bifa starts second cooperation project with Wieland-Werke AG and Knittel GmbH

In the cooperation project with Wieland-Werke AG and Knittel GmbH, funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection, as a forerunner, a combined recycling method was developed for secondary raw materials from previously separately recovered composite packaging and used pickling acid from the metalworking industry and other copper-containing waste streams from production processes. The objective in project phase 1 was to try out possible implementation in a large-scale recovery plant to substitute primary raw materials.
Further implementation of the process from laboratory scale now leads to a test setup in pilot plant scale. Here the fundamentals for scaling up are to be created and process management knowledge obtained for continuous operation. In addition, the project will examine the question of additional residual materials that could be used as input materials.

From an ecological and economic point of view, coupling two inherently separately treated residual material streams from different industries in order to increase raw material efficiency is extremely interesting. Rising raw material prices in the past were the result of rapidly growing demand. Experts assess that this trend will continue. For example, at € 5,400/tonne, copper is twice as expensive as it was in the 1990s. The market prices for PE commercial mixed films with a high proportion of transparent films of 80 to 90 percent are currently between €150 and €220/tonne, although this price is subject to large price fluctuations depending on the PE quality.

The project undertaken by bifa in cooperation with Wieland-Werke AG and Knittel GmbH will last for 14 months up to the end of September 2015.