A new technological complex for cullet processing will be launched at Sibstekl

Colleagues, good afternoon!

We bring to your attention a press release from RATM Holding.

LLC Siberian Glass (the largest manufacturer of glass containers beyond the Urals, an asset of RATM Holding) by 2023 plans to gradually put into operation a modern technological complex for processing glass waste with a capacity of 14 tons of secondary raw materials per hour. According to preliminary estimates, the investment will amount to about 100 million rubles.

Let us remind you that it is technologically more difficult to produce glass containers without cullet, its use improves the quality of glass. One ton of cullet replaces 1.2 tons of natural components, thus Sibsteklo optimizes the cost of delivering minerals from other regions. Since glass can be recycled an unlimited number of times, the rate of depletion of the mineral reserves of the earth's crust slows down. In addition, the melting point of cullet is not as high as a mixture of sand, soda and dolomite: every 10% of recyclable materials in the batch reduces energy consumption by 3%. With a decrease in energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions into the environment are reduced, and the service life of glass furnaces is extended from 7-10 years to 12-15 years.

- A significant part of glass waste supplied to the enterprise does not meet the requirements of glass production for the quality of recyclable materials, - comments Sergey Lukyantsev, Development Director of Siberian Glass LLC. - The cullet must be removed from excess moisture, cleaned of corks, metal particles, organic matter, etc.

According to Sergey Lukyantsev, within the framework of the project, this process will begin with manual sampling of large debris:

- Unfortunately, at Russian factories, unlike European ones, it is still impossible to do otherwise. In Western countries, a selective collection of MSW is organized at the source of their formation, and therefore glass waste is brought there for processing relatively clean.

All other technological operations will be carried out automatically.

- First, the cullet goes to crushing, then to the drying drum, then to screening, that is, it will be divided into fractions and screening out large ones (more than 50 mm) will be returned for crushing, - says Sergey Lukyantsev. - Then, using a stream of compressed air under pressure, the cullet will be dedusted, and the remains of adhered paper and textile fibers will be removed. Then glass waste is subjected to magnetic separation: drum - to separate iron elements, and eddy current - to remove inclusions from non-ferrous metals. As a result, we will receive a raw material suitable for remelting.

According to Sergei Lukyantsev, the launch of the first stage of the technological complex involves the processing of cullet sorted by color in advance. The installation of equipment for this stage, the design of which is currently being carried out by specialists, is expected to be completed in 2022. Moreover, the manufacture of magnetic separators for Sibstekl has already begun, they will be assembled at the end of summer, and will be put into operation in the fall.

“Thus, in the near future, the plant will implement a local solution that improves the characteristics of cullet intended, among other things, for loading into a new glass-making furnace,” explains Sergey Lukyantsev. - This will allow avoiding the accumulation of metal at the bottom of the furnace basin, which could lead to a reduction in its service life.

The second stage provides for equipping the technological complex with optical (photo-) separators - to differentiate cullet mixed in color, which must be crushed, dried, dust-free and freed from metal particles before that.

Investments in the project will pay off by improving the quality of the melt of raw materials and, as a result, increasing the number of usable glass products produced from the same volume of glass melt.

As you know, LLC "Siberian glass" (LLC "Sibsteklo") is a member of the Association "StekloSouz" of Russia.