Recycling industry

1. Material contamination: Contaminants in the material flow, such as spray cans, disposable cigarettes with lithium-ion batteries, can introduce dangerous ignition potentials into the extraction line.
2. Bearing damage to the fan: Bearing damage to the fan can cause sparks to fly.
3. Damage to the discharge screw: A broken shaft on the discharge screw or material jams can lead to friction, which can cause embers in the material.
4. Tool breakage: Tool breakage can cause pieces of metal to enter the extraction line and generate mechanical sparks.
5. Material jams: Wedging or jamming of materials in the material flow can quickly lead to mechanical friction, which can cause embers or smouldering particles.
6. Human error: Improper handling of the machines or, for example, the uncontrolled throwing away of cigarette butts can lead to the introduction of dangerous ignition potentials into the extraction system.

1. Sparks: Shaft breakage or metallic contaminants can quickly generate mechanical sparks on the shredder shafts, which in turn ignite the sometimes high-calorific materials.
2. Hot spots / hot materials: Can be caused by friction or pre-damaged lithium-ion batteries and rechargeable batteries where only slight mechanical penetration has occurred.
3. Embers: Mainly caused by material jams or the wedging of materials and increasing friction.
4. Explosions: Breaking or crushing of flammable materials, especially lithium-ion batteries, gas containers, spray cans, etc., can cause explosions with subsequent fires under certain process conditions. Powerful lithium-ion batteries in particular cause a strong exothermic reaction during a thermal runaway (the thermal runaway of a cell, and thermal propagation, the propagation of a thermal event from cell to cell in a battery).

Worth knowing: Thermal Runaway? What is actually happening here?

In a thermal runaway, a battery cell overheats due to a self-reinforcing process that generates heat. This process can cause the cell to burst and catch fire. The fire then often spreads to neighboring cells. During thermal runaway, a restructuring of the cathode briefly releases oxygen within the cell, which immediately reacts with the organic components of the battery, such as the electrolyte. This reaction generates heat, which quickly increases to extreme heat and triggers further chemical processes, so that the temperature can rise to several hundred degrees Celsius within milliseconds.

The amount of oxygen released and the formation of gases such as hydrogen depend on the structure of the cathode and the state of charge of the battery. The more unstable the cathode and the higher the state of charge, the more flammable gases are produced, which favors a fire outside the battery. Hydrogen can even burn at very low oxygen concentrations of around five percent by volume, which means that the use of oxygen-displacing gas extinguishing systems (so-called inert gas extinguishing systems), for example, is not recommended.

In addition to oxygen and hydrogen, there is a third critical component in thermal runaway: Depending on the cell chemistry, highly toxic substances such as cobalt, nickel and manganese compounds can be released. Fluorine compounds, which occur as components of conductive salts, flame-retardant additives or binding agents, can also be converted into hydrogen fluoride. However, the resulting hazardous concentrations are only detectable for a short time.

The most effective extinguishing medium is currently water. It cools the fire and prevents the source of the fire from spreading to other fire loads. Another effect of water is the binding of highly toxic gases. It is not possible to extinguish such fires.

1. Fire load: With material throughputs of 25 – 30t/h and more, the fire loads are enormous. Due to the sometimes high-calorific materials, even small ignition potentials can be sufficient to trigger a smoldering fire that spreads rapidly.
2. Impurities: Impurities in the material flow can catch fire in drop chutes due to the kinetic energy. The mechanical impact can quickly lead to a thermal runaway, particularly in the case of lithium-ion batteries.
3. Hot spots on rollers or chains: Due to the large deposits of dust and material on conveyor belts, hot-running rollers or chains can quickly cause smouldering fires, which spread rapidly due to the high fire loads.
4. Overheated drives: Here, too, there is a risk that overheated drives (lack of maintenance, insufficient cooling, overloading due to lack of lubrication) will cause a smouldering fire due to the large amounts of dust and material deposited on conveyor belts, which spread rapidly due to the high fire loads.
5. Fire in the webbing: A belt fire can be caused, for example, by overheated drives, friction due to material deposits or hot-running rollers and chains.

1. Entry of ignition sources: Ignition sources can be caused by upstream processes, which can enter an air separator undetected if fire protection is inadequate, e.g. spark detectors in the chutes of the conveyor belts or infrared cameras. These can be ignited there by the high air supply.
2. Impurities: If impurities such as spray cans or electronic devices with lithium-ion batteries get into the air separator, they can develop into dangerous ignition potentials. The slightest mechanical impact can cause a highly exothermic reaction.
3. Bearing damage to the fan: Bearing damage to the fan can often have devastating consequences. The resulting flying sparks cause enormous ignition potentials to enter the air separator, which can subsequently cause a fire. If there is an increased concentration of dust in the air separator due to insufficient extraction performance, an explosion may occur in extreme cases.

1. Contaminants: If contaminants such as pressurized gas containers, spray cans or lithium-ion batteries get into a baler, they can quickly cause a fire or explosion.
2. Defective hydraulic unit: If the hydraulic unit is defective or a hydraulic hose is ruptured, the escaping hydraulic oil can easily ignite on hot surfaces on the machine or the discharged bales.

• Filter systems
• Suction lines
• Conveyor belts
• Air separators
• Pre- and post-shredders

• Filter systems
• Silo systems

• Input and output hall
• Pre- and post-shredder
• Air separator
• conveyor belts

• Input and output hall
• Office building

• Input and output hall
• Conveyor belts
• Air separator
• Pre- and post-shredders