Process for cleaning dirty post-consumer waste glass

• US 10,369,575 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2016
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Urban Mining Industries LLC
• Original Assignee: Urban Mining Northeast, LLC
• Inventors: Grasso, Jr., Louis P., Hauke, Dale
• Primary Examiner(s): Self, Shelley M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Parr, Katie L.
• Application Number:
  US15/154,361
• Publication Number:
  US 20170050192A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 241 2422, 241 243, 241 65, 241 99
• CPC Class Codes: B02C 19/0081 specially adapted for breaking-up bottles
• CPC Class Codes: B02C 19/0087 for glass bottles
• CPC Class Codes: B02C 23/14 with more than one separator
• CPC Class Codes: B02C 23/18 Adding fluid, other than for crushing or disintegrating by fluid energy for tumbling mills B02C17/186; feeding devices B02C23/02
• CPC Class Codes: B03B 9/062 the refuse being glass
• CPC Class Codes: B03C 1/18 with magnets moving during operation
• CPC Class Codes: B03C 1/24 with material carried by travelling fields
• CPC Class Codes: B03C 1/30 Combinations with other devices, not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: B07B 15/00 Combinations of apparatus for separating solids from solids by dry methods applicable to bulk material, e.g. loose articles fit to be handled like bulk material using wet methods B03B7/00; using gas currents B07B9/00
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 1/002 Use of waste materials, e.g. slags
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 12/00 Powdered glass C03C8/02 takes precedence; Bead compositions
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 23/0075 Cleaning of glass specially adapted to plate glass B08B11/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 30/52 Mechanical processing of waste for the recovery of materials, e.g. crushing, shredding, separation or disassembly
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 30/60 Glass recycling

Abstract

A method is provided to clean glass mixed with non-glass undifferentiated trash. In the method, the glass pieces are kept as large as possible to thereby minimize the amount of surface area that needs to be cleaned. The glass pieces are cleaned without washing the glass pieces with water or a surfactant during the cleaning process. The non-glass contaminants are liberated from the glass by drying and abrasion, and then removed from the glass by screening and density separation.

Claims

1. A method of cleaning dirty glass from a material recovery facility, consisting of:

a) first screening to remove foreign materials from the glass;

b) drying and polishing the glass;

c) using a magnet to separate ferrous metals from the glass;

d) second screening the glass into multiple particle size categories;

e) in each of the multiple particle size categories, performing density separation to separate from the glass trash having a different density than the glass;

f) pulverizing the glass;

g) third screening to separate the pulverized glass from trash having a similar density to glass to result in clean glass, all without washing the dirty glass with a liquid.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the screening out foreign materials occurs before the drying the glass.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the drying the glass occurs before the screening out foreign materials.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the second screening screens the glass into at least three size categories.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the second screening screens the glass into five size categories.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the clean glass has a loss on ignition (LOI) not exceeding 1%.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the clean glass has a loss on ignition (LOI) not exceeding 0.5%.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the clean glass has a loss on ignition (LOI) less than 0.25%.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

a) and b) are performed before c) to g).