Triboelectrostatic Separation System for Separation of PVC and PS Materials Using Fluidized Bed Tribocharger

A triboelectrostatic separation system using a fluidized bed tribocharger for the removal of PVC material in the mixture of PVC/PS plastics is designed and evaluated as a function of electric field strength, air flow rate, and the mixing ratio of two- component mixed plastics. It consists of a fluidized-bed tribocharger, a separation chamber, a collection chamber and a controller. PVC and PS particles can be imparted negative and positive surface charges, respectively, due to the difference in the work function values of plastics suspended in the fluidized-bed tribocharger, and can be separated by passing them through an external electric field. Experimental results show that separation efficiency is strongly dependent on the electric field strength and particle mixing ratio. In the optimum conditions of 150 lpm air flow rate and 2.6 kV/cm electric field strength a highly concentrated PVC (99.1%) can be recovered with a yield of more than 99.2% from the mixture of PVC and PS materials for a single stage of processing.