ValcopIA’s mission is to recycle packaging waste from over 1 million residents in the Toulouse region, representing nearly 68,000 tonnes per year of selective collections. This state-of-the-art plant perfectly illustrates Paprec’s commitment to providing local authorities with the most advanced technologies to optimise waste recycling and recovery. The process, installed in an 11,900 m² industrial building, operates two sorting lines, each with a capacity of 10.75 t/h, running in parallel. Feed hoppers, one of which is equipped with a bag opener, decartoners, disc screens, ballistic separators, a trommel, magnetic belts and eddy current machines, no fewer than 14 machines perform advanced mechanical sorting before a battery of 21 Mistral+ CONNECT™ optical sorters refine the separation of materials.
With sorting centres such as PreZero Ölbronn in Germany, Loeches in Spain or Ambiente in Italy, Pellenc ST has extensive experience in mega sorting centres using large numbers of optical sorters. That’s why, the company decided to set up a cutting-edge process for ever greater value.
The two lines are equipped with 9 machines that are dedicated to separating flat items (2D) and 12 dedicated to sorting hollow items (3D).
For fibrous materials, precision sorting separates three fractions of paper (including office paper separated from deinking) and two types of cardboard. For polymer sorting, 12 other Mistral+ CONNECT™ are in operation to recover five families of plastics: PE/PP, Treta, PET, and flexible and rigid development streams (specific French request).
To ensure efficient sorting of light fractions, Pellenc ST has installed the TURBOSORTER™ on the 9 machines dedicated to flat sorting. This stabilises light objects on the conveyor, a system that is all the more necessary when Mistral+ CONNECT™ machines are equipped with the TOP SPEED™ option, which guarantees performance, running at 4.5 m/sec compared to the usual 3 m/sec. Another innovation employed, is the AEROLIGHT™ ejection hood for sorting light paper and film. ‘It was specifically designed with a lowered roof and profiled wings to prevent turbulence and better control the trajectory of blown objects. The whole unit has been specifically designed to improve airflow without any additional energy consumption.
AI-Based Quality Analysers for Peak Performances
Quality control is carried out in the sorting room. sorting operators work in two teams on 11 conveyor belts. Their work is complemented by using the latest development from Pellenc ST in terms of Artificial Intelligence characterisation.
AISEE™ gantries are used to check the purity of almost all output streams, on 12 of the 13 materials sorted. Positioned at the end of conveyor belts, they continuously monitor the quality of the stream, the recovery rate and the overall efficiency of the sorting centre. A final AISEE™ unit will be installed on the refuse conveyor belt. Positioned upstream, downstream or at key points in the process, these units provide real-time information on the composition of the stream. AISEE™ is becoming a real tool for speeding up commissioning phases and aiding decision-making.
The data collected and analysed is translated into customised dashboards and reports available on the SMART&SHARE™ application. This data is essential for operators to guarantee the required levels of purity, detect and correct deviations. Moreover, the ISO 27001 certification guarantees data security and sovereignty. These units will very soon communicate directly with other machines using the OPC UA protocol.
The previous sites built in collaboration with Aktid and Paprec provided experience and expertise that proved to be a real asset for this type of project. From sizing assistance to commissioning, the quality of support provided by the Pellenc ST teams was a key factor in the success of the project. Thanks to their advice and recommendations, the site will be able to cope with future developments and a possible increase in incoming tonnages without compromising the current process.
“Thanks to all these technologies, we achieve recycling rates of over 92%,” summarises Vincent Castaignède Director of ValcopIA. The new mega sorting centre in Toulouse certainly deserves its name, ValcopIA.
