Separation of PET and PS with Air Separation

  • Nakazawa, Hiroshi (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty of Engineering, Iwate University) ;
  • Kudo, Yasuo (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty of Engineering, Iwate University) ;
  • Sato, Hayato (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty of Engineering, Iwate University)
  • Published : 2001.10.01

Abstract

The air separation of PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) and PS(Polystyrene) was carried out by taking advantage of the different abrasive resistance of two plastics. PET bottles and PS packages were shredded to small square pieces $(5{\times}5mm)$. Both plastic shreds were treated by a shear-type crusher. The PET shreds were bent and twisted by the crush so that they were blown up easily, but the PS shreds were not. After the crush of mixture of both plastics, air separation experiments were carried out using four types of air separators. The number and location of the baffle attached to them are different. With the separator with a baffle attached at the upper part, PET recoveries for the crushing time of 30, 60 and 90sec were 67, 98 and 99% respectably at the air flow rate of 3.5m/s, whereas PS recoveries were null regardless of the crushing time.

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