{"id":427833,"date":"2022-12-13T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=427833"},"modified":"2022-12-13T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T05:30:00","slug":"fraunholcz-with-mechanical-recycling-alone-we-wont-meet-the-eu-directives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/fraunholcz-with-mechanical-recycling-alone-we-wont-meet-the-eu-directives\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraunholcz: ‘With mechanical recycling alone, we won’t meet the EU directives’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With a view to achieving a circular economy, the EU wants all plastic products to be made up of at least 24 percent recyclate by 2030. At the moment, the lion’s share of recycling is done using mechanical recycling technology. This entails collecting, sorting and crushing plastic waste into chips, after which they get cleaned. At the end of this process, clean plastic flakes are converted into pellets that form the basic raw material for new products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why we write on this topic<\/summary>

We still have a long way to go where plastic waste streams are concerned. Norbert Fraunholcz is committed to giving solvent-based recycling a more prominent place within the recycling process. He talks about his motivation and ambitions in this article.<\/p><\/div><\/details>\n\n\n\n

Huge adverse impact of recyclate on quality<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Norbert<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Norbert Fraunholcz, a raw materials technologist by trade, cannot see us meeting those EU directives just with this kind of technology. “Mechanical recycling is the cheapest way to go about it, but it has severe limitations when you look at to what extent it is capable of separating and removing contaminants from plastics. We definitely need this technology, but it is often not up to the task of meeting the guidelines for products that we need high-quality plastic for.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By way of example, he cites a coffee maker that has a housing made of plastic. Currently, this is fabricated in most cases with hundred percent brand new plastic that has a high and consistent level of quality. “If you say, I want to replace some of the virgin<\/em> plastic for recyclate, the overall quality tends to deteriorate very quickly. With 3 percent recyclate and 97 percent new plastic, you can dilute any contaminants. But, if you switch from three to thirty percent recyclate, that has a huge adverse impact on the quality, even though those figures are the ambitions of the EU. So other, more advanced technologies have to be applied.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“If you switch from three to thirty percent recyclate, that has a huge adverse impact on the quality, even though those figures are the ambitions of the EU. So other, more advanced technologies have to be applied.\u201d<\/p>\nNorbert Fraunholcz<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Review of all available technologies<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, Fraunholcz reviewed all the available recycling technologies – mechanical, chemical, solvent-based <\/em>and biological<\/em>. He then looked at applications for consumer products that are made of high-performance plastics, such as cars or electronics. Right now, around two to three percent of recyclate is used in these product categories. “That has got to be ten times as much. A huge challenge, especially for high-value plastics that have high standards of quality. For underground pipelines, the specifications the plastics have to meet are understandably much lower than for an automobile.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solvent-based recycling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Two-and-a-half years later, Fraunholcz is CEO of ReSolved Technologies<\/a>. The name of his company implies which technology emerged from the competition as the most promising. “Solvent-based was an underrated technology, whereas I saw tremendous potential in it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solvent-based recycling builds on mechanical recycling, Fraunholcz goes on to explain. Sorted plastic is dissolved in a liquid. The plastic solution that then forms is a homogeneous liquid which is much easier to purify and can be done more effectively in this form than plastic particles of various sizes and shapes that mechanical recycling makes use of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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