TECHNOLOGY | SORTING
HolyGrail 2.0 successful in industrial testing
The HolyGrail 2.0 Digital Watermarks Initiative, led by AIM - European Brands Association, reached a new milestone with the successful validation of the digital watermark technology’s ad- vanced sortation capability in an industrial environment, delivering positive results particularly in relation to the separation of food and non-food waste streams. Industrial trials took place at the Wellman/ Indorama recycling plant in Verdun, France in January and Febru- ary 2023 using a prototype detection module developed by machine vendor Pellenc ST and digital watermarks technology provider Digimarc, as part of the initiative. Digital watermarks are imperceptible codes that can be added to the surface of consumer goods packaging which carry a range of attributes about the package. The idea is that the digital watermark can be detected and decoded by a special high-resolu- tion camera once the packaging enters a waste sorting facility to achieve more accurate sorting and higher quality recyclates. According to AIM, in the trial, conducted under the supervision
of the HolyGrail 2.0 technical team, 5.6 tonnes of watermarked non-food PET bottles were produced and then mixed with post- consumer waste at the Suez MRF in Epinal, France, to mimic typical waste workflows. Multiple fractions of the mixed waste containing around 200,000 watermarked bottles were created, baled, and shipped to the Wellman/Indorama recycling facility for sorting tests. The trials were carried out on a fully operational line equipped with the digital watermark detection module working under standard operating conditions with nominal throughput of 3 tonnes/hr and a conveyor belt speed of 3 m/sec. An NIR unit was also used to assist with blowout. Detection efficiency was 92.1% while sorting efficiency was 88.3% on average in a single pass sort. In a two-pass sort, which is standard process in such recycling plants, the detection and sorting efficiency was 95.9% and 95.1% respectively. The testing indicated that use of digital watermarks can reduce impurities in food-grade PET output streams in recycling plants, says AIM. The consistent and repeatable results delivered by the advanced
sortation detection module were positive particularly in relation to the separation of food and non-food waste streams. The assess- ment focused on a non-food PET bottle waste stream and had two primary objectives: to remove watermarked non-food PET bottles from the stream to meet the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guidelines to reduce non-food PET content in a food PET stream to less than 5%; and to create a non-food PET output stream. The next step is that the module will be shipped to MRF Hündgen in Germany where further industrial trials on different post-consumer waste material streams will be conducted in the next months, says AIM.
18 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | September 2023
CleanStream technology, which it describes as the world’s first closed-loop system to mechanically process post-consumer PP from household collec- tions back into food-grade packaging. The Clean- Stream technology was granted a Letter of No Objection from the US Food and Drug Administra- tion in August 2022, confirming that the rPP pro- duced by the process can be used in levels up to 100% recycled content for food contact applications. Berry will use the refined output exclusively as
raw materials in its manufactured packaging solutions, such as its recently launched B Circular Beauty collection. Berry produces a wide range of products from its recycled materials, including bags and bulk bags, bottles, vials, containers, tubs, pots, caps, closures, films and laminates, trays, tubes, applicators and apparel. The Autosort units are used to pre-sort and purify the post-consumer PP bales, and feature Tomra’s homogeneous light distribution for detection, and high-speed valves which eject and separate even the smallest contaminants from the selected fraction with precision. Meanwhile, the Innosort flake unit incorporates a combination of sensor technologies and a dual full colour camera to simultaneously and effectively remove undesired colours, polymers and opaque material. The modular design of the Innosort unit has working widths up to 2 m, deliver- ing a running capacity of up to 6 tonnes/hr. The flexible configuration of the unit allows for single or multi-step sorting on the same unit to achieve the purest possible end products, says Steve Walsh, Area Sales Manager, UK at Tomra. Berry is pursuing EU approvals for recycled
materials for use in food packaging applications. “We are also looking to build on this investment in the future with additional facilities to produce more high-quality circular PP feedstocks,” says Mark Roberts, Circular Value Chain Director at Berry Consumer Packaging International Division. AMP Robotics, a US-based developer of AI-based robotic sorting systems, has developed what it considers to be the first AI-powered system for the recovery of film and flexible packaging. The launch of its AMP Vortex automation system is an innovation for materials recovery facilities (MRFs) to minimise the challenge of film contamination. The Recycling Partnership in the US says film and flexibles comprise the fastest-growing and second- largest valued packaging segment, with close to 95 pounds of these materials, including grocery and storage bags, pouches and wrappers found in the average US home each year. However, the recycling industry lacks infrastruc- ture for the identification and separation of film and
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
