PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Thermoplastics constitute a continuously increasing fraction of the overall growing plastic waste in Europe. In 2016, more than 26 million tonnes were consumed in sectors including the automotive and electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) sectors. Alone, these two sectors account for almost 15% of the total consumption of plastics in Europe. Decreasing the dependence of these fast-growing sectors on virgin plastic by using secondary thermoplastics will curb energy, water and resource consumption and reduce landfilling in Europe, a practice already phased out in nine European countries and discouraged by the EU legislation.
Properly separated thermoplastic streams could result in a much higher-value output, but state-of-the-art recycling processes fail to do this. Factors include the difficulty in obtaining economies of scale, low current processes yield (about 50%), and the presence of additives such as fillers or flame retardant substances such as bromine and antimony. As a result, secondary thermoplastics derived from shredder residues from waste EEE (WEEE) and end-of-life vehicles (ELV) cannot meet the high-quality specifications required by the automotive and electronics industries.
OBJECTIVES
LIFE PlasPLUS aims to provide a complete solution for the economic recovery of thermoplastics and by-products, starting from a heterogeneous mixed plastic feedstock (ELV and WEEE) and resulting in high-quality raw materials for the automotive and EEE sectors.
The specific objectives are:
demonstrate the feasibility of recycling 45% of the plastic concentrate handled by the Comet Traitements plant into added-value thermoplastic streams by scaling up a new froth flotation/triboelectricity demonstration unit;achieve a scale up of the current prototype from batch production of 150 kg/h with technology readiness level (TRL)6 to pre-commercial level of continuous production at 1 500 kg/h at TRL7. This will process >98%-pure polystyrene (PP), filled polypropylene (FPP) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) regrinds;adapt a sensor-enabled separator that can detect flame retardant plastics (FRPs) [250 kg/h throughput] and separate fibre-reinforced plastic at 250 kg/h;substitute >40% virgin thermoplastics with secondary ones in three new secondary compounds for the automotive and EEE markets;validate the quality of the produced compounds in three standard vehicle parts and in flame retardant batches for the EEE sector;showcase a closed-loop production for the valuable flame retardant element (Sb2O3), also validating its flame retardant performance in recycled plastics;conduct life cycle analyses and socio-economic analyses to confirm the environmental benefits and techno-economic soundness of the concept; anddevelop a replication and transfer plan as a sustainable business model for other facilities around Europe.LIFE PlasPLUS will contribute to the Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment, the End-of life vehicles Directive and the Landfill Directive. It will also support the EUs action plan for the circular economy and strategy for plastics in a circular economy.
RESULTS
Expected results:
an industrial froth flotation/triboelectricity unit is integrated at Comet Traitements facilities treating mixed plastic (lightweight, non-brominated);continuous plant operation which will recover around 40% ABS, around 30% PS and around 20% FPP regrinds in a purified, market-ready state;a one year demonstration period will result in over 920 tonnes of high-quality thermoplastic recycled product diverted from downcycling, cut over 1 kilotonne CO2 eq. of greenhouse gas emissions, and save over 600 000 m3 of water and 8 850 MWh of primary energy;a validated automatic sorting process which uses artificial intelligence and rapid, non-destructive analytical techniques with a scalable sorting technology which builds a database of plastic compositions and training algorithms;separate approximately 16 tonnes of flame retardant-containing plastic, leaving 100 tonnes per year of plastic waste which can be further sorted, recycled and used for energy production;a first-of-a-kind pilot demonstration of Sb recovery from WEEE-derived waste, including extensive product characterisation (Sb2O3/ATO) and validation in flame retardant batches; anddemonstration products containing at least 40% recycled plastic and recovered Sb.
