Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

Tribolectrostatic separation process is an excellent candidate for separating various plastic wastes, especially for separation of PET and PVC which have similar specific gravities. A key factor in this process is the development of differential charge between the two different plastics. In this study, charging characteristics and separation efficiency were evaluated for PET and PVC using a batch triboelectrostatic separator composed of two parallel plates and a drum-type tribocharger. Movement of plastics in the electric field was investigated for various size fractions and compared with those predicted by theoretical force balance equations. The results were then used for identifying the optimum tribocharging material and the position of the flow splitter. Due to limitations of the batch separator used in this study, the purity was not satisfactory for single-stage separation, but 95.3% separation efficiency were achieved by employing three stage separation.