Discover the Technologies – Fraunhofer IVV

Fraunhofer IVV, based in Freising, Germany, is a research institute for process engineering and packaging.

Dissolution-based recycling

Dissolution-based recycling process has a great potential. It combines polymer separation from mixtures and composites with purification of the separated polymer, which enables the recovery of pure plastics from complex plastic sources. The target plastic is effectively separated from foreign materials such as metal or wood and undissolved foreign polymers. Dissolved impurities such as flame retardants or plasticizers are separated using specific solvents so that a high-purity fraction of recycled plastic is obtained. Mixed plastic waste and waste from plastic composite materials, such as film laminates or shredder materials from end-of-life vehicle and electronic scrap recycling, which previously had to be disposed of via thermal recycling, landfill or export, can now be recycled sustainably. The recyclates from plastic composites and mixed plastic waste achieve almost virgin material quality and can be fed back into the production cycle in line with the circular economy.

The Fraunhofer IVV has been successfully developing solvent-based recycling technologies for decades. These solvent-based recycling technologies are currently operated with the solvent mixtures jointly developed by Fraunhofer IVV and CreaCycle, the CreaSolv® formulations. CreaSolv® is a registered trademark of CreaCycle GmbH.

FIGURE 1 DISSOLUTION-BASED RECYCLING PROCESS @FRAUNHOFER IVV

Scale of operation

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Process development at lab scale

Choice of solvents
Dissolution, cleaning, precipitation and drying parameters

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Demonstration at small-technical scale

TRL 4-5
5-10 kg per day using stainless steel equipment (100-250 L)

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Demonstration at industrial demonstration scale

TRL6
100-1000 kg sample production
Validation of mass and energy balance

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Industrial Demonstration

Unilever in Indonesia (TRL7)
PS Loop in Terneuzen (TRL8)

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Different Video’s of technology

The process behind the loop (PS Loop) - The use of a brominated flame retardant is no longer permitted in polystyrene construction foam. To combat the ever-increasing PS waste stream without incinerating this valuable material, PolyStyreneLoop has built a demo plant to demonstrate the technical and economical feasibility of recycling polystyrene containing HBCD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkLgZJjLhTQ&t=1s

Simplify Your Waste - An Ingenious Solution for A Multilayered Problem | The CreaSolv process precisely separates different polyolefins from a mixture of plastics waste. A selectively acting solvent physically dissolves individual polyolefin grades from mixed postconsumer flexible packaging waste. https://www.circularsolutions.theallianceprize.org/finalists/gaw-technologies

Circular Flooring – Most post-consumer PVC flooring waste is contaminated with REACH listed phthalate containing plasticizers. Fraunhofer IVV developed a process to extract these legacy phthalates and create a REACH compliant, clean rPVC intermediate, ready for re-use in PVC flooring.