The method, called pyrolysis, is a medium-temperature reaction that can reduce the PPE back into an original form.

Engineers at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, have proposed a new solution to sustainably recycle discarded medical waste, such as used surgical masks, plastic face shields and medical gloves and gowns.

The method, called pyrolysis, is a medium-temperature reaction that can reduce the plasticized medical protection garb back into an original form—including chemicals and petroleum—and then recycle it, perhaps into fuels, according to a new study. The method involved no incineration or landfill use.

“The scale of disposing used medical personal protective equipment (PPE) is enormous,” says Xiang Zhao, a doctoral student and an author on the paper. “Fast pyrolysis is proven to effectively convert waste PPE into value-added products. The pyrolysis method can replace PPE incineration or sending it to landfills, which is what happens now.”

Zhao, working with his advisor Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering, in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, published the proposed technology framework, “Energy and Environmental Sustainability of Waste Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Treatment Under COVID-19,” in January in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

Their framework, which first focuses on New York state, proposes collecting waste PPE from hospitals and medical centers and then sending it to preprocessing and decontamination facilities in New York or Suffolk counties. There, it would be shredded, sterilized and dehydrated to become small particles and then brought to an integrated pyrolysis plant, like one contemplated for Rockland County, north of New York City.

In the case of You and Zhao’s model, the medium-temperature (about 1,200 F) pyrolysis can deconstruct the plasticized gowns and gloves into chemicals such as ethylene, butane, gasoline, bauxite, propene, propane, diesel, light naphtha and sulfur.

“For an analogy, pyrolysis is similar to baking in an oven,” says You, a senior faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. “If you set the oven temperature very high, your meat becomes a chunk of charcoal. But if you use a lower oven temperature, the meat is going to be juicy. In pyrolysis, the temperature is the trick.”

Health care facilities around the world are creating about 7.5 pounds per person of PPE waste daily through COVID-19-associated services, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

In the paper’s energy analysis and environmental lifecycle assessment, the proposed optimal PPE processing system avoids 41.52 percent of total landfilling and 47.64 percent of the incineration processes. This method shows an environmental advantage by reducing total greenhouse gas emissions by 35.42 percent emissions from conventional incineration and energy saving by 43.5 percent from landfilling, the researchers told the Cornell Chronicle.

“This is a viable strategy for disposing and processing waste PPE,” You says. “It is a treatment method with low greenhouse gas emissions, it alleviates fossil fuel emission depletion and it saves a lot of polluting material from landfills.”

Sorting technology company forms team to concentrate on sorting, upgrading scrap wood.

Tomra Recycling says it has taken significant steps to strengthen its position in the wood recycling segment by building a dedicated team to offer sensor-based sorting solutions “to drive the development of waste wood recycling through technology and process improvement consulting.”

The Germany-based business unit of the Norway-based Tomra Group says it will continue to rely on its “well-established partnerships with manufacturers of wood-based panels” as it focuses on the effort.

As a follow-up to its launch of a new deep-learning-based sorting application capable of separating wood by type, Tomra says the team it is building will include “a newly appointed segment manager, industry-savvy experts, waste wood application specialists and key service account managers.”

States Tomra, “The wood-based panel industry aims to meet very strong market demand and improve product quality by increasing recycled content, resulting in a twofold benefit for the manufacturer. Recycled wood is up to 40 percent cheaper than fresh wood and generally dryer, which results in a significant decrease in energy consumption during the drying stage of the panel production.”

Jose Matas, segment manager-wood at Tomra Recycling, says, “The current market development offers a huge opportunity to wood-based panels manufacturers. Using high-quality recycled materials allows them to produce superior quality wood-based panels, achieve higher yields and outputs while profiting from considerable cost reductions, preserving natural resources and decreasing CO2 emissions.”

Currently, a lack of infrastructure impedes the sector’s development, Tomra says. Overall, the European Union and the United States “leave approximately 100 million tons of waste wood unrecycled,” the company adds, citing the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank as its source.

That figure, according to Tomra, points to “untapped opportunities that can be exploited when implementing holistic resource systems to effectively collect, sort and recycle waste wood.”

The technology provider continues, “The particleboard manufacturers’ quest to increase recycled content and promote sustainable wood management requires optimized processes and advanced technologies to recover pure material fractions from a waste wood infeed stream. Thus, recyclers and particleboard manufacturers are advised to invest in the respective sorting technology to keep pace with industry demands and evolve with the market.”

Integrating a wood sorting system at recycling facilities or at medium-density fiberboard (MDF) production plants “enables them to separate non-processed wood and processed wood from complex mixed waste stream and use the purest materials to produce high-quality particleboard on an industrial scale,” according to Tomra.

Tomra says two sorting systems—one a high-throughput unit for removing inert material and metals and the other an optical sorter with an integrated deep learning technology to separate waste wood into different material grades—is one potential solution.

The company says its X-Tract device can help recyclers and particleboard manufacturers remove impurities like inert materials, metals, and glass with x-ray transmission (XRT) technology and “deliver outstanding purity levels for secondary raw materials.” Its AutoSort GAIN, meanwhile, “is trained to detect, analyze and separate non-processed wood and processed wood.”

Only wood chip products with the highest quality scrap wood (type A) can replace virgin materials in the production of wood-based panels, says the company. Tomra says its application engineers and software developers collaborated to develop a new deep-learning-based application to sort wood chips by type to serve this market.

“Tomra is strongly committed to circular waste management, [and] I am delighted that we extend our focus to the wood segment with a dedicated team that brings a wealth of experience and profound knowledge,” remarks Fabrizio Radice, vice president and head of global sales and marketing at Tomra Recycling.

“The team’s expertise combined with our latest technologies will help recyclers and particleboard manufacturers meet both market demands and exploit the full potential of their operation while minimizing environmental impacts,” adds Radice. “In the following years, we are going to invest a lot in this promising segment and aim to see that the waste of one company becomes a valuable resource for another – a scenario we support to become commonplace.”

Hi Pro was awarded the Merwin Award for outstanding service, sales and support.

Hi Pro Equipment Inc. has received the 2021 Merwin Award, according to an announcement made by Eriez USA Senior Sales Director Dave Heubel. The annual award is given to an Eriez representative firm for outstanding contributions in sales performance and customer service and support.

Hi Pro Equipment, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, has represented Erie, Pennsylvania-based Eriez for 21 years. The firm is now a three-time recipient of the Merwin Award, with previous wins in 2012 and 2017.   

Hi Pro Equipment is a manufacturers’ representative of bulk material handling equipment. The offers complete systems, custom designs and components for various process industries. Hi Pro serves a diverse range of industries, including agriculture, automotive, chemical, food, minerals processing, mining, pharmaceutical, plastics, recycling, wastewater, original equipment manufacturer, metals, glass and paper/wood.

“The Hi Pro sales team had an exceptional 2021, exceeding goals in all assigned markets, all assigned products and setting a new territory record for overall order performance,” Heubel says. “Since 2001, Hi Pro has represented Eriez with remarkable technical skills, professionalism and integrity, ensuring our mutual customers have a top-notch experience before and after the sale.” 

The Hi Pro team includes Russ Campbell, Randy Klinger and Justin Story.

To commemorate this accomplishment, Hi Pro will receive a framed Merwin Award and the company’s name will be inscribed on the Merwin Award plaque which is on permanent display at Eriez headquarters. 

Eriez magnetic separation, metal detection, material handling, fluid recycling and advanced flotation technologies have applications in the mining, processing, packaging, food, recycling, aggregate, plastics and metalworking industries.

Paper and board producer sees its EBITDA rise nearly 36 percent for the year.

Lake Forest, Illinois-based Packaging Corp. of America (PCA) has reported year-end figures for 2021 that include increases in net sales and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).

On the sales front, the company’s $7.73 in 2021 sales represents a 13.9 percent increase over $6.66 billion in 2020. PCA’s 2021 EBITDA of more than $1.66 billion was a 35.9 percent rise from a 2020 figure of $1.23 billion.

The company enjoyed a profitable fourth quarter despite that time period including “certain costs at the Jackson, Alabama, mill for paper-to-containerboard conversion-related activities.” PCA says fourth-quarter market and financial conditions included “higher volumes and higher prices and mix in our Packaging and Paper segments, lower wood fiber and energy costs, lower scheduled maintenance outage expenses and a favorable tax rate.”

Mark W. Kowlzan, chair and CEO of PCA, comments, “Demand in our Packaging segment remained very strong, with our corrugated products plants delivering record fourth-quarter total shipments and all-time record shipments per day that exceeded last year’s extremely strong fourth quarter. We utilized the capability of both machines at our Jackson, Alabama, mill to produce containerboard for the entire quarter, yet inventories, including the additional containerboard inventory from our December acquisition of Advance Packaging, moved lower from the end of September.”

Continues Kowlzan, “Looking ahead as we move from the fourth and into the first quarter, in our Packaging segment we expect to benefit from higher corrugated products shipments with three additional shipping days, and we expect shipments per day to be higher than last year’s first quarter as demand remains strong, along with slightly higher domestic and export prices and mix. Additionally, in our Paper segment, we expect higher prices and mix from our previously announced price increase that was implemented beginning last November.”

As of 2022, the EPA says facilities subject to reporting requirements for these chemicals should start tracking activities.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the addition of four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The EPA included the additions as part of its "Strategic Roadmap" to confront the human health and environmental risks of PFAS.

TRI data is reported to the EPA annually by facilities in certain industry sectors, including federal facilities, that manufacture, process or otherwise use TRI-listed chemicals above certain quantities. The data include quantities of chemicals that were released into the environment or otherwise managed as waste. Information collected through the TRI allows communities to learn how facilities in their area are managing listed chemicals. The data collected also help inform the EPA’s efforts to better understand the listed substances.

“We will use every tool in our toolbox to protect our communities from PFAS pollution,” says Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “Requiring companies to report on how these PFAS are being managed, recycled or released is an important part of EPA’s comprehensive plan to fill critical data gaps for these chemicals and take meaningful action to safeguard communities from PFAS.”

The four PFAS added to required reporting include perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS), potassium perfluorobutane sulfonate, perfluorononanoic acid (CASRN) 65104-45-2 and CASRN 203743-03-7. PFBS-based compounds are replacement chemicals for perfluorooctane sulfonate, a chemical that was voluntarily phased out by the primary U.S. manufacturer by 2002. PFBS have been identified in the environment and consumer products, including surface water, wastewater, drinking water, dust, carpet cleaners and floor wax.

The EPA also has determined that CASRN 65104-45-2 is designated as “active” on the Toxic Substances Control Act Inventory and is covered by significant new use rules. Therefore, this substance has also been added to the TRI pursuant to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Additionally, CASRN 203743-03-7 has been identified for addition to the TRI list based on the NDAA’s provision to include certain PFAS upon the NDAA’s enactment. 

As of 2022, the EPA says facilities subject to reporting requirements for these chemicals should start tracking activities involving these PFAS as required by Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. Reporting forms for these PFAS will be due to EPA by July 1, 2023, for 2022 data.

In addition to continuing to add PFAS to the TRI, the EPA says it will soon announce a series of PFAS test orders that will require PFAS manufacturers to provide the agency with toxicity data and information on PFAS.