, it had collected 84,000 containers without seeing an observable improvement in the number of explosions in its incineration line....
