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 steam enriched in wet organics and a dry organic stream enriched in dry organics. The separated wet organic stream and dry organic stream and separately converted to renewable or recyclable products using different conversion techniques particularly suited for the separated wet and dry organic streams.
Claims18
A method for recovering recyclable materials from mixed solid waste stream, comprising:
- providing a mixed waste stream comprising at least one high value recyclable material selected from the group consisting of paper, plastic, and metal, wherein the mixed waste stream includes at least 20% by weight of low value material selected from the group consisting of wet organics, green waste, food waste, grit, fines less than 1 inch, asphalt, concrete, textiles, wood, 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 using a size separator to produce an over sized stream and an under sized stream and introducing the over sized stream into the density separator to produce a plurality of intermediate waste streams, wherein a first intermediate waste stream is enriched in a 3-dimensional plastic and a 2-dimensional plastic and/or paper;
- conveying at least the first intermediate waste stream to a 2D/3D sorting apparatus and separating the 3-dimensional plastic from the 2-dimensional plastic and/or paper;
- and
- recovering a recyclable 3-dimensional plastic product and a 2-dimensional plastic and/or paper product.
A method for recovering recyclable materials from mixed solid waste stream, comprising:
- providing a mixed waste stream comprising at least two high value recyclable material selected from the group consisting of paper, plastic, and metal, wherein the mixed waste stream includes at least 20% by weight of low value material selected from the group consisting of wet organics, green waste, food waste, grit, fines less than 1 inch, asphalt, concrete, textiles, wood, 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 using a size separator to produce an over sized stream and an under sized stream and introducing the over sized stream into the density separator to produce a plurality of intermediate waste streams, wherein a first intermediate waste stream comprises the light fraction and is enriched in 3-dimensional plastic and 2-dimensional plastics and paper;
- conveying one or more intermediate waste streams to a first sorting apparatuses and separating 3-dimensional plastic from 2-dimensional plastic and paper;
- conveying the 2-dimensional plastic and paper to a second sorting apparatus and separating the 2-dimensional plastic from the paper;
- and
- recovering a 3-dimensional plastic product, a 2-dimensional plastic product, and a 2-dimensional paper product.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.