German engineering firm Eggersmann Anlagenbau builds light packaging waste plant in Liege, Belgium, for recycling company Sitel; factory can process 14.5 tonnes/hour of waste, separate materials ranging from aluminum to PET, with purities of 93%-97%

Eggersmann Anlagenbau has completed a processing plant for LVP in the province of Liège on behalf of the Belgian recycling company SITEL. From now on, 17 different factions can be separated there.

The new plant in Belgium is designed for a throughput of 14.5 t per hour. This means processing 223 m3 of waste at a density of 65 kg per cubic meter every hour. At the end, the 17 separated fractions will have a purity of 93% to 97%. At the same time, the losses in the individual varieties will not be more than 2% to 5%. In addition to the separation into different recyclable materials - such as aluminum, HDPE or PE films - sorting into different color fractions is also integrated for PET. Among other things, the system will differentiate between clear, blue and opaque types of PET and sort them into pure fractions. Heat-resistant PET-T is also recognized and separately separated. 

A structure made of more than 1000 tons of steel and more than three kilometers of conveyor belts was necessary for the correspondingly extensive process engineering. Eggersmann Anlagenbau carried out the assembly in the period from May 2022 to January 2023 and was also responsible for the installation of the entire electronic measurement, control and regulation technology (EMSR). 

Not only Eggersmann Anlagenbau was involved in the project. In order to carry out the complex sorting, machines from BRT HARTNER and Eggersmann GmbH are also used at key points. SITEL engaged the engineering and architecture firms BSolutions and SEMACO for planning and coordination.

“SITEL has made exactly the right step into the future with this investment. The amounts of LVP waste continue to increase, but at the same time awareness of true plastic recycling is growing. Of course, this also increases the demands on the sorting systems. In short: Ever larger quantities have to be separated into ever more precise fractions,” says Laurence Dauchy, Sales and Project Manager at Eggersmann Anlagenbau GmbH, summarizing the current development. "We are very pleased that we were able to realize this project for SITEL." 

SITEL is part of the Intradel intercommunal association, which includes 72 communes in the province of Liège. The construction became necessary because the plant previously operated by SITEL for sorting the regional LVP waste could no longer handle the increasing quantities and the addition of foils to the Belgian LVP collection system. Since modernization and expansion were not economic options, the construction of a new plant was put out to public tender.