HiSEEK
Smart Sensor Network for Recycling of Black Plastic
Dr. Andréa de Lima Ribeiro
HZDR e.V. - Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF)
Exploration
Name:
Institution:
Department:
LET'S CONNECT AND CO-CREATE
OUR SOLUTION
Our technology integrates adapted sensors, real-time machine learning and smart measurement sampling.
Each sensor is validated for ID of simple plastics, plastic blends, and black plastics in conditions comparable to industry (TRL 5).
We demonstrated that the approach works on ID of up to 75% of particles in the stream (increase of 65% compared to SOTA).
Waste management and recycling
Real-time identification of complex polymers in industrial recycling lines
Spin-off / licensing technologies
Plastic recyclers, recycling plant integrators
Industry:
Area of Application:
Transfer Path:
Target Group:
PROJECT LANDSCAPE
THE CHALLENGE
We propose a new workflow for single-step, sensor-based, AI-driven identification of polymers to boost plastic sorting in recycling lines.
Recycling of industrial plastics is currently limited to ca. 10%. The bottleneck is the material identification in complex streams (e.g. e-waste, end-of-life vehicles).
Sensors available in the market fail to detect additives or complex polymers, resulting in contaminated streams which cannot be recycled.
Recyclers must reach 25% efficiency to reach EU guidelines (by 2030).