Recycling of cars made green & cleaner with Verderflex peristaltic pumps

At the end of itsÂ’ life, a car yields on average, 140 kilos of shredder waste: 26 kg of metals, 69 kg of plastics, 11 kg of minerals and 24 kg of fibres. In Tiel, Netherlands, a Post Shredder Treatment plant (PST) was built in 2011, for the recycling of cars.

The PST plant is one of the two plants in Europe that are able to recycle to approximately 95% of the waste materials. Aiming for 100% recycling, continuous research and development is conducted in the company. In 2015 their goal is to recycle 95 percent of end-of-life vehicles. The last valuable material recovered is from shredder waste in the plant, which is crucial in order to fully achieve the legal objective. Today ARN has already reached this goal by separating about 40 percent of all shredder waste from cars. 56 percent of the remaining shredder waste is incinerated with energy recovery: just 4 percent at the most ends up in the landfill.

The separation process is accomplished by a large number of different techniques. 179 different machines are used to screen the waste, cut it in the hammer crusher and centrifuge the waste particles to enable separation of the shredder waste. Sink-or-swim tanks are also used to separate materials with different specific gravity from one another. Huge mega magnets are used to separate the larger metallic parts. Most techniques consist of innovative technical airflows in cyclones of different nature (eg, swirling, air blowing under or above or sideways), feeding or just by draining fluids. Also settling and circulation of fluid streams (for re-use of the process materials such as calcium carbonate) are recurring techniques.

Separation through fluid streams Calcium carbonate:

In the last stage of separation, several materials are separated in fluid stream baths, using a difference in specific gravity. Calcium carbonate, powdered limestone, is circulated in a settling tank. Since this material is heavy, it will settle after 30 minutes. In order to keep the calcium carbonate from sticking to the bottom, a Verderflex Dura 45 hose pump is used to keep the fluid stream moving. Since its installation in 2013, the Dura 45 has been pumping around the clock, without requiring a single hose change.

Separation of copper parts in a settling tank:

Copper parts are circulated by a stirrer in a settling tank. The copper parts are pumped into another tank by a specific movement of the stirrer. Due to the high gravity of
copper, the copper parts settle at the bottom of the tank and every 2 weeks the tank has to be cleaned out manually. For this application, ANR purchased 3 Verderflex Dura 45 pumps, and used them as circulation pumps. This prevents copper parts from settling at the bottom of the tank and are pumped into another section of the separation process.

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