The Role of TeraHertz Technology for Improved Sustainability of Plastic Materials

My Note: I happened upon this interesting site this morning.
http://recyclinginnovators.com/terahertz/
 It appears to indicate that TeTechS http://www.tetechs.com/index.php/news/news-006 is actively moving into commercial application of its T-Era chip which is pictured at the bottom of this post.


The basis of the TeTechS Inc. submission for the Recycling Innovation Forum competition is a patent pending technology which converts a laser beam into a terahertz waveform and uses terahertz waves to sort light and dark colored plastics. Terahertz is the portion of the Electromagetic Spectrum between microwave and infrared.
The terahertz wave is an non-ionizing energy form which has the ability to pass through many organic and inorganic materials. As the wave passes through plastics, the material absorbs certain portions of the terahertz wave, creating an absorption signature. Different polymers, regardless of color, have specific absorption signatures. The innovation presented by TeTechS Inc. demonstrates:

• the creation of the terahertz waveform using the T-Era chip.
• the passing of the resultant terahertz wave through a free falling black plastic specimen.
• the collection of the terahertz wave using the T-Era chip after the wave passes through the plastic specimen.
• the identification of the absorption characteristic of the plastic specimen.
• the determination to send a signal to the air pulse nozzle to emit the specimen if the absorption characteristic meets the specific polymer identification criteria.

This innovation will create the ability for industry to characterize waste plastics and specifically black plastics coming from E-Waste and ASR. With this ability, effective separation and recovery of the black polymers from these waste streams can be accomplished in an energy efficient method. Recovering and re-using these black polymers will generate sustainable solutions for the use of plastics in our global community.