| DENSE MEDIUM SEPARATION: PLASTICS | METAL COAL AGRICULTURE |
For over 15 years ESR has
been involved in the recycling of automobile shredder
residue. We set up seven of the largest and most profitable
recycling centers in the world in Belgium, France and the
United States. Our biggest client has been the Galloo
Group, and we designed all of the dense medium separation
equipment that Galloo is currently using. We are in the
process of designing an entire new facility for Galloo
featuring the recycling of plastics.
ESR’s unique bi-directional
dense medium separator is able to distinguish plastics that
differ in density by only a few points to the third decimal
place. We pioneered the utilization of fine shredder sand
between 15 and 60 microns to change the density of water.
This allows us to make separations as high as 1.6 without
the need for expensive suspension fines such as magnetite
or ferrosilicon.
With this technology, Galloo
was also able to isolate an organic fraction sufficiently
low in PVC and heavy metals to be used as an alternative
fuel in cement kilns. The cement kilns that burned this
waste (according to the strictest emission standards in
Europe) were actually able to produce cement at a negative
energy cost.
Since the Galloo Group boasted of being able to make density separations accurate to within two points to the third decimal place, it saw a huge opportunity in the recycling of electronic and other waste materials rich in plastics. Galloo Plastics is now producing approximately 20,000 tons of recycled plastics per year and is continually expanding this recycling activity.