LAUSR

The recovery and utilization of automotive plastics are global concerns because of the increasing number of end-of-life vehicles. Passenger vehicles constitute the largest group of automotive, whereas PP and ABS plastics account for a large proportion in exterior and interior parts of passenger cars. In this study, the triboelectrostatic separation of PP and ABS plastics from the end-of-life passenger vehicles was investigated based on high-voltage triboelectrostatic separation technology. The systemic factors that affect sorting result were identified according to the analysis, including electrostatic voltage, friction rotating drum rolling speed, feed speed, rolling speed of rotating roll electrode, the spacing between square electrode and rotating roll electrode, and the angle of the square electrode. Reasonable ranges of the six factors were determined via single factor preliminary experiments; the effects of the factors and their interactions on the sorting results were also analyzed based on the factorial experiments. Mathematical models were established to demonstrate the sorting process of PP and ABS, and the optimum sorting process parameters of the two plastics were obtained. Experimental results showed that the sorting rate of PP and ABS plastics reached more than 60 %, and purity exceeded 95 %.