Mechanized separation and recovery system for solid waste

• US 9,061,289 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2013
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Upland Road IP Holdco LLC
• Original Assignee: Organic Energy Corporation
• Inventors: Gitschel, George
• Primary Examiner(s): Rosenbaum, Mark
• Application Number:
  US13/794,214
• Publication Number:
  US 20130193244A1
• Time in Patent Office: 834 Days
• Field of Search: 241/19, 241/20, 241/24.14, 241/79.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 9/06 specially adapted for refuse
• 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: Y10T 29/49755 Separating one material from another

Abstract

Methods and systems for separating a mixed waste into a wet organic fraction, a dry organic fraction, and an inorganic fraction are achieved by (i) comminuting the mixed solid waste, (ii) fractionating the comminuted stream by size to produce two or more particle-sized waste streams, and (iii) processing one or more of the particle-sized waste streams using density separation to produce an intermediate wastes stream, and (iv) recovering a homogenous product (e.g., a recyclable material or an organic fuel) from the intermediate waste stream.

Claims

1. A method for recovering recyclable materials from mixed solid waste stream, comprising:

providing a mixed solid waste stream that includes a mixture of mixed wet organic waste materials, mixed dry organic waste materials, and mixed inorganic waste materials;

fractionating the mixed waste stream by size by performing an upper size cut and a lower size cut to produce a sized waste stream, the sized waste stream having a size range where the ratio of an upper cut-off to a lower cut-off is less than 8;

fractionating the sized waste stream by density using at least three density separators in parallel and/or in series to produce at least three separated waste streams including at least a separated mixed wet organic stream enriched in mixed wet organics, a separated mixed dry organic stream enriched in mixed dry organics, and a separated mixed inorganic stream enriched in mixed inorganic materials; and

recovering at least one product from each of the at least three separated waste streams or a downstream portion thereof.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the upper size cut is carried out using a first screen and the lower size cut is carried out using a second screen.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the ratio of the upper cut-off to the lower cut-off is less than 6.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the sized waste stream has an upper cut-off in a range from 8 inch to 16 inch.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the lower size cutoff is than or equal to 2 inches.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least two of the three density separators are air-drum separators.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising a fourth density separator that is used in series with at least one of the first, second, and third density separators to produce at least a portion of one of the three separated waste streams.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the three density separators are configured to produce the separated wet organic stream from materials having a density greater than 12 lbs/ft³ and less than 60 lbs/ft³, the separated dry organic stream from materials having a density less than 12 lbs/ft³, and the separated inorganic stream from materials having a density greater than 100 lbs/ft³.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the mixed dry organic stream is fractionated to produce a plurality of dry organic products.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of dry organic products includes a paper product and a plastic product.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the separated inorganic stream is processed using an eddy current separator to produce an aluminum product.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising processing the inorganic stream using a magnet to produce a ferrous product.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the wet organic waste in a digester, wherein the product recovered from the wet organic stream includes a compost product and/or a biogas product.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the separated dry organic stream to produce a dry organic fuel.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of density separators produce at least a first and a second separated dry organic stream enriched in dry organics.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising combining the first and second dry organic streams.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising recovering the at least one product from the combined first and second separated dry organic streams.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising shredding the mixed organic waste or a downstream portion thereof.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the shredding is configured to produce the upper size cutoff of the mixed solid waste stream.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising separating polyvinyl chloride from the separated mixed dry organic stream.