Premises for industrial application of a two-rotating-disks-type tribo-aero-electrostatic separator for micronized WEEE
Résumé
Waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling technologies often include electrostatic separation of mm-size granular plastics mixtures as a major operation. The aim of this work was to pave the way to industrial application of a new two-rotating-disks-type tribo-aero-electrostatic separator for finely-grinded matter (i.e. granule diameter < 1 mm). The experiments were carried out on binary granular mixtures composed of various proportions of Polypropylene (PP) and Polycarbonate (PC) of size 125 to 1000 microns. The charges and masses of the separated products were continuously and simultaneously recorded using a custom-designed "on-line" measurement system. The purity of the products was evaluated "off-line", using a colorimetric system. It was thus possible to quantify the performances of the separator under various conditions that simulated industrial operation situations.