RESEARCH
Commercial recycling of flexible laminates underway at Cambridge University spin-off Enval / Process capabilities and economics demonstrated to investors and waste handlers
 Recycled aluminium from plastic-aluminium laminate packaging (Photo: Enval) |
Technology developed at the University of Cambridge (Cambridge / UK; www.cam.ac.uk) is at the heart of a commercial process that can recycle flexible packaging materials containing aluminium in just three minutes.
The development is based on microwave-induced pyrolysis – particulate carbon is an efficient absorber of microwaves and can transfer this thermal energy to adjacent materials. If the adjacent material is organic, such as plastic or paper, it breaks apart (or pyrolyses) into smaller pieces, but if the material is a metal attached to the plastic or paper, the metal can be recovered in a clean form after the attached organics are pyrolysed.
Fifteen years since the discovery by two chemical engineers at the university, the technology they developed is now being used in a commercial-scale plant designed, built and operated by Cambridge spin-off Enval (www.enval.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 26.10.2012. Enval is presently using the plant to demonstrate the capabilities and economics of the process to investors and waste handlers. The company has focused on plastic–aluminium laminate packaging. Around 160,000 t/y of toothpaste tubes and drinks pouches are used in the UK for packaging, meaning that 16,000 t/y of aluminium are presently disposed of in landfill.
The developers, Enval founder Carlos Ludlow-Palafox and R&D director Professor Howard Chase, said, “We have carried out a life-cycle assessment of the packaging and it’s still environmentally better to use these laminates even though they are not recyclable, just because so little material and energy goes into making and transporting them compared with alternatives like glassware and cans. There is no real drive to replace them and their market use is increasing by about 10 to 15% every year.”
They added that the basic chemistry is still the same in the commercial-scale plant but the microwave oven is now 150 kW and large enough to be housed in a 100 m² industrial unit. It takes just three minutes to convert waste into aluminium for smelting, and hydrocarbons for fuel, and with no toxic emissions. Now fully commissioned, the plant can recycle up to 2,000 t/y of packaging and generates enough energy to run itself.
The commercial-scale plant is part-funded by Nestlé (Vevey / Switzerland; www.nestle.com) and Kraft Foods/Mondelez International (Northfield, Illinois / USA).
The development is based on microwave-induced pyrolysis – particulate carbon is an efficient absorber of microwaves and can transfer this thermal energy to adjacent materials. If the adjacent material is organic, such as plastic or paper, it breaks apart (or pyrolyses) into smaller pieces, but if the material is a metal attached to the plastic or paper, the metal can be recovered in a clean form after the attached organics are pyrolysed.
Fifteen years since the discovery by two chemical engineers at the university, the technology they developed is now being used in a commercial-scale plant designed, built and operated by Cambridge spin-off Enval (www.enval.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 26.10.2012. Enval is presently using the plant to demonstrate the capabilities and economics of the process to investors and waste handlers. The company has focused on plastic–aluminium laminate packaging. Around 160,000 t/y of toothpaste tubes and drinks pouches are used in the UK for packaging, meaning that 16,000 t/y of aluminium are presently disposed of in landfill.
The developers, Enval founder Carlos Ludlow-Palafox and R&D director Professor Howard Chase, said, “We have carried out a life-cycle assessment of the packaging and it’s still environmentally better to use these laminates even though they are not recyclable, just because so little material and energy goes into making and transporting them compared with alternatives like glassware and cans. There is no real drive to replace them and their market use is increasing by about 10 to 15% every year.”
They added that the basic chemistry is still the same in the commercial-scale plant but the microwave oven is now 150 kW and large enough to be housed in a 100 m² industrial unit. It takes just three minutes to convert waste into aluminium for smelting, and hydrocarbons for fuel, and with no toxic emissions. Now fully commissioned, the plant can recycle up to 2,000 t/y of packaging and generates enough energy to run itself.
The commercial-scale plant is part-funded by Nestlé (Vevey / Switzerland; www.nestle.com) and Kraft Foods/Mondelez International (Northfield, Illinois / USA).
26.01.2015 Plasteurope.com [230329-0]
Published on 26.01.2015