Cryogenic crushing

Cryogenic crushing is applied to deformable materials with elastic or ductile behaviour, such as plastics or polymers, metals or organic compounds. It allows their micronisation where other techniques (shredding, granulation) are limited.

It requires the cooling of the materials below their glass transition temperature (often lower than -100°C), which makes them fragile (‘brittle’) and thus suitable for a milling via a technique operating by means of compression or percussion/shock. It is carried out by making the materials transit through a screw cooled by liquid nitrogen before the actual milling.