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Separation by static electricity
- This topic has 5 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 4 years ago by
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Hi everyone,
In a quest to find the best sorting methods I made multiple post on different ways of separating plastics.
In this post I will explain separation by static electricity.
Another industrial way of separation is static separation. With this method a sample of plastic is dropped between 2 static charged plates, and the amount of static energy the sample absorbs determines the type of plastic
+ relatively simple principle
– High voltages
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Seem to be a interesting method but the starter like me need more in detail. After read this topic, i have some inquiries:
– Which kind of plastic will be affected by anot, catot?
– How to make electric plate? How much voltage? How is it work?
Thanks
Something like this?
the hole point i find it quite important, in order to get results, will be nice to have industrial amount of processing plastic in order to maximize the benefics, no only economical…
Hi everyone,
I look up on that subject and as you can see in the picture below, the DC voltage for a distance between electrode of 60 cm is 20 000V which is a lot ^^
I’m not saying it’s impossible but it require quit expensive equipement and with such a voltage there is a risk of death using it and you must be accredited.
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Adding to @mdem : You can sort the plastic types by how much they get electrically charged:
– PVC PET PP PE PS PA +
The farther on the right, the more positive it is, the farther on the left, the more negative. E.g. if you want to separate PP and PE, PP will go to the negative side, PE to the positive side.
This separation method is good for two plastic types, not so good for more.
The voltage used in such systems goes up to 120 000 Volts, however it uses very low Amps (smaller than 0,1 mA) so the energy consumption is minimal.
You need however a beefy transformator to transform the 230V (110V) up to multiple dozens kilovolts and, as stated before, these high voltages can kill you with ease. So I think this separation method should really be left to the ones who really know what they are doing.
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