Characterisation, sorting and washing

To accelerate the circular plastic supply chain and move toward higher recycling rates, characterizing, sorting and washing are crucial steps in addition to designing and setting up the waste management system. Characterising to determine what materials and interfering substances are in a stream, sorting to recover valuable materials from a waste stream and washing to increase material quality by removing adhering dirt, inks, adhesives, odour and other interfering substances.

The aim is to subsidize research and development of processes, methodologies and techniques that contribute to more efficient and higher quality recycling of plastics. By doing so, the design of materials and processes can be improved, and the characterization, sorting and washing of plastic waste streams, as well as the conversion of these streams into new raw materials, can be optimized. This leads to higher efficiency and better quality of recyclate, including output from chemical recycling.

• Inline Analysis - Plastic sorting 4.0 
• Control of household waste sorting by AI (ChowsAI) 
• polarID

See also:

• All Projects
• News release about the projects

• MoQuP-R: Monitoring Quality in Plastic Recycling.
• UPTYRE: Unique Process Solutions for Advanced Recycling of Car Tyres

NTCP, an independent non-profit organization is open to cooperation with all parties in the chain and provides objective results and advice. Since 2019, NTCP is the leading research institute in Europe in the field of characterizing, sorting and washing plastics from (household) waste streams. On a relevant industrial scale, the center provides the opportunity to conduct tests and research, evaluate new technologies, and develop and test processes for both mechanical and chemical recycling routes. Conducting experiments and research at this scale will accelerate industry implementation. CPNL is investing 12 million Euros to expand NTCP by 2024.

Expansion of the NTCP in the Works

Contact the experts on the CPNL team.