Balcones Resources has selected CP Group as the equipment provider of its materials recovery facility (MRF) in San Antonio, Texas, set to open in 2024. The facility will have only five-to-ten manual sorters. The MRF will have a processing capacity of 50 tons per hour and will service both residential and commercial recycling streams for the City of San Antonio. It will be integrated with the ability to receive and bale high volumes of post-commercial, postindustrial paper and plastic waste for the benefit of the region's growing distribution infrastructure.
The Balcones San Antonio facility will contain auger screens which eliminate the presort station. The MRF will utilize a primary CP auger screen to scalp six inches minus material, as well as two patented OCC auger screens to scalp eight inches minus and produce a clean OCC end-product. These three machines are located prior to any sorters, allowing for downstream sorting efficiency of fractionated material streams.
The auger screens remove OCC and other large materials from the remainder of the automated recovery process. Material is then sent to a four-deck glass breaker screen and LightsOut ADS to remove and clean glass. After the glass is removed, the material will convey to two high-volume disc screens, a CP Anti-Wrap screen for the mid-size fraction, and a CPScreen for the small fraction material. These screens play an important role in liberating conjoint material and fines. Disc screens split material by mechanical properties so the downstream automated sorting equipment can achieve the highest efficiencies.
The system will utilize a high degree of sorting automation. This will include five MSS FiberMax optical sorters, which run at 1,000 feet per minute on 112-inch wide belts. These machines will use different sorting recipes depending on the unit's position in the MRF to positively sort fibre, OCC, and/or contaminants. On the container line, three MSS PlasticMax optical sorters will sort PET, HDPE, and PP. A magnet will remove ferrous and an eddy current separator will remove non-ferrous material. Two MSS AI units will be used to quality control containers, specifically PET and aluminum.
The system will incorporate CP's new silo designs which include leveling augers and silo augers. Utilizing augers in silos provides maximum use of space and an accurate feed to the baling lines to eliminate half bales or bale re-runs. The facility will have three balers, one single ram for cardboard, and two two-ram balers. Each commodity has the opportunity to reach two balers for redundancy.
The Balcones MRF will support the development of a circular economy in San Antonio. It will be able to aggregate significant volumes of high-quality recycled materials, creating quality feedstock for more businesses to enter the circular economy. The site and building design is focused on rapid turnaround time for city collections, haulers, outbound recipients of baled commodities, and businesses.
"This building is not a typical MRF. It is a recycling campus with a Class A-quality office building, a community recycling drop-off centre, educational facilities, employee amenities, and a modern and sustainable architectural design that will add to the general building landscape of the city," says Joaquin Mariel, Balcones' chief commercial officer.
