Solutions for Recycling Companies

ITENE has a wide experience in research projects on waste recovery and in the development of recycling technologies that it puts at the service of companies.

Since 2019, more than 10 management and recycling processes have been developed by the technical area of our technology centre.
This expertise allows us to work on new initiatives to provide solutions for the different stages that waste goes through during its recovery.

Plastic waste recycling technologies

Waste pre-treatment

We apply different pretreatment techniques to assess the valorization possibilities of waste and to determine the sustainability of the entire process, aiming to enhance the quality of recycled materials:

Waste characterization.
Material separation and classification.
Crushing and grinding.
Washing, flotation, and drying.
Decontamination and odor removal (water vapor, supercritical CO2, solvent treatments, and ozone).
Delamination (selective dissolution and depolymerization).
Deinking.

Mechanical recycling

We work to overcome the limitations of mechanical recycling through additive strategies and reactive extrusion, based on:

- Design of specific screw configurations for optimizing the dispersion of additives and reinforcements or reactive extrusion processes, and therefore, the performance of recycled plastics in extrusion processes.
- Online rheology: Evaluation of the viscoelastic properties of recycled plastic materials during the extrusion process for “in situ” adjustment of process parameters and additive or reactive extrusion route.

Chemical recycling

We develop processes with which products of interest to the plastics and chemical industry are obtained:

Chemical depolymerisation by solvolysis.
Heat treatment by pyrolysis, gasification or thermal hydrotreating.

Enzymatic recycling

We work on the recycling and elimination of plastics with the greatest environmental impact, thus improving the value chain, thanks to the use of enzymes, insects and microorganisms. With the technologies we work with at ITENE, we achieve polymer degradation without generating waste for humans or the environment.

Poliolefina postconsumo tras proceso de descontaminación

Enzymatic recycling for plastics and organic waste

We work on the recycling and elimination of plastics, thus improving the value chain, thanks to the use of enzymes, insects and microorganisms. With the technologies we work with at ITENE, we achieve polymer degradation without generating waste for humans or the environment.
Biorecycling also allows the treatment of organic waste of urban origin or agricultural by-products that can be used to obtain new bioproducts.

State-of-the-art facilities

We have a pilot recycling plant in which the following can be carried out

Simulation of the operating conditions for the recovery of cellulosic and plastic waste on a pilot scale.
Removal of impurities and metallic residues.
Size reduction and conditioning of packaging waste to obtain flakes.
Removal of contaminants, organic matter residues and drying of plastic flakes.

We also have an industrial biotechnology laboratory where work is carried out on

processes and technologies for the enzymatic recycling of plastic materials through the application of microorganisms or enzymes.
recovery of bio-waste of urban origin (FORSU, organic fraction of solid urban waste) and of agri-food and industrial origin.