Systems, methods, and apparatuses for manufacturing micronized powder. The systems, methods, and apparatuses comprise pre-grinding processing, cryogenic freezing, and grinding of infeed material and warming, ferrous metal and fiber removal, accumulation, screening, and storage of micronized powder. Generally, the warming may involve recirculation of micronized powder through the warming apparatus. Further, the accumulation may permit the grinding and screening to occur at their respectively optimal rates, and the fiber removal, via use of a vibrating screener, may increase the purity of the micronized powder. In one embodiment, the micronized powder comprises micronized rubber powder (MRP).

Method for recycling electronic waste are included that enable electronic waste separation and recycling to a high level of separation efficiency and end product purity which are improvements over prior methods. In preferred methods, separated electronic waste which has been subjected to magnetic separation to remove ferrous materials and shredded to an average width of less than about 40 mm is provided and then introduced to a first water tank treated so as to have a specific gravity of about 1.20 to about 1.30 and allowing a first portion of the electronic waste to float in the first water tank and a second portion of the electronic waste to sink in the first water tank; and the second portion of the electronic waste is introduced to a water vibrating table, wherein the remaining second portion of the electronic waste leaving the water vibrating table yields at least about 98% sorted recovered materials comprising pure and clean copper, aluminum, wire, circuit boards, stainless steel and mixed plastics. Other preferred embodiments employ use of a horizontal friction dehydrator in secondary separation, use of color sorting of various plastics, employing fresh-water fed vertical dehydrators at end steps of separation and use of a high purity electrostatic separation process for final products.

A system and method for recycling and repurposing used tires. The system includes a plurality of modules for automatically repurposing used tires into fabrication of structural members or devices including but not limited to tie-downs, attachment cables, speed bumps, tire chocks, pet scratching posts, fencing, safety barriers, and more. The treads of the tires are used for making elongated strips which are joined using adhesive(s) for forming structures. In some embodiments, the temperature and pressure for the repurposing process can be adjusted using an interface. The used tires are cleaned and waste material is removed after treads are separated.

A method and apparatus for recovering fibres from fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) materials uses a thermomechanical process to produce high quality recovered fibres and powdered polymer resin. The thermo- (cryo-) mechanical process uses a combination of a selected range of temperatures and mechanical force, and is chemical and solvent-free, and produces zero waste. Fibre length remains unchanged after processing and mechanical properties of the recovered fibres are comparable to or better than those of virgin fibres. The recovered fibres and powdered polymer resin may be used to make new FRP products.

The invention relates to a method for separation of a polymeric article comprising at least one thermoplastic polymer, and at least one other constituent, wherein said separation method comprises: a step of contacting the polymeric article with a liquid medium suitable for propagating shock waves, and a step of applying a pulsed field to the liquid medium, so as to generate shock waves capable of dividing the polymeric article at an interface between the thermoplastic polymer and the other constituent.

Methods and systems for recycling a printed circuit board (PCB). The printed circuit board is exposed to a swelling agent that causes an epoxy matrix of the printed circuit board to swell and disintegrate into particles. The particles of epoxy are then separated from the printed circuit board, leaving behind reinforcing fiber and metal containing components thereof. These remaining components are separated from each other and recycled separately using suitable processes. The epoxy particles are also recovered, and may be reduced to a monomer for use in synthesizing new epoxy. The swelling agent includes a carboxylic acid, preferably formic acid, as an active ingredient.

A method for separating composite materials and mixtures, in particular solid-material mixtures and slags, and to a device for carrying out said method. The method for separating composite materials and mixtures comprises the step of transporting the composite material or the mixture through a separating device. The composite material to be separated or the mixture to be separated is excited by mechanical impulses as it passes through the separating device and is thereby separated. The device (1) for carrying out the method comprises a drive unit (21) for driving a rotor element (32), which is connected to a bearing/shaft unit (22) and which is part of a rotor unit (31). The rotor element itself has at least one rotor tool (33) and each rotor tool has at least one rotor tool component (34) and is surrounded by a stator element (42), which is part of a stator unit (41). The stator element itself has at least one stator tool (43) and each stator tool has at least one stator tool component (44). The rotor element and the stator element are substantially cylindrical.

A method and system for recycling wind turbine blades. A scalper scalps off balsa wood and foam from recycled composite chips, a lump breaker shatters the chips produced by the scalper, a hammer mill breaks fiber chips produced by the lump breaker to reduce the chips to strand clusters, a vibratory screen and cyclone air classifier or circular vibratory screener separate strand clusters of acceptable size from larger strand clusters that require repeated processing with a hammer mill, another vibratory screen and cyclone air classifier or circular vibratory screener further separate strand clusters of acceptable size from larger strand clusters that require repeated processing with a hammer mill, and a granulator pulverizes the resulting fiber strand into micro-fibers that can be used as reinforcement fibers.

A method and system for recycling wind turbine blades. A scalper scalps off balsa wood and foam from recycled composite chips, a lump breaker shatters the chips produced by the scalper, a hammer mill breaks fiber chips produced by the lump breaker to reduce the chips to strand clusters, a vibratory screen and cyclone air classifier or circular vibratory screener separate strand clusters of acceptable size from larger strand clusters that require repeated processing with a hammer mill, another vibratory screen and cyclone air classifier or circular vibratory screener further separate strand clusters of acceptable size from larger strand clusters that require repeated processing with a hammer mill, and a granulator pulverizes the resulting fiber strand into micro-fibers that can be used as reinforcement fibers.

The method for shredding and recycling used big-bags, having a continuous internal bag of polyethylene and an external outer of polypropylene, includes: compacting at least one big-bag to a thickness of less than 20 cm; conveying the compacted big-bag(s) to a shredding unit; shredding at least one compacted big-bag at the shredding unit, between 100 and 1000 cuts/m being performed on the compacted big-bag(s) to obtain strips of the PE outer and fragments of the PP outer; separating the PE strips from the PP fragments to obtain a first fraction of PP fragments and a second fraction of PE strips: applying a second shredding of the polyethylene strips; cleaning the two fractions; feeding first and second extruders respectively with the cleaned first fraction to obtain PP granules and with the cleaned second fraction to obtain PE granules.