BT-Wolfgang Binder Builds Glass Recycling Plant

Austria-based BT-Wolfgang Binder has built a glass powder plant for Dutch glass foam producer Geocell. The new plant, located in upper Austria, will produce foam glass ballast from recycled glass.

BT-Wolfgang Binder was involved in the planning, delivery, installation and general contracting for the complete machine and electro engineering equipment for Geocell’s glass powder plant.

Geocell decided to build its own glass powder production plant and, prior to having the plant built, purchased glass powder on the open market.

The glass powder plant has a discharge rate of six tons of broken scrap glass per hour. The facility consists of a material store, which includes raw material discharge, a drying and milling plant and a screening and classifying plant.

At the new plant, the glass delivered is stored in a covered material store and, using a wheel loader, conveyed into the discharge hopper. The raw material is transported by conveyors and belt bucket conveyor into a drum dryer, where the recycled glass is dried to a residual moisture of less than 0.5 percent. Metals and organic substances are separated from the glass scrap in the processing plant and screened.

The material is then directed into the distribution table air separator, where the glass powder is separated. The finished glass powder product is intermediately stored in a silo or fed to the foam glass kiln by a pneumatically-operated conveyor system.

The complete system is de-dusted by modern hose filter systems. The complete plant is operated by a fully automatic, electronic control system that has been supplied by BT-Anlagenbau. Visualization is provided on screens that are operated from the control room. The facility was completed in 10 months.

Geocell foam glass ballast is described by BT-Wolfgang Binder a highly thermal insulating, load dissipating bulk material made from 100 percent recycled glass. The foam glass ballast combines numerous characteristics that can be ideal as an insulating material.