Organic Waste Separation

The TITECH separation systems can be perfectly integrated in your own installation and adapted to specific material types and grain sizes. The process flowchart demonstrates optimized integration of the TITECH separation system.

Following the sieving process, the two fractions of plastic can be recovered. This fraction can be processed to render it resalable, whilst a second stage eliminates the stones, glass and metals before the material enters the biomethanization module.

The application

The total waste volume contains a high percentage of organic material. This fraction is treated in different ways depending on country. Within the organic fraction, the inert material can cause significant problems during the different treatment processes. For this reason, the inert material content has to be reduced to a minimum in such a way that loses as little organic material as possible. For example, in processes producing Bio-gas from the organic fraction, inorganic residue settles at the bottom of the anaerobic digester. In order to run an effective and efficient machine it is necessary to empty and clean the digester more frequently. Time spent cleaning the machine will inevitably mean a loss of time in the Bio-gas production process. Potential mechanical component damage from inorganic residue build up will also lead to additional maintenance costs.

The solution

Our recommendation is a unique combination of x-ray transmission (XRT) and Near Infrared spectroscopy (NIR). After initial size screening and metals recovery, the material is then passed under a TITech autosort which uses a NIR detector to remove different polymers. The remaining fraction is then passed under a TITech x-tract unit which uses a XRT detector to remove glass, stones etc based on their atomic density. Our recommendation is for a TITECH autosort system. The high resolution of the near infrared (NIR) system identifies and separates the polymer types PVC, PP, PET and PE. An electromagnetic sensor also removes all ferrous and nonferrous metals. In a second stage, the TITECH x-tract uses x-ray technology to determine atomic density, on which basis all of the glass, stones, etc. are removed. The contamination level of the material is irrelevant.

The advantages

• Inert material elimination level between 80% and 95% (depending on grain size)
• Less material dump landfill
• Compliance with legal restrictions on landfill wastes.
• High capacity with efficient automatic separation system.
• Good purity to recovery ratio.
• Substantial reduction of maintenance and restarts.
• Conversion of contaminated organic fraction into organic material suitable for biomethanization.
• Short amortization period (18 to 24 months).