JFE Steel has built container packaging plastic micronization equipment

JFE Steel has built the "APR Advanced Plastic Recycling Equipment", which industrializes the pulverizing technology of container-packed plastics and has now begun trial operation. It is scheduled to be officially launched in March 2007. Prior to this, the waste plastic micro-pulverization technology has been considered difficult to achieve.

JFE has developed a technology for the chemical regeneration of container-packed plastics using blast furnaces and completed its practical use in fiscal year 2000. The JFE environment is responsible for the processing and productization of container-packed plastics. JFE Steel purchases these re-commercialized products and puts them into the blast furnace as reducing materials. The processing capacity is about 50,000 tons per year. In the future, the company will use micronized plastics manufactured by APR equipment to promote energy conservation and reduce CO2 emissions by increasing the efficiency of blast furnaces.

The APR equipment consists of the process of dissolving and dechlorinating the plastic packaged in the container and the microcrushing process. First, the mixed plastic is melted, dechlorinated, mixed, and then cooled and solidified. Using this technique, plastics that have undergone heat-treatment and embrittlement can be crushed to produce a fine powder plastic having a particle size of 200 to 400 μm. In the past, waste plastics granulated and pulverized by industrial methods have a particle size of 1 mm or more. The powdered plastic produced this time has a higher reactivity in the blast furnace than previously used finished plastic pellets and can be used effectively. Use it as a reducing material for blast furnaces to help save energy and reduce CO2 emissions.

The APR equipment also has the function of dechlorination, and can effectively use the residue plastic produced by the container packaging plastic when the material is recycled. Prior to this, residue plastics were difficult to recycle due to higher chlorine content, while dechlorination treatment could improve utilization.

The construction of APR equipment was supported by NEDO's "Energy Use Rationalization Business Support Project". The processing capacity of the equipment is 8,000 tons per year, and the investment amount is approximately 1.4 billion yen. The equipment is located in the JFE Steel East Japan Steel Works in the Keihin area.

Reprinted from: Technology Online