Descripción del proyecto
Un novedoso escáner garantizará que haya menos plástico negro y de colores en los vertederos de residuos
Si se echa un vistazo a los hogares, al interior de los coches, a los edificios de oficinas o a los colegios, se observa que la mayor parte del plástico asociado a la electrónica es negro. Aunque los materiales poliméricos suelen ser aptos para reciclar, algunos recubrimientos y aditivos no lo son. Por desgracia, actualmente no existe ningún método fiable para determinar la presencia de aditivos restringidos en los plásticos negros. La industria del reciclaje se ve obligada a devolver una gran cantidad de desechos reciclables al flujo de residuos, un proceso ineficaz que afecta al medio ambiente. El proyecto SELEX, financiado con fondos europeos, ha desarrollado una solución: una tecnología patentada de rayos X que puede identificar polímeros y aditivos en los plásticos negros y de colores. Gracias al apoyo de la Unión Europea, se está avanzando en su comercialización.
Objetivo
Existing plastic sorting technologies are not able to sort black plastics based on the type of polymer and to identify the presence of additives such as Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR) and pollutants which are forbidden by EU directives on recycling. For this reason, black plastics, which represent 30-50% of plastic scraps in Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV), end up as residue and are disposed in landfills, buried or exported outside EU, producing additional costs instead of value for the recycling industry. Indeed, the recycling rate of plastics from WEEE in Europe is only 20% of the amount returned with the waste stream.
SELEX patented solution exploits for the first time a combination of X-ray solutions allowing: 1) to discriminate polymers used in the plastic matrix both for coloured and black plastics; 2) to provide quantitative information about presence of fillers, additives and pollutants present in the polymer matrix, including BFR. SELEX is applied in 2 solutions: 1) Portable device, to check material compliance with regulation and specifications, 2) In-line device to be integrated in sorting plants for black / polluted plastics, based on type of polymers or additive and in-line product quality control for compounders.
The portable prototype was developed and tested in relevant conditions with the most common families of plastics and additives, using hundreds of certified real WEEE samples and confirming reliable, easy and fast analysis (<1 sec). The target of the feasibility study is to define the go-to-market of SELEX portable device (cost optimization, pricing and agreement with industrial partner for licensing) and planning the steps for the implementation of the in-line system (speed vs resolution, integration, production costs). The main segments for SELEX are 1) WEEE and ELV recyclers and 2) plastic compounders. The TAM in both segments is valued >2.8 billion Euro with first market in EU of >560 MEuro.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
Régimen de financiación
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinador
00067 ROMA
Italia
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.