Article
Version 1
This version is not peer-reviewed
Separation of Pet from Other Plastics by Froth Flotation Combined with Alkaline Pretreatment
Version 1
: Received: 20 January 2020 / Approved: 22 January 2020 / Online: 22 January 2020 (02:33:51 CET)
How to cite: Pita, F. Separation of Pet from Other Plastics by Froth Flotation Combined with Alkaline Pretreatment. Preprints 2020, 2020010248 Pita, F. Separation of Pet from Other Plastics by Froth Flotation Combined with Alkaline Pretreatment. Preprints 2020, 2020010248
Abstract
Plastics are naturally hydrophobic materials so, in order to employ flotation for the separation of plastic mixtures, the use of appropriate wetting agents is mandatory. In this work, the effect of pretreatment with alkaline solutions of sodium hydroxide on the floatability of four plastics (PET, PS, PMMA and PVC) was studied. The influence of NaOH concentration, treatment time and temperature of the alkaline solution, and influence of particle size was analyzed. Results showed that alkaline treatment had a strong effect on PET floatability, some effect on floatability of PMMA and PVC and no effect on floatability of PS. Plastics floatability decreased with the increase of NaOH concentration, temperature and treatment time of the alkaline solution. Based on flotation behavior of simple plastics, flotation separation after alkaline treatment of bi-component mixtures of PET with PS and PVC was achieved efficiently. The best separation was obtained for PET/PS mixture, a floated with a grade of 98% in PS and a sunk with a grade of 100% in PET. PET/PMMA mixture led to the worst separation. For PET/PMMA and PET/PVC mixtures, flotation separation improved with the decrease of the particles size.
Keywords
plastic; froth flotation; alkaline treatment; particle size
Subject
Chemistry and Materials Science, Polymers and Plastics
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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