The machine runs a suitability test using a series of sensors to identify any flammable liquids, acids, benzenes. Then the contents are dumped into the underlying grinder through automatic systems that push against the plate of the scales, causing it to turn 90° and open.
The contents are dumped into the underlying dimensional grinder which starts up only after a volume equal to the contents of a SMALL family bag has been reached.
After a 5-second delay, a 5-second spray of water washes the wastes and the grinder. Once grinding has been completed, the grinder stops and the material (dimensions: approximately 1 x 1.5 x L cm) fall into a container. Here an odor sensor serves to identify any hazardous wastes. If such wastes are found, the belt underneath turns in the opposite direction, sending the material contained in the hopper to a grinding (dissipator) section and to special material storage while the dimensional grinder, hopper and belt are washed with a jet of 80° water at a pressure 100 bar.
If instead the odor sensor does not detect any hazardous material, the container opens and pours its contents onto the conveyor belt that starts running 5 seconds before the container opens. After 85 seconds it crosses the deferrization belt that starts running when the minced material container opens. At the same time the neodymium cylinder ― used to separate non ferrous materials and aluminum to be stored in separate storage points, one for non ferrous metals and another for aluminum and aluminum cans ― also starts running.
The conveyor belt, which is now carrying the unsorted wastes without any sort of metal parts, discharges its content into the conveyor that guides the material to the container where the solids are separated and the liquids stabilized so that the light parts can rise to the surface, be carried away by overflow and transferred to the overlying storage area.
Now, all that is left in the separation chamber are the wet materials, inert materials and other heavy dry materials. The wet material is sucked up at a height of 15 centimeters above the inert storage area where a deposit of approximately 30 cm has accumulated at the bottom. On the other hand, heavy plastics are taken up with the aid of an internal spray rising up from the bottom. The inert materials are picked up once the maximum threshold has been reached. The liquid part is filtered through a mesh made up of 2 mm holes plus all the accumulated debris, glass, stones, etc. which also serve as filtering elements. Each filtering treats one third of the tank storage capacity. This operation can be repeated several times during the day, depending on the frequency with which people bring in wastes, and the water will be transferred to a biological separator to eliminate any oil from the water.
Once all floating parts, and a part of the filtered liquids, e.g. the liquid mass, have been eliminated, a concentrated wet product remains in the container. This material is taken up by a grinding pump which finely grinds the wet material and discharges it to storage. It is preferable that this operation be performed at night, after 2:00 a.m. From here the liquid wastes are separated from the water and sent to storage through this filter. The waters are transferred to a horizontal biological separator that eliminates contaminants from the water. Thereafter these waters are transferred to the vertical biological separator to eliminate the sludge which is carefully analyzed and sent to the wet product container for separate storage.
At this point the machine has several possibilities. It can: 1. Use the dry and wet material for the gasification system. 2. Obtain a dry product that passes analyses such as waste-derived fuel. 3. Separate the wet material to produce biogas. 4. Perform composting as corrective. 5. Perform gasification. 6. Cover for special wastes. When the tank is 4/5 full, a radio signal notifies the collection center to pick-up the material. In the time that elapses between the pick-up ready signal and the actual pick-up, the excess water or any plastic or polystyrene will be eliminated from the material.
The material is picked up every 6 days, plus or minus one day, depending on the wastes delivered by the general population. Pick up must be made using a specially equipped tank truck of our design. The driver will have a magnetic card that opens only the well enabled for extraction of the material deposited. The entire process has been described for unsorted wastes, for the sake of simplicity neglecting the intermediate phases involved for some materials.
Steel objects are sorted through a deferrization belt. Once drawn to the magnetic belt, the material is carried to a conveyor fit with quantity deposit. Thereafter it is washed with high pressure purified water. After washing the store opens and the material falls into another grinder that further reduces the size of the material to 1.4 x max L 3 cm. The material falls into a storage container and is washed again, at high temperature and pressure, to remove any dirt inside the cans and tins. After the wash has been completed, the bottom opens and the washed, minced steel falls into the final storage container to await pick-up. The sorting of non ferrous materials has been described above. The neodymium belt operates by issuing a repellant magnetic field, expelling the various materials with a force inversely proportional to their atomic weights so that each material with a given specific weight covers a given trajectory. In other words, there is one trajectory for aluminum, another for copper, still another for brass, and so on.
The trajectories for these materials are intercepted and channeled to storage. Once one kilogram of material has been accumulated, an initial wash is performed following the usual procedure and the material is minced to a dimension of 1.4 x L cm, washed at high pressure to float off with the water and eliminate any light materials which are to be recycled. Then the bottom opens and the non ferrous material, aluminum, is sent to storage. When the store is ¾ full, a radio signal is sent to the operating center to indicate that the container in that zone must be emptied within 24 hours. This operation will be performed for all the non ferrous materials that will be sorted. At this point, only inert materials, dry materials and wet organic materials are left on belt no. 1 for composting (now we can speak of pre-composting) or otherwise dry and wet materials will be treated together for gasification. When the belt reaches the end of its course, the material falls into the dissipator which reduces them to 10 -12/10 of their original size, washes them and places them into storage for compositing. The heavy materials decant and are deposited on the bottom while the dry material overflows and is picked up by a conveyor belt and sent to storage.