Bituminous Membrane Recycling Process with Multi-Stage Grinding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current recycling units are inadequate for efficiently recycling bituminous membranes with reinforcement layers, as they fail to completely disintegrate fibers, leading to contamination and frequent maintenance needs, and are not robust enough to handle diverse and contaminated roofing waste products, limiting their industrial viability and environmental impact.
Innovation Solution
A process involving multiple grinding steps and a recycling unit with a micronization chamber and scraper to reduce waste bituminous products to a specific particle size, separate metals, and melt the material, allowing for continuous recycling and reduced maintenance, while managing diverse waste compositions and contaminations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a conventional recycling unit is used to process bituminous membranes with reinforcement layers, then the recycling process can be initiated, but the fibers are not completely disintegrated, leading to contamination and frequent maintenance needs
Solution Approach 1:
The recycling process is divided into multiple sequential grinding stages with progressively smaller particle size targets. The first stage reduces material to 5-20mm, the second to 2-5mm, and the third to 0.5-2mm. This segmented approach ensures complete disintegration of reinforcement fibers while allowing each stage to be optimized for its specific size reduction task, preventing contamination and reducing maintenance frequency.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the recycling unit processes diverse and contaminated roofing waste products, then the environmental impact is reduced, but the unit is not robust enough to handle the diversity and contamination, limiting industrial viability
Solution Approach 1:
The recycling unit is designed with universal capabilities to process multiple types of bituminous waste products including membranes with different reinforcement layers (glass fiber, polyester, aluminum), production waste, construction waste, and demolition waste. The multi-stage grinding system with adjustable parameters and robust construction enables the unit to handle diverse materials and contamination levels while maintaining operational reliability and industrial viability.
3Reliability
If the recycling unit is designed for robust operation, then it can handle diverse waste products, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The robust recycling unit is segmented into three independent grinding stages, each with its own rotor-stator assembly and particle size control mechanism. This segmentation allows each stage to be optimized for specific size reduction tasks while maintaining overall system reliability. The modular structure enables independent maintenance and operation of each stage, reducing the impact of failures and simplifying repairs despite the overall system complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The process effectively recycles a broad range of bituminous products, including contaminated and aged materials, reducing CO2 footprint and polymer consumption, and producing high-quality recycled bitumen for reuse in bituminous membranes with reduced maintenance and increased operational efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
heated and melted by shear strength upon the operation of the stator, rotor and micronization chamber
Data Source
AI summary
An object of the instant application is to provide a process of recycling a bituminous product such as a waste bituminous membrane product optionally containing reinforcement layers comprising grinding and melting steps.