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US 2019/0344285 A1Published application
Process For Cleaning Dirty Post-Consumer Waste Glass
AssigneeUrban Mining Northeast, LLC
InventorsLouis P. Grasso, Jr., Dale Hauke
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method is provided to clean glass mixed with non-glass undifferentiated trash. In the method, the glass pieces are cleaned without washing the glass pieces with water or a surfactant during the cleaning process. The non-glass contaminants are liberated from the glass by drying and abrasion, and then removed from the glass by screening and density separation.
Claims18
A method of processing a mixture of dirty glass and trash from a material recovery facility, comprising:
- a) tumbling the mixture in a rotary drum,
- the tumbler having a series of lifters arranged about a peripheral sidewall of the drum such that when the drum is rotated the lifters lift the mixture to a height before dumping the mixture from the height sufficient to cause breakage and reduction in size of the glass, wherein
- the mixture is advanced into an entrance to the drum, through a passageway in the drum, and out of an exit in the drum, and
- the glass leaving the exit of the drum has a particle size that, on average, is less than two-thirds the size of the particle size of the glass entering the entrance to the drum;
- b) drying the glass while tumbling the glass in the rotary drum, wherein drying includes flowing a heated gas in a co-current direction with the glass;
- c) after the glass exits the exit of the drum, separating ferrous metals from the glass;
- d) separating the glass into multiple particle size categories;
- and
- e) in each of the multiple particle size categories, separating the glass from the trash to recover size categorized clean glass.
6 more elements
A method of processing a mixture of dirty glass and trash from a material recovery facility, comprising:
- a) tumbling the mixture in a rotary drum, the drum having a series of lifters arranged about a peripheral sidewall of the tumbler such that when the drum is rotated the lifters lift the mixture to a height before dumping the mixture from the height sufficient to cause breakage and reduction in size of the glass, wherein
- the mixture is advanced into an entrance to the drum, through a passageway in the drum, and out of an exit in the drum, and
- the glass leaving the exit of the drum has a particle size that, on average, is less than two-thirds the size of the particle size of the glass entering the entrance to the drum;
- b) drying the glass in the rotary drum while tumbling the glass in the rotary drum, wherein drying includes flowing a heated gas in a co-current direction with the glass;
- c) after the mixture exits the exit of the drum, separating ferrous metals from the mixture;
- d) density separating the mixture into a heavy component and a light component, the heavy component containing a glass fraction and non-glass fraction, and the light component including only dried organic materials removed by the tumbling;
- and
- e) for the heavy component, separating the glass fraction from the non-glass fraction.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.