Category "News"

The plant that was built in a technology readiness level 5 of the project (that means demonstration pilot) at the site of Fraunhofer ICT in Pfinztal, Germany, was approved in February 2023 and will provide a kilogram scale of recycled Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) in addition to recovered bromine and antimony fractions, all components of waste electric and electronic equipment. 

This purified ABS will then be further processed and tested by other partners (ELIX Polymers and Electrolux) shortly. 

This brings PLAST2bCLEANED closer to demonstrating that environmentally safe and economically viable recycling of antimony, bromine and polymers is possible.

PLAST2Bcleaned’s testing and scale-up efforts at Fraunhofer ICT in Pfinztal, Germany, are progressing well.
After the solvent-based purification method has through laboratory testing and trials, a pilot plant is built to enable scaling up and advancement of PLAST2bCLEANED.

In the pilot, three loops (ABS, bromine, and antimony), will be closed while testing Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) polymers incorporating brominated flame retardants and antimony trioxide.

Fraunhofer ICT team members, who are in charge of the project’s process system integration and scale-up, visited JUCHHEIM Laborgeräte GmbH, the German company in charge of the pilot unit dissolution tasks, in Bernkastel-Kues to see the ongoing procedure.

The separation vessels were being produced, and the dissolving vessel was almost ready.

Screenshot of PLAST2bCLEANED’s Inventory data collection sheet for the full LCA/LCC

As part of the tasks PLAST2bCLEANED is developing, the project is carrying out both a life cycle assessment (LCA) and a life cycle costing (LCC). During this first period, the main objective has been to establish the final methodological approach, as well as to develop a detailed and complete inventory data collection sheet.

To achieve this, first, the consortium decided on the final goal and scope, and PLAST2bCLEANED system’s definition and graphical description were updated to the latest insights from the PLAST2bCLEANED current research and prepared for the final assessment.

Likewise, a small-scale study was conducted on technology upscaling and learning methods, enabling the translation of lab-scale data to real data from a simulated commissioned and operative plant in Europe (sensitivity for countries, electricity mix, etc.) The aim of this research was to test the sorting and dissolution technologies under development on the project, to prove them valid and replicable, and it was finally validated by experts from the consortium and improved in the data collection sheet.

Results were shared with similar initiatives addressing plastics recycling like NONTOX and CREAToR to align the methodology framework and establish a common ground for future projects.

Finally, a detailed inventory data collection sheet was prepared and sent out within the project with an updated process flow diagram for partners’ input.

In the following months, TNO, responsible for these tasks for PLAST2bCLEANED, will collect all the inventory data and perform an LCA and LCC study for the final assessment.