Energy-Efficient Dewatering Technique for Recycled Films

Plastic films used in products packaging represent a significant amount of plastic waste that requires to be recirculated, despite the advantages that these films provide such as longer shelf-life for food products or performance enhancement for many other products. The recycling process for post-consumer plastic waste often requires washing and dewatering procedures to be carried out before the material can be reprocessed and transformed into a new product. The dewatering procedure, in particular, is an intensive energy-consuming process due to the need to remove moisture from the material. Centrifugation is typically used for dewatering, many times supported by air dryers, resulting on a significant high energy consumption and a larger foot-print to install this equipment.