This paper describes a flotation process developed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) for separating and recovering individual plastics at high purity and yield, from mixed post-consumer and post-manufacturing scrap sources. The physical separation, flotation, and froth-flotation techniques developed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) were successfully used to recover plastics from several waste streams including nylon resin manufacturing waste, plastic films from curbside recycling and obsolete music CD's. A pilot plant with a design capacity of 50 pound/hr was successfully operated to produce high-purity Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Polycarbonate (PC), polystyrene (PS), and nylon at purity levels exceeding 98% and yields in excess of 80%. Economic analysis of the process showed a potential payback of about 2 years. This paper describes the process and discusses the technical and economic results obtained for the various waste streams.
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