Separation Performance of PVC and PP Plastic Mixture Using Air Table

Abstract

The aim of the research presented in this article was to investigate separation performance of the air table when separating a binary mixture of plastics. Separation using the air table, i.e. a dry mechanical process that grades constituents of the mixture with differences in specific gravity, is employed for separation of the PVC/PP mixture. Moreover, the performance of the laboratory-scale air table is improved by increasing the height of riffles laid on the porous deck.The separation tests in a laboratory-scale air table showed that the total efficiency of the separation is mainly dependent on superficial velocity of the air, longitudinal vibrating frequency of the deck, end slope, side slope, and height of riffles. The respective influence of these variables upon the total efficiency of separation is demonstrated experimentally.The evaluations of the separation performance for the two-component mixture are made in terms of grade [%], recovery [%] and total efficiency [%].

The use of air separation in recycling CRT TV sets

“…Air separation has not frequently been used, and it has mostly been used for separation of different types of plastics (Dodbiba et al, 2003(Dodbiba et al, , 2005. Taking into account relatively seldom use of air separation in e-waste recycling and the fact that it is not an expensive process, it is environment-friendly, and there are evident differences between metal and non-metal component density, it was decided to investigate the possibility of use of air separation for separating metals.…”

Progress in Separating Plastic Materials for Recycling

“…Moreover, these air classifiers, which generally do not allow for separation into more than two fractions (known as extract and reject), require a large working space (because of their considerable height) and are not an answer where the space is at premium. With this in mind, Dodbiba et al [44] investigated the performance of the air table when separating a PVC/PP mixture. The air table is more compact device with a simpler geometry (Fig.…”

Combination of Triboelectrostatic Separation and Air Tabling for Sorting Plastics from a Multi-Component Plastic Mixture

“…Detailed experimental procedures and analyses of the performance of triboelectrostatic separator and air table respectively have been already reported and discussed separately in previous articles. 12,13) Table 2 summarizes the influence of each operating parameters on the behavior of material processed by each separator showing the (Fig. 9).…”

“…12,19) It is indicated that air tabling is an effective method for separation of mixtures components with differences is their densities of about 450 kgÁm À3 or greater. Moreover, air tabling has the attraction of generally low capital and operational cost which together with the lack of water, chemical and drying requirements means it is environmentally friendly.…”

“…Flotation [5][6][7][8][9] and sink-float 10,11) separation techniques are well-known wet methods for sorting plastics. On the other hand, many kinds of binary plastic mixtures are separated with high purity by dry methods such as pneumatic separation using air table, 12) and electrostatic separation using tribo-cyclone, 13) friction mixer with rotary blades, 14) fluidized-bed triboelectrification, 15) or vibrating feeder. 16) Being dry methods, they have a clear advantage over wet ones, as they do not require treatment of water from the process for reuse or discharge, expensive wetting reagents, and most importantly, dewatering or drying the mixture after separation.…”