The decapsulation tests of the coffee capsules collected from the vending machines have started at the facilities of the project partner Ekogras.

The objective is the separation of the inorganic fraction from the organic one to enable the recovery and recycling of the different fractions. The plastic from the inorganic fraction is used to produce coating products that allow the production of containers for the collection of coffee capsules, while the organic fraction will be processed to make it suitable as ingredients for animal feed. Part of the organic fraction obtained will be used to make pellets and make the drying process more efficient.

The partial results obtained show that it is necessary to optimize the sieving phase to achieve a more efficient separation of the inorganic fraction from the organic one. Over the next few weeks, sieving tests will be carried out until the adequate pore size is defined to guarantee effective separation and, once defined, the optimization of the decapsulation process will continue.