The Japan-based global manufacturing firm Mitsubishi Materials Corp. (MMC) has established an electronic scrap recycling facility at the Port of Moerdijk, in Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. The goal of the new company, called MM Metal Recycling, is to capitalize on the growing amount of electronic scrap being generated in Europe. To accomplish this, MM Metal Recycling will build an electronics recycling facility that will be able to receive, inspect and sample electronic scrap and ship the processed material to MMC’s smelters and refineries in Japan.

MMC says the new company will expand its coverage of the electronic scrap recycling business throughout Europe. The facility, which is slated to open by the first half of 2017, will measure 30,000 square metres and employ about 50 people. The company expects to invest 4 billion yen ($39.3 million) to build the new facility.

The Dutch facility will include a receiving yard, sampling facilities, sample preparation facilities and a shipping yard.

To ensure the success of the new company, Mitsubishi has established a joint venture with the Japanese company Hanwa Co. Ltd. Under the arrangement, MMC will have a 90% stake in the joint venture, with Hanwa having a 10% stake.

In announcing the project, MMC says it plans to take advantage of the company’s process for continuous copper smelting, which the company says is a technology for smelting metals with the lowest environmental impact in the industry. The process includes smelting furnaces, slag cleaning furnaces and converting furnaces all connected by enclosed launders, continuously producing blister copper from concentrates. This results in a facility that is compact, conserves energy and operates at a low cost.

MMC says its unique process prevents sulfurous acid gas leaks, creating zero-emission processing plants with non-polluting systems that process efficiently unlike conventional processes, in which movement between the furnaces results in the unavoidable leak of sulfurous acid gas.

Adding to MMC’s emphasis on boosting its electronic scrap recycling capabilities, it also recently completed the expansion of its Naoshima smelter and refinery in Japan. The newly expanded Naoshima smelter, along with MMC’s Onahama Smelting and Refining Co. subsidiary, have increased the company’s consumption of electronic scrap by 30,000 short tons to 140,000 short tons per year.

From the perspective of the Dutch government, a key advantage of the location of the electronics recycling center at the Port of Moerdijk’s it that it allows MMC to quickly and easily ship the processed scrap to its smelters and refineries in Japan.

Ferdinand van den Oever, managing director at the Port of Moerdijk, says, “The arrival of Mitsubishi Materials Corp. is a welcome boost for our ambition to reinforce the existing recycling cluster, and, along with that, the circular economy.”

The entire site selection process was informed and guided by the Port of Moerdijk, Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), Brabant Development Agency (BOM) and Rewin.

The creation of the new company is a part of MMC’s plans to guarantee its smelters have an adequate supply of raw material, which includes expanding the collection of electronic scrap from outside Japan. To accomplish this, MMC also recently established a department for electronic scrap recycling business within Mitsubishi Materials USA Corp. to strengthen its electronic scrap collection system in the United States.

ZB Group, based in Spain, has established a parts and service center to serve clients of its North America division, ZB North America Corp.

ZB Mobile hammermill shredder operators in the U.S. and Canada now have local service and parts support from a new service center based in Alpharetta, Georgia, near Atlanta. ZB Group’s new service center has the capacity to store a full range of ZB parts and is home base for ZB North America Director Lander Arrieta.

ZB’s Thor mobile units are track-mounted, fully portable shredders that feature remote control and top and bottom discharge.

Recycling Technologies’ Plaxx fuel is created from residual mixed plastic waste that is not amenable to direct recycling and would otherwise go to landfill. The U.K.-based company is working with another U.K.-based firm, Ricardo, to characterize the use of this recycled, low sulfur fuel as a substitute for fossil based heavy fuel oil (HFO) and diesel in applications such as power generation and marine propulsion

In the European Union alone, more than 25 million metric tons of postconsumer waste plastic is produced each year. Of this huge quantity of material, only 26 percent is recycled, with 36 percent going for incineration, while the remaining 38 percent contributes to the ever expanding problem of landfill.

In addition to the loss of its material value, the carbon cost of processing this mixed waste is considerable, not least due to transportation, as many regions and states export their mixed plastic waste due to a lack of localized processing facilities.

To help address this global issue, Recycling Technologies has developed a machine (RT7000) and is industrializing a process to convert residual plastic waste into a low sulphur hydrocarbon compound known as Plaxx. This can be used as a petrochemical feedstock, a manufacturing commodity such as paraffin wax, or as a clean and more sustainable fuel substitute for fossil-based HFO, which also displaces imported oil.

In the project announced today, Ricardo will work with Recycling Technologies to assess the relative performance of Plaxx, HFO and diesel when used in an engine of the type and scale typical of power generation or marine propulsion applications. The Ricardo Atlas II research engine will be used for this work: this advanced test engine is capable of efficiently evaluating the performance of fuels in large, multi-cylinder engine designs ranging from 150-200 mm bore and representing engines in the class 0.5 to 5 MW, in a single power cylinder. This can result in a reduction exceeding 90 percent of the test fuel consumed in a typical research or development project.

In the early stages of the Recycling Technologies project, a thorough review of the properties of Plaxx as a combustion engine fuel will be carried out in order that a comprehensive test plan can be developed. Back-to-back testing of Plaxx against diesel and HFO will then be undertaken over a range of loads using the Atlas II engine.

Combustion characterisation will also be trialled based on the measured in-cylinder pressure, power, specific fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. This will help to fully understand the behaviour of Plaxx in this type of engine and enable the further refinement of engine and fuel settings for maximum efficiency and low emissions.

“Finding solutions to landfill diversion is a critical challenge facing modern society,” commented Dr Adam Read, Ricardo Energy & Environment practice director for resource efficiency & waste management. “The ability to generate fuels and recover plastics is key to the sustainable management of the world’s resources. As such, assessing the viability of the process during the pilot phase is an exciting and potentially ground-breaking step for Ricardo and the team from Recycling Technologies.”

Adrian Griffiths, CEO Recycling Technologies commented: “The marine industry is a key market as the use of high sulphur oil is increasingly being restricted. Working together with Ricardo on this project, we are now taking steps to get Plaxx qualified so that it is fit for use in medium and large marine engines. Plaxx™ is an ultra-low sulphur feedstock and can be adapted for use in any markets where crude oil derivatives are used. Through this pilot project, we hope to qualify Plaxx as meeting the new global MARPOL requirements.”

Recycling Technologies has funded R&D projects through various government funding organization’s, including the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) and the Energy Catalyst grant with the University of West England (UWE), funded by Innovate UK. There has been additional support from other government funding organizations, such as the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.