TPS Process

A supercritical co2 technology to delaminate the materials from wastes

01.

Identification

Food packaging, clothes, shoes, solar panels, credit cards, skis are all complex and technical products composed of multiple layers of different materials. These materials are bound together to bring several required properties to the product (mechanical strength, oxygen barrier, hydrophobicity…). Taken separately, each material can often be recycled or reused, but the separation process can be costly or sometimes impossible, especially when shredding processes are involved. The TPS process is an efficient, fast and sturdy technology based on existing industrial supercritical processes. The solvents used, coupled with supercritical CO2, allows to delaminate the different layers of the wastes' materials (glues and bonds at the interface of materials are dissolved). The TPS process is a clean chemical process using mainly supercritical CO2 for the separation of multi-layer complex wastes and products, to enable their recycling. Non-recyclable wastes can then become fully recyclable. TPS Process gives a new life to multi-layer complex wastes.

Label Date April 21, 2021

By IDELAM

From France

Maturity stage Prototype testing 1:1 in the lab

Looking For Network, New clients, Visibility, Funding, Partners, Credibility

02.

Implementation Stories

TPS Process by IDELAM
Implemented by Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine in Bordeaux (France) in 2020

The Region Nouvelle-Aquitaine, has been testing the Solution since January 2020 and for a 2-year period for the delamination of shoes and the development of a scale-up process. This pilot project has been a collaborative effort between IDELAM and the French eco-organization Refashion, in charge of the collection of all shoes and textiles. The project “Rechauss” aims at determining the possibilities and feasibility of recycling shoes using IDELAM’s TPS Process.

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Result

Semi-industrial pilot process with a first delamination capacity of 150,000 shoes per year

03.

The environmental benefits

•Separation of materials in a few tens of minutes
•Fluids used in the process composed at more than 80% of CO2 which is recycled at more than 99% in a closed loop
•More than 90% clean separation of recyclable materials
•Between 50% and 90% of the materials from waste become recyclable
•25% less raw material usage in packaging