TY - JOUR

T1 - Influence of pre-screening on down-stream processing for the production of plastic enriched fractions for recycling from mixed commercial and municipal waste

AU - Möllnitz, Selina

AU - Küppers, Bastian

AU - Curtis, Alexander

AU - Khodier, Karim

AU - Sarc, Renato

PY - 2020/10/27

Y1 - 2020/10/27

N2 - The use of plastic waste as resource gains more and more attention. In this context, material recycling is especially focused on packaging plastics. Further waste streams that contain a significant amount of plastics are mixed commercial and municipal solid waste. To assess the potential of plastics for recycling and energy recovery from these material streams large-scale experiments were conducted. The potential of mechanical pre-processing with the aim of generating a 3D-plastics pre-concentrate was assessed. The focus of these investigations was put on the relevance of the screening stage and its influence on down-stream material processing via ballistic separation and sensor-based sorting. Results demonstrate not only that the screening of both waste streams leads to enrichment of plastics in coarse particle size ranges (especially >80 mm) and transfer of contaminants, organics and minerals to fine fractions (especially <10 mm), but also that sensor-based sorting performance can be significantly enhanced due to cleaning effects on plastics, induced by the material circulation and the resulting interparticle friction in a drum screen. On the downside, the material rotation in a drum screen leads to tail-formation that can create plant down-time through clogging as well as material losses and impairment of preconcentrates.

AB - The use of plastic waste as resource gains more and more attention. In this context, material recycling is especially focused on packaging plastics. Further waste streams that contain a significant amount of plastics are mixed commercial and municipal solid waste. To assess the potential of plastics for recycling and energy recovery from these material streams large-scale experiments were conducted. The potential of mechanical pre-processing with the aim of generating a 3D-plastics pre-concentrate was assessed. The focus of these investigations was put on the relevance of the screening stage and its influence on down-stream material processing via ballistic separation and sensor-based sorting. Results demonstrate not only that the screening of both waste streams leads to enrichment of plastics in coarse particle size ranges (especially >80 mm) and transfer of contaminants, organics and minerals to fine fractions (especially <10 mm), but also that sensor-based sorting performance can be significantly enhanced due to cleaning effects on plastics, induced by the material circulation and the resulting interparticle friction in a drum screen. On the downside, the material rotation in a drum screen leads to tail-formation that can create plant down-time through clogging as well as material losses and impairment of preconcentrates.

U2 - 10.1016/j.wasman.2020.10.007

DO - 10.1016/j.wasman.2020.10.007

M3 - Article

VL - 2021

SP - 356

EP - 373

JO - Waste management

JF - Waste management

SN - 0956-053X

IS - 119

ER -