German start-up Saperatec (Dessau-Roßlau; www.saperatec.de) is currently building the first commercial plant for recycling composite materials at its headquarters in Dessau. Commissioning is planned for 2023; information on the investment sum was not provided.

The plant, with a capacity of 18,000 t/y input material, will process flexible multi-layer composite waste from the packaging industry, such as PET/Alu/PE, PET/Alu, Alu/PE, or PE/Alu/PE composites. A “wet-mechanical” recycling process developed by Saperatec is being used. The core process involves treating the shredded composite material with the separation liquid. The separation process is conducted by stirring and heating the materials until the individual fractions (materials) get completely separated.

Initially, the company is concentrating on flexible packaging, tubes with aluminium barriers, and the recycling of plastic and aluminium from beverage cartons. In the future, the company also plans to recycle photovoltaic modules – made of glass, semiconductors, and plastic – lithium-ion batteries (aluminium, lithium metal oxide, graphite, copper) or so-called “sandwich” car glass made of glass-plastic combinations.

Saperatec was founded in 2010 and has been operating a pilot plant since 2014. Individual recycling concepts are to be developed for customers who want to operate their own lines to recycle composite materials. Additionally, further facilities are also being planned.

Meanwhile, Swiss tube manufacturer Hoffmann Neopac (Thun; www.hoffmann-neopac.com) has announced its plans to collaborate with the German start-up. The company will initially supply production waste – aluminium-laminate composites – to Saperatec. The aim is to reuse the recyclates for the production of new tubes.

At this year’s Tube of the Year competition by the European Tube Manufacturers Association (Etma, Düsseldorf, Germany; www.etma-online.org), Hoffmann Neopac was one of the winners in the plastic tubes category (see Plasteurope.com of 05.09.2022).