Equipment Report

Van Dyk partners with Reckelberg Environmental Technologies

Van Dyk Recycling Solutions, Norwalk, Connecticut, will sell equipment from German company Reckelberg Environmental Technologies (RET) to recycle lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) of all kinds as well as scrap from battery production.

According to Van Dyk, RET has developed a process to safely recover the valuable materials in batteries with the highest yield and purity. RET has core components for all the major process steps, from electrical discharging to vacuum drying and mechanical separation.

What makes the system unique is the key component for mechanical treatment of the LIBs, what RET calls the Impact Reactor. It allows direct recovery of black mass at one central point after the vacuum drying. The system includes extensive exhaust-gas treatment and filter systems guaranteed to address health, safety and emission requirements.

To create turnkey solutions, Van Dyk will turn to its other equipment suppliers for conveyors, air separation tables, zig-zag sifters, screens and magnets.

“RET is at the forefront of battery recycling in Europe,” says Brian Schellati, director of business development for Van Dyk Recycling Solutions. “As electric vehicles become more popular in North America, we will need effective solutions for recycling their batteries. The materials we can separate in these large car batteries have very high value, meaning potentially great ROI [return on investment] for these operations.

“Van Dyk will be well-positioned to provide sortation strategies to this market as RET has the highest recovery of the valuable black mass that we have seen.”

With increased production of devices and cars that use rechargeable LIBs, RET expects the recycling of used batteries, especially from electric vehicles, to increase over the next five to 10 years.

“RET’s mission is to further develop and supply market-leading technologies and solutions for battery recycling to enable its customers to tackle one of the biggest problems of the upcoming years in regard to recycling,” says Claas Reckelberg, CEO of RET.

RET Chief Financial Officer Nico Klemencic adds, “With our innovative components and solutions, our customers will be able to create the cornerstone of a circular economy for the valuable raw materials from batteries.”

Machinex, PureCycle develop plastics preprocessing facility

Machinex, a Plessisville, Quebec-based equipment manufacturer, has worked with Orlando, Florida-based advanced recycler PureCycle Technologies Inc. to develop a fully automated sorting system at PureCycle’s plastics recycling plant in Denver, Pennsylvania.

PureCycle, which specializes in polypropylene (PP) recycling, transforms the material into what it calls “ultrapure” recycled resin, allowing it to be used multiple times as a renewable resource. Machinex says the Pennsylvania facility has the capacity to process 10 metric tons per hour while relying on zero manual sorters.

According to Machinex, PureCycle sought an advanced system to efficiently remove contaminants and sort PP as well as other high-value materials, such as high-density polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate, from bales provided by material recovery facilities and postindustrial recyclers. PureCycle says purchased PP bales typically fall below its preferred threshold of 90 percent purity and partnered with Machinex because of its expertise in plastic sorting using its Mach Hyspec optical sorters and SamurAI sorting robots—products that reduce the need for manual labor.

“It was great to work with Machinex on the development of our first regional preprocessing facility (PreP),” PureCycle CEO Dustin Olson says. “The Machinex technology and their team helped to quickly turn it into a professional, efficient PreP operation. Most importantly, it has allowed us to feed our flagship purification facility in [Ironton,] Ohio with a purer feedstock stream.”

The Machinex equipment being used at the PreP facility includes four Mach Hyspec optical sorters, two two-ram balers, two SamurAI sorting robots, an eddy current separator for nonferrous metals, a magnet and a Mach trommel. Additionally, the Mach Intell business intelligence platforms installed on the SamurAI robots provide essential data and reporting for optimizing the performance of the equipment.