Thermoplastic Separation and Recovery from Various Mixed Scrap Plastics by the Argonne Developed Froth Flotation Technology

摘要

Argonne National Laboratory has developed a froth flotation technology to separate various polymers from one another, including the separation of acrylo-nitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) from polystyrene. This technology, which separates overlapping density materials from one another in an aqueous solution, has been successful in the separation and recovery of polymers from various waste streams generated in the United States and the European Union. These streams have included shredder residue, white goods, small home appliance scrap, and electronics scrap. Presently Argonne is extending the process to separate and recover polymers from shredder residue which is a byproduct from the recovering of metals from end of life vehicles, home appliances and other metal containing materials. This work is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and is done in cooperation with the Vehicle Recycling Partnership of the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) and the American Plastics Council. This paper describes the Argonne processes as they were applied to a variety of mixed scrap plastic streams.