Mba Polymers, Inc.

Brian L Riise

Ron C Rau

Laurence E Allen, Iii

Michael B Biddle

Hyung Baek

Ronald C Rau

Pedro Alejandro Perez-Rodriguez

Gary C Stevens

Scott A Farling

Paul C Allen

Arthur Schwesig

Henryk Herman

Martin Starchl

John Gysbers

Günther Höggerl

Laurence E Iii Allen

A process for reducing the content of residual organic substances in mixtures of plastics from durable goods can include separating a feed stream into two or more mixtures of flakes and preforming a cleaning process to remove a portion of one or more of the absorbed organic substances from one or more of the mixtures. Each mixture can contain one or more plastic types and at least one organic substance absorbed into the one or more plastic types. The flakes in the mixtures can have an average particle diameter of less than 10 millimeters.

Methods for reducing contamination in plastics recovered from durable goods

A process for the recovery of a plastic product from ASR or ESR mixtures can include five or more process steps selected from DEXRT; XRF; size reduction; density separation; NIR sorting; Electrostatic separation; LD sorting; Wood removal; rubber removal; metal removal; and glass removal.

Processes and requirements for the recovery of plastics from durable goods

A method is described for improving the processability and surface appearance of products containing plastic recovered from waste plastic material mixtures.

Method for improving the surface appearance and processing of plastics recovered from durable goods

A method for separating a mixture of solid materials can includes a sorting step based on differences in X-Ray transmission of different materials and a density sorting step at an elevated density. The mixture of solid materials can be a plastic-rich mixture recovered from waste electrical and electronic equipment. The mixture of solid materials can include plastics that contain brominated flame retardants. In some cases, a XRT or DEXRT sorter is used to remove the majority of plastics that contain brominated flame retardants from the mixture.

Methods, systems, and devices for enrichment of plastic materials derived from electronics shredder residue

A method of separating a mixture of solid materials includes supplying a stream of a mixture of solid materials to a stationary inclined surface and collecting a plurality of particles at one or more collection ports spaced from and located along the axis of the inclined surface. The mixture of solid materials includes a plurality of particles. The plurality of particles includes rubber particles and plastic particles. The particles of the mixture contact the stationary inclined surface and travel downward along the surface due to gravitational force. The collected particles include a higher percentage of the rubber particles than mixture due to a greater degree of bouncing of the rubber particles due to their higher friction compared with plastic particles. A material sorting apparatus includes a stationary inclined surface, a feeder, and a plurality of collection ports spaced from and located along the axis of the inclined surface.

Inclined chute sorter

A process for creating polyolefin blends from waste streams with controlled rheological properties can include processing a waste stream to make a mixture comprising a mixture comprising polypropylene and polyethylene and compounding the mixture with one or more peroxides or nitroxides to produce a polyolefin blend. For example, a process can include: determining the required melt flow rate of the end product; determining the ratio of polyethylene to polypropylene to achieve the required melt flow rate; effecting a separation of polypropylene from polyethylene to achieve the desired composition; determining the amount of peroxide or peroxide concentrate required to increase the melt flow rate to the required level; melt compounding the mixture; evaluating the melt flow rate of the product; and adjusting the composition of polyethyelene and polypropylene or the amount of peroxide added if necessary to achieve the required melt flow rate.

Control of the melt flow rate of polyolefin mixtures recovered from post-consumer durable goods

Techniques for creating recycled plastic materials from waste plastic materials are described. A recycled plastic material contains at least a primary polymer, a secondary polymer, and residual additives. Predetermined properties of the recycled plastic material can be controlled by selecting the types of waste plastic materials used in the recycling feed, determining the types and amounts of recycled plastic material recovered from a separation process and blending the recycled plastic material with other materials.

Compositions of material containing recycled plastics

A method for reducing the content of a heavy metal in a mixture of solid plastic materials, wherein the mixture includes plastic flakes and there are at least two different colors of plastic flakes in the mixture. A percentage of each of two or more colors of flakes in the mixture is determined. A heavy metal content in the mixture based on the determined percentages is predicted. Whether the predicted content of the heavy metal in the mixture exceeds a pre-determined threshold is determined. If the predicted content exceeds the pre-determined threshold, a color sorting step is performed to obtain a subset of the mixture of plastic flakes, wherein the subset of the mixture of plastic flakes has a lower heavy metal content than the mixture prior to the color sorting step.

Reducing the content of heavy metals in recovered plastics

A method for separating mixtures of solid materials includes incorporating a ferromagnetic particulate material into a mixture of solid materials and, after the incorporating step, separating the mixture of solid materials into at least two groups based on the magnetic and frictional properties of the different components of the mixture of solid materials. The ferromagnetic particulate material can differentially incorporate into or adhere to different components of the mixture of solid materials. The different components of the mixture have different frictional properties and, after the incorporating step, the different components have different magnetic properties.

Methods, systems, and devices for separating materials using magnetic and frictional properties

Compositions of materials containing recycled plastics

Multistep recycling processes for preparing recycled plastic materials. The processes feature a sequence of operations selected from the group consisting of preprocessing operations, size reduction operations, gravity concentration operations, color sorting, sorting by thickness, friction, or differential terminal velocity or drag in air, surface to mass control operations, separation processes enhanced by narrow surface to mass distributions, blending operations, and extrusion and compounding operations. Plastic-rich mixtures are subjected to the process, and one or more recycled plastic materials are collected as outputs of the sequence of processes. 

Multistep separation of plastics

Methods, systems and media for separating polymer mixtures. A mixture including polymeric components is provided. A particulate media is added to the mixture, where the particulate media can selectively mediate a triboelectric charging of the polymer mixture. The media includes a polymeric material having a selected position within an electrostatic charging sequence and a functional additive. The mixture is triboelectrically charged with the media. Two or more components of the polymer mixture are separated according to the triboelectric charge. A portion of the particulate media can be recovered using a recovery process, where the functional additive is selected for compatibility with the recovery process.

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San Ramon, CA, United States of America

Brian L Riise