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Recycling of aluminium laminated pouches and Tetra Pak cartons by molten metal pyrolysis - Pilot-scale experiments and economic analysis
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Accepted Version
Supplementary Material
Date
2021-12-09
Authors
Riedewald, Frank
Wilson, Edward
Patel, Yunus
Vogt, Daniel
Povey, Ian M.
Barton, Killian
Lewis, Liam
Caris, Tom
Santos, Silvia
O'Mahoney, Maria
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd.
Published Version
Abstract
Aluminium laminated (AL) pouch packages and aluminium laminated Tetra-Pak cartons are considered unrecyclable, reducing their otherwise excellent lifecycle performance. This paper describes experimental results on pilot plant trials to recycle AL packages with a molten metal pyrolysis reactor. The experimental evidence shows that both package formats can be recycled and that clean aluminium can be recovered. However, the recovered aluminium from Al pouches may require mechanical cleaning as the consumer's information is printed onto the aluminium, leaving a carbon residue on the recovered aluminium. On the other hand, over 90% of the polypropylene plastic layer on the AL packaging pyrolysed into waxes, pointing to excellent kinetics. Moreover, an economic analysis of a 4,000 t/y commercial-scale plant demonstrates that a molten metal AL recycling plant is economically viable, achieving an internal rate of return (IRR) of over 20%.
Description
Keywords
Composite recycling , Aluminium recycling , Extended producer responsibility , Commercial-scale plant , Economic analysis
Citation
Riedewald, F., Wilson, E., Patel, Y., Vogt, D., Povey, I., Barton, K., Lewis, L., Caris, T., Santos, S., O'Mahoney, M. and Sousa-Gallagher, M. (2021) 'Recycling of aluminium laminated pouches and Tetra Pak cartons by molten metal pyrolysis - Pilot-scale experiments and economic analysis', Waste Management, 138, pp. 172-179. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2021.11.049