Back to results
US 12,280,408 B2Granted
Systems and methods for processing mixed solid waste
AssigneeUpland Road IP Holdco LLC
InventorGeorge Gitschel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Solid waste that includes a mixture of wet organic material and dry organic material can be are separated using mechanical separation to produce a wet organic stream enriched in wet organics and a dry organic stream enriched in dry organics. The separated wet organic stream and dry organic stream are separately converted to renewable or recyclable products using different conversion techniques particularly suited for the separated wet and dry organic streams.
Claims20
A method for recovering recyclable materials from mixed solid waste stream using optical sorters, comprising:
- providing a mixed waste stream comprising high value recyclable material including paper and rigid plastic, said rigid plastic excluding PVC, wherein the mixed waste stream includes at least 20% and less than 100% by weight of low value material selected from the group consisting of wet organics, green waste, grit, fines less than 1 inch, concrete, textiles, rubber, film plastic, PVC, foil, rock, used consumer products, low value glass, composite materials, and combinations of these;
- fractionating the mixed waste stream by size by performing an upper size cut and a lower size cut to produce a sized waste stream, the sized waste stream having a particle size range where a particle size ratio of an upper cut-off to a lower cut-off is greater than 1 and less than 4;
- fractionating the sized waste stream by density to produce an intermediate waste stream enriched in the paper and rigid plastic;
- and
- using a first one or more optical sorters to:
- scan the intermediate waste stream for paper;
- and
- eject the paper from the intermediate waste stream;
- using a second one or more optical sorters to:
- scan the intermediate waste stream for plastic;
- and
- eject the plastic from the intermediate waste stream;
- producing a sorted paper material and a sorted plastic material.
10 more elements
A method for recovering recyclable materials from mixed solid waste stream using optical sorters, comprising:
- providing a mixed waste stream comprising high value recyclable material including paper and rigid plastic, said rigid plastic excluding PVC, wherein the mixed waste stream includes at least 20% and less than 100% by weight of low value material selected from the group consisting of wet organics, green waste, grit, fines less than 1 inch, concrete, textiles, rubber, film plastic, PVC, foil, rock, used consumer products, low value glass, composite materials, and combinations of these;
- fractionating the mixed waste stream by size by performing an upper size cut and a lower size cut to produce a sized waste stream, the sized waste stream having a particle size range where a particle size ratio of an upper cut-off to a lower cut-off is greater than 1 and less than 6;
- fractionating the sized waste stream by density to produce an intermediate waste stream enriched in the paper and rigid plastic;
- and
- using a first one or more optical sorters to:
- scan the intermediate waste stream for paper;
- and
- eject the paper from the intermediate waste stream;
- using a second one or more optical sorters to:
- scan the intermediate waste stream for plastic;
- and
- eject the plastic from the intermediate waste stream;
- producing a sorted paper material and a sorted plastic material.
10 more elements
A method for recovering recyclable materials from mixed solid waste stream using optical sorters, comprising:
- providing a mixed waste stream comprising high value recyclable material including paper and rigid plastic, said rigid plastic excluding PVC, wherein the mixed waste stream includes at least 20% and less than 100% by weight of low value material selected from the group consisting of wet organics, green waste, grit, fines less than 1 inch, concrete, textiles, rubber, film plastic, PVC, foil, rock, used consumer products, low value glass, composite materials, and combinations of these;
- fractionating the mixed waste stream by size by performing an upper size cut and a lower size cut to produce a sized waste stream, the sized waste stream having a particle size range where a particle size ratio of an upper cut-off to a lower cut-off is greater than 1 and less than 4;
- fractionating the sized waste stream by density to produce an intermediate waste stream enriched in the paper and rigid plastic;
- and
- using one or more optical sorters to:
- scan the intermediate waste stream for paper;
- and
- eject the paper from the intermediate waste stream;
- producing a sorted paper material.
6 more elements
A method for recovering recyclable materials from mixed solid waste stream using optical sorters, comprising:
- providing a mixed waste stream comprising high value recyclable material including paper and rigid plastic, said rigid plastic excluding PVC, wherein the mixed waste stream includes at least 20% and less than 100% by weight of low value material selected from the group consisting of wet organics, green waste, grit, fines less than 1 inch, concrete, textiles, rubber, film plastic, PVC, foil, rock, used consumer products, low value glass, composite materials, and combinations of these;
- fractionating the mixed waste stream by size by performing an upper size cut and a lower size cut to produce a sized waste stream, the sized waste stream having a particle size range where a particle size ratio of an upper cut-off to a lower cut-off is greater than 1 and less than 4;
- fractionating the sized waste stream by density to produce an intermediate waste stream enriched in the paper and rigid plastic;
- and
- using one or more optical sorters to:
- scan the intermediate waste stream for plastic;
- and
- eject the plastic from the intermediate waste stream;
- producing a sorted plastic material.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.