Method and system for recycling waste glass

Abstract

To provide a method for recycling a waste glass, capable of preventing adhesion of a film material after crushing when the film material is pulverized into small pieces.SOLUTION: A method for recycling a waste glass (waste laminated glass) having a glass plate and a film material into a glass material and a plastic material includes: a first crushing step S1 for roughly crushing the waste glass; a second crushing step S2 for crushing the waste glass into small pieces after the first crushing step S1; a sorting step S3 for sorting the waste glass after the second crushing step S2 into the glass material and a glass-attached film material; a cleaning and crushing step S5 for cleaning and crushing the glass-attached film material after the sorting step S3; and a pulverizing step S6 for pulverizing the glass-attached film material after the cleaning and crushing step S5 into small pieces to form the plastic material. It is preferable that a size of a glass particle remaining in the glass-attached film material after the sorting step S3 is 100 μm or less.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method and system for recycling waste glass, such as waste laminated glass and waste building glass, into glass materials and plastic materials. [Background technology]

[0002] For example, laminated glass (having a film material as an intermediate film) is widely used in vehicle windshields, security window glass in buildings, etc. A typical example of this laminated glass is a vehicle windshield, which has a glass sheet facing the inside of the vehicle, a glass sheet facing the outside of the glass sheet, and an intermediate film (film material) interposed between the pair of glass sheets, and the intermediate film is made of, for example, polyvinyl butyral (PVB).

[0003] In recent years, efforts to reuse resources have been promoted in order to maintain a clean global environment, and attempts have been made to separate laminated glass to be discarded or laminated glass that has become defective during the manufacturing process (hereinafter also referred to as "waste glass") into a glass sheet portion (hereinafter also referred to as "glass material") and a film material portion (hereinafter also referred to as "film material") and reuse these (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

[0004] In the conventional reprocessing method, waste glass (waste laminated glass) is crushed and separated into glass material and glass-attached film material, and the separated glass-attached film material is further processed as follows to obtain plastic material: the glass-attached film material is immersed in an organic solvent to melt it, fine glass fragments adhering to the film material are separated, and the organic solvent is evaporated from the solution of the film material from which the glass fragments have been separated, and the crushed fragments of the film material are recovered.

[0005] The collected film fragments are mixed with an anti-adhesive material (such as calcium carbonate) and finely pulverized using a grinder (such as a high-speed rotary mill), and the anti-adhesive material prevents the film from sticking during the fine pulverization. After that, an elastic matrix material (such as a rubber-asphalt material) is dispersed and kneaded into the mixture of film material and anti-adhesive material using a kneader to form a vibration-damping material, and the glass-attached film material is recycled and reused as a vibration-damping material. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0006] [Patent Document 1] JP 2007-203594 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0007] However, in such a conventional recycling method, when recycling a glass-attached film material, first, glass particles are removed using an organic solvent, and then an adhesion prevention material is mixed with the film material, and the mixture is crushed into small particles using a crusher. Therefore, in order to recycle a glass-attached film material, a treatment using an organic solvent, an adhesion prevention material, etc. is required, which increases the cost of recycling, complicates the recycling process, and furthermore, the recycling process takes time.

[0008] An object of the present invention is to provide a method for recycling waste glass, which can prevent adhesion when crushing a glass-attached film material into small pieces.

[0009] Another object of the present invention is to provide a waste glass recycling system capable of crushing and pulverizing waste glass and recycling it as glass materials and plastic materials. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] The waste glass recycling method of the present invention is a method for recycling waste glass having a glass plate and a film material provided on a surface of the glass plate into a glass material and a plastic material, The method includes a first crushing process for crushing the waste glass into large pieces, a second crushing process for crushing the waste glass after the first crushing process into small pieces, a sorting process for sorting the waste glass after the second crushing process into a glass material and a glass-attached film material, a cleaning and crushing process for cleaning and crushing the glass-attached film material after the sorting process, and a crushing process for crushing the glass-attached film material after the cleaning and crushing process into small pieces to produce a plastic material.

[0011] In such a recycling method, a large number of glass particles remain on the surface of the glass-attached film material, and it is preferable that the size of these glass particles be 100 μm or less.By configuring in this manner, the glass-attached film material is prevented from sticking to itself and also from adhering to the crusher.

[0012] If the size of the glass particles exceeds 100 μm, the recycled plastic material will contain a large amount of glass components, which is undesirable as it will limit the recycling of the plastic material. It is more preferable that the size of these glass particles is 70 μm or less.

[0013] In this recycling method, the second crushing step preferably includes an impact crusher step for crushing the waste glass into medium-sized pieces, and a hammer crusher step for crushing the waste glass after the impact crusher step into smaller pieces. By crushing the waste glass in two stages in this way in the second crushing step, the waste glass can be efficiently crushed into small pieces.

[0014] In this recycling method, the plastic material to be recycled may be formed into pellets, and pelletization can expand the range of uses for the reuse of the plastic material. In pelletization, it is preferable to add 1% by weight or more of polypropylene to the plastic material and melt mix it, which can prevent the pellets from sticking together.

[0015] The waste glass recycling system of the present invention is a waste glass recycling system that recycles waste glass having a glass plate and a film material provided on a surface of the glass plate into a glass material and a plastic material, The waste glass processing system includes a first crusher for roughly breaking down the waste glass, a second crusher for roughly breaking down the waste glass broken down by the first crusher into smaller pieces, a sorting machine for sorting the waste glass broken down by the second crusher into glass material and glass-attached film material, a cleaning and crushing machine for cleaning and crushing the glass-attached film material broken down by the sorting machine, and a crusher for further breaking down the glass-attached film material broken down by the cleaning and crushing machine into smaller pieces to produce plastic material.

[0016] In such a waste glass recycling system, it is also preferable that the size of the majority of glass particles remaining on the surface of the glass-attached film material sorted by the sorting machine is 100 μm or less. Effect of the Invention

[0017] According to the waste glass recycling method (and recycling system) of the present invention, the waste glass is roughly crushed in the first crushing step (first crusher), then crushed into small pieces in the second crushing step (second crusher), and thus crushed into smaller pieces stepwise, so that it can be sorted into glass material and glass-attached film material in the subsequent sorting step (sorting machine). Then, this glass-attached film material is crushed while being washed in the cleaning and crushing step (cleaning and crushing machine), and further crushed into smaller pieces in the crushing step, so that it can be made into fine glass-attached film material. The glass material generated in the second crushing step (second crusher), sorting step (sorting machine), and cleaning and crushing step (cleaning and crushing machine) can be reused as glass material, and the fine glass-attached film material after the crushing step (crusher) can be reused as plastic material, so that the waste glass (e.g., waste laminated glass) can be recycled into glass material and plastic material. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0018] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a process diagram showing the processing flow of an example of a method for recycling waste glass according to the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the flow of waste glass treated in the recycling method of FIG. 1, and the glass material and glass-attached film material produced by the treatment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0019] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the waste glass recycling method (and recycling system for carrying out this recycling method) according to the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings. In this embodiment, a case where laminated glass used in a vehicle windshield is recycled as waste glass having a film material will be described, but the present invention is not limited to such a windshield, and can be similarly applied to the recycling of waste glass such as laminated glass used in architectural glass such as window glass for buildings (a glass material is provided on both sides of a film material and is referred to as "laminated glass"), laminated glass used for various purposes such as glass with a film used in rear glass of a vehicle or a solar panel (a glass material is provided on one side of a film material and is referred to as "glass with a film"), and laminated glass and glass with a film to be discarded are collectively referred to as "waste glass".

[0020] In Figures 1 and 2, to recycle waste glass having a film material (e.g., a vehicle windshield), a first crushing step S1 is carried out to crush the waste glass into large pieces, then a second crushing step S2 is carried out to crush the waste glass into smaller pieces, and then a sorting step S3 is carried out to sort the crushed waste glass into glass material and glass-attached film material.

[0021] In the first crushing step S1, a biaxial crusher 2 is used to roughly crush the waste glass (windshield). This biaxial crusher 2 (specific structure is omitted) may be a well-known commercially available one, for example, one equipped with a biaxial cutter structure, and the waste glass is roughly crushed as the first stage by passing it between the cutter structures.

[0022] In the second crushing step S2, a second crusher 4 is used to crush the waste glass crushed in the first crushing step S1 into small pieces in the second stage. In this embodiment, an impact crusher 6 (impact crusher step) and a hammer crusher 8 (hammer crusher step) are used as the second crusher 4, and the waste glass is crushed into small pieces in two stages.

[0023] The impact crusher 6 (specific structure is omitted) may be a well-known commercially available one, and for example, one equipped with a rotor that rotates in a predetermined direction, a striking plate provided on the rotor, and a collision plate disposed opposite the rotor can be used. Waste glass is fed to the striking plate, and the fed waste glass is collided against the collision plate by utilizing the rotation of the rotor, thereby crushing the waste glass into medium-sized pieces.

[0024] The hammer crusher 8 (specific structure is omitted) may be a well-known commercially available one, for example one equipped with a rotor that rotates in a predetermined direction, a hammer attached to the rotor, and a fixed plate that prevents the waste glass from moving. The rotation of the rotor is utilized to impact the waste glass with the hammer, thereby crushing the waste glass into smaller pieces.

[0025] In the sorting step S3, a sorting machine 10 is used to sort the glass material (e.g., windshield glass) crushed as described above from a glass-attached film material (e.g., windshield interlayer) (a large number of glass particles remain on the surface of the film material). When the first crushing step S1 and the second crushing step S2 (the impact pressure step and the hammer crusher step) are performed, the waste laminated glass (waste windshield) as waste glass becomes crushed glass material and crushed glass-attached film material, and in the sorting step S3, the glass material and glass-attached film material resulting from the crushing are sorted using the sorting machine 10.

[0026] The sorting machine may be a well-known commercially available machine, and may, for example, be equipped with a cylindrical frame that is supported at an angle so as to be freely rotatable, and a mesh screen arranged around the cylindrical frame; the glass material falls downward through the mesh screen, and the glass-attached film material is sent to the downstream side of the cylindrical frame and discharged from the discharge section; by using such a sorting machine 10, the glass material and the glass-attached film material can be separated.

[0027] The sorted glass material is reused as glass material, and the desired glass recycling process S4 is carried out using this glass material. Through this glass recycling process S4, for example, glass fiber, security gravel, soil improvement material, etc. can be produced.

[0028] The glass material crushed by the twin-shaft crusher 2, the glass material crushed by the impact crusher 6, and the glass material crushed by the hammer crusher 8 are reused as glass materials together with the glass material sorted by the sorter 10.

[0029] The glass-attached film material selected by the sorting machine 10 is further recycled and reused as a plastic material as follows. The glass-attached film material is first subjected to a cleaning and crushing process S5. In the cleaning and crushing process S5, a cleaning and crushing machine 12 is used to crush the glass-attached film material while cleaning it. This cleaning and crushing machine 12 (specific structure is omitted) may be a well-known commercially available machine, for example, one equipped with a cutting structure that cuts with a fixed blade and a rotating blade, and the glass-attached film material is crushed by the cutting structure while being cleaned, and the glass-attached film material is crushed into small pieces. In the cleaning and crushing process S5, the film material is crushed while being cleaned, which prevents small dust particles from scattering around, and keeps the working environment clean.

[0030] A machine having a drying function may be used as the cleaning and crushing machine 12. When a cleaning and crushing machine having a drying function is used, the film material with glass after cleaning and crushing can be dried to remove moisture, and the efficiency of the cleaning and crushing work can be improved.

[0031] In the cleaning and crushing step S5 (cleaning and crushing work by the cleaning and crushing machine 12), crushing is performed while cleaning, so there is a risk that the film materials will stick together and become difficult to crush; however, if a large number of glass particles remain on the surface of the film material (the entire surface), the film materials will not stick together, and it will be possible to crush the glass-attached film material as desired by the cleaning and crushing machine 12.

[0032] If a large amount of glass remains in the film material, the glass component contained in the plastic material will be large, making it difficult to reuse the plastic material. For this reason, the size of the many glass particles remaining on the surface of the glass-attached film material is preferably, for example, 100 μm or less, and if it exceeds 100 μm, the final plastic material will contain a large amount of glass components. It is more preferable that the size of the many glass particles remaining on the glass-attached film material is, for example, 70 μm or less, and by reducing the size of the glass particles in this way, the glass component contained in the plastic material can be reduced.

[0033] After the cleaning and crushing step S5, a crushing step S6 is performed in which the glass-attached film material after cleaning and crushing is crushed into smaller pieces. In the crushing step S6, a crusher 14 is used to crush the glass-attached film material into smaller pieces. This crusher 14 (specific structure is omitted) may be a well-known commercially available one, for example, one equipped with a crushing structure having a fixed blade and a rotary blade that rotates in a predetermined direction, and the glass-attached film material can be crushed by this crushing structure and crushed into further smaller pieces. In this embodiment, the glass-attached film material is finally crushed into a size of about 0.5 to 10 mm, for example.

[0034] The glass material produced in the cleaning and crushing step S5 (cleaning and crushing machine 12) and the glass material produced in the crushing step S6 (crusher 14) are reused as glass material together with the glass material sorted by the sorting machine 10, as shown in FIG.

[0035] The glass-attached film material thus crushed is reused as a plastic material, and the desired plastic recycling process S7 is carried out using this plastic material. Through this plastic recycling process S7, the recycled plastic material can be used to manufacture, for example, plastic floor boards, car stops, reinforcing bar floors, etc., and can also be used as a resin extender, for example, for polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyamide (PA), ABS resin, etc.

[0036] The glass-attached film material as the plastic material can be used as a raw material for pellets, and in this case, a pellet processing step S8 is performed. In this pellet processing step S8, a pellet manufacturing machine 16 is used to manufacture chip-shaped pellets from the glass-attached film material. This pellet manufacturing machine 16 (specific structure is omitted) may be a well-known commercially available machine, and may be, for example, one equipped with a melting section that melts the glass-attached film material as the plastic material, an extrusion section that extrudes the molten plastic material, and a cutting section that cuts the extruded plastic material. By using such a pellet manufacturing machine 16, chip-shaped pellets can be manufactured from the plastic material.

[0037] When forming such pellets, it is desirable to add 1% by weight or more, preferably 3% by weight or more, of polypropylene when melting the plastic material using the pelletizing machine 16. By adding polypropylene in this manner, it is possible to prevent the pellets from sticking together after molding.

[0038] The produced pellets are reused in the form of pellets, and the desired pellet recycling process S9 is carried out using these pellets. By this pellet recycling process S9, for example, plastic spacers, sheet materials, etc. can be produced, and the pellets can also be used as a resin extender, such as an extender for polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyamide (PA), ABS resin, etc.

[0039] In the above-mentioned waste glass recycling method (recycling system), waste glass (waste laminated glass, etc.) is crushed into glass material and glass-attached film material in the first crushing step S1 and the second crushing step S2, and the crushed material is sorted by a sorting machine into glass material and glass-attached film material suitable for reuse. Then, this glass-attached film material can be processed into plastic material suitable for reuse in the cleaning and crushing step S5 and the pulverizing step S6.

[0040] Although one embodiment of the waste glass recycling method (recycling system) according to the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and various changes and modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0041] 2. First crusher (two-shaft crusher) 4. Second Crusher 6. Impact Crusher 8. Hammer Crusher 10 Sorting Machine 12 Washing and crushing machine 14 Crusher 16 Pellet making machine

Claims

1. A method for recycling waste glass, which includes recycling a waste glass having a glass plate and a film material provided on a surface of the glass plate into a glass material and a plastic material, comprising: A method for recycling waste glass, comprising: a first crushing process for crushing the waste glass into large pieces; a second crushing process for crushing the waste glass after the first crushing process into small pieces; a sorting process for sorting the waste glass after the second crushing process into glass material and glass-attached film material; a cleaning and crushing process for crushing the glass-attached film material after the sorting process while cleaning it; and a crushing process for crushing the glass-attached film material after the cleaning and crushing process into small pieces to make a plastic material.

2. 2. The method for recycling waste glass according to claim 1, wherein a large number of glass particles remain on the surface of the glass-attached film material after the sorting step, and the size of the large number of glass particles is 100 μm or less.

3. 3. The method for recycling waste glass according to claim 2, wherein the size of said numerous glass particles is 70 μm or less.

4. The method for recycling waste glass according to claim 1, characterized in that the second crushing step includes an impact crusher step of crushing the waste glass after the first crushing step into medium-sized pieces, and a hammer crusher step of crushing the waste glass after the impact crusher step into small pieces.

5. 2. The method for recycling waste glass according to claim 1, further comprising the step of forming pellets from the plastic material after the crushing step.

6. 6. The method for recycling waste glass according to claim 5, wherein in the pellet forming step, 1% by weight or more of polypropylene is added to the plastic material, and the plastic material is melt-mixed to form the pellets.

7. A waste glass recycling system for recycling waste glass having a glass plate and a film material provided on a surface of the glass plate into a glass material and a plastic material, a second crusher that crushes the waste glass crushed by the first crusher into smaller pieces; a sorting machine that separates the waste glass crushed by the second crusher into glass material and glass-attached film material; a cleaning and crushing machine that cleans and crushes the glass-attached film material sorted by the sorting machine; and a crusher that crushes the glass-attached film material cleaned and crushed by the cleaning and crushing machine into small pieces to make plastic material.

8. The waste glass recycling system according to claim 7, characterized in that a large number of glass particles remain on the surface of the glass-attached film material sorted by the sorting machine, and the size of the large number of glass particles is 100 μm or less.

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