SBIR Phase II: Electronic Sortation for Recycling of Post Consumer Non-Ferrous Metals

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将开发不同有色金属合金的快速电子分选。第二阶段将在第一阶段实验室模型的基础上设计和建造一个接近全尺寸的原型。该样机将用于测试和评估有色合金的大样本。与使用手工分选、涡流分选和重介质设备的现有方法相比，电子分选(通过X射线荧光)有望带来实质性的好处。手工分选既昂贵又劳动密集；涡流设备依赖于尺寸和形状，不能很好地处理焚烧的金属；媒体工厂是资本密集型的，会加剧环境问题。电子分类可能会降低资本成本，从而使有色金属回收更容易为小企业所用。新的电子分类技术将减少目前进入垃圾填埋场的大量混合有色金属原料。美国大约有200个垃圾转化为能源的设施，以及200个废品场和汽车粉碎机，这些都可以从电子分类中受益。据估计，美国有色金属回收的潜在市场规模为每年25亿美元。这项技术在国际上的应用将大大增加潜在的市场。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop rapid electronic sortation of different nonferrous alloys. Phase II will design and build a near full-scale prototype from the Phase I laboratory model. The prototype will be used to test and evaluate large samples of non-ferrous alloys. Substantial benefits are expected in electronic sortation (by X-ray fluorescence) over existing methods, which use hand sorting, eddy currents, and heavy media plants. Hand sorting is expensive and labor intensive; eddy current devices are both size- and shape-dependent and do not work well with incinerated metals; and media plants are capital intensive and aggravate environmental problems. Electronic sortation may reduce capital costs and thus make nonferrous recovery more available to small businesses. The new electronic sortation technology will reduce the substantial quantities of mixed nonferrous feedstock that presently go to landfills. There are some 200 waste-to-energy facilities as well as 200 scrap yards and automobile shredders in the U.S., which could benefit from electronic sortation. The potential U.S. market for nonferrous recovery is estimated at $2.5 billion peryear. Applications of this technology internationally would substantially increase the potential market.