CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.
Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .
Exploitable results
An automatic system using fluorescent tracer technology has been developed to enable articles made from different plastics to be identified and sorted. The performance of the system has been exemplified using plastics packaging. The system comprises three components:
the tracer system (the tracers, compounds which emit characteristic fluorescent signatures when illuminated by ultraviolet light, are incorporated into the plastics either during polymer manufacture or by means of masterbatches which are added during conversion);
the sensor system (the sensor identifies the characteristic signature of the tracer and hence the host plastic, and provides a signal to activate a sortation machine);
sortation machine (when a signal is received from the sensor, an air jet is activated to eject the identified article into the appropriate storage bin).
The main benefits of this system are that it is fully automatic, fast, accurate and capable of identifying a large variety of different plastics. A variable voting system ensures that the optimal balance between sorting efficiency and purity of sorted fractions is maintained, even under conditions where the articles are contaminated. Unique features are that the system can discriminate between grades of the same polymer and, if required, can reject materials (such as plastics containing certain additives) that must be kept out of the sorted streams. The system is capable of identifying articles or shredded fragments as small as about 10 mm in dimensions, and with minimal separation between adjacent fragments. Thus, there is potential for the system to be developed for sorting shredder wastes. This has significant implications for industry sectors other than packaging, for instance the automobile and electrical/electronics industries. The system has also been tested and found to work satisfactorily with coloured plastics, although more research and development is needed in this area.
Within the EU-sponsored BE programme (BRE2 CT930541; 1094-1097) an optical sensor system has been developed to automatically and rapidly identify tracer-doped materials (in binary combinations in plastics). The technology is based on identifying relative fluorescence signatures of tracers induced by a monochromatic thermal light source and state-of-the-art detection technologies and software. The system has undergone successful industrial trials for sorting doped waste plastics and is applicable to other materials for recycling and re-use.
Plastic industries are currently under pressure from government legislation and environmental lobbies to recover and recycle commodities and components after the end of their useful lives. The ability to rapidly and confidently identify and segregate polymer types and variants is fundamental to achieving an effective recovery operation for plastic materials. Infra-red reflection (absorption) technique has recently been applied to address this challenge only with limited success.
The development of the optical tracer system was based upon the spectral absorption and fluorescence properties of selected tracers. The selection of tracers was, however, restricted by requirements that these are compatible in both polar and non-polar plastics, have good thermal and ultraviolet (UV) stability, low toxicity and migration and are photo-physically non-interacting with the host materials and with each other. A database on the above properties for over 60 different commercial tracer materials has been compiled which will have important application in other industry sectors requiring continuous monitoring for on-line quality/process control such as fabric, pharmaceutical, tannery and in many water-intensive industries where re-use of effluent is required.
Although the project has focused initially on application in the plastic packaging industry, this innovative technology is equally applicable to sorting other plastic types. For example, the plethora of different types and grades of high value 'engineering' plastics used in the automotive, household durables, and electronic industries could be more effectively sorted than have been done hitherto. Industrial trial for sorting tracer doped plastics using the presently developed sensor system has demonstrated that the technology is immensely more superior to manual sorting in terms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
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