Ecotri, one of three companies governed by Ateliers Fouesnantais of France, has upgraded its material recovery facility (MRF) with equipment from Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions, based in the Netherlands.
With the upgrade to the existing system, also built by Bollegraaf, the company now can sort film from the material stream at an early stage. Bollegraaf partnered with Norway-based Tomra for the optical sorting and with Lubo Systems BV, part of Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions, for the screening technology, delivering a facility capable of processing 20 tonnes per hour.
-(003).gif)
The MRF processes single-stream material, recovering paper, old corrugated containers (OCC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and plastic film using technologies that include the Lubo Elliptical, Lubo OCC Screen, Lubo Finds Screen, Lubo Paper Magnet, Lubo ONP Screen, Bollegraaf Drumfeeder and the Bollegraaf Filmgrabber.
Recirculation loops continually feed residue back into the system, Bollegraaf says, including the waste at the very end. For example, to reach 95% purity, the installation has been equipped with the Lubo Elliptical, a ballistic sorting machine. It separates the 3D fractions, such as cans, bottles or stones, from the 2D fractions, such as paper and film, and separates the small fraction, depending on the screen size. Bollegraaf says the Lubo Elliptical is unique because of the adjustable screen surface and the way it agitates the material, resulting in efficient separation with a long service life plus a low cost of ownership.
The Bollegraaf Filmgrabber has been developed to remove plastic bags and wraps from the other recyclables at the beginning of the separation process, eliminating more than 70 percent of the film larger than A4 from the material stream, the company says. The machine consists of a rotating drum with a variable speed motor and protruding fingers that comb through the recyclables and hook the film. The film is lifted out of the stream, after which the fingers retract and the film is blown off to the collection bin, according to Bollegraaf.
The Ecotri upgrade included an increase in the level of automation of the system, replacing manual sorting stations with quality control stations. This reduces the operational costs and increases the purity rate of the output significantly, Bollegraaf says.