title: Alternative polymer separation technology by centrifugal force in a melted state.
abstract: In order to upgrade polymer waste during recycling, separation should take place at high purity. The present research was aimed to develop a novel, alternative separation opportunity, where the polymer fractions were separated by centrifugal force in melted state. The efficiency of the constructed separation equipment was verified by two immiscible plastics (polyethylene terephthalate, PET; low density polyethylene, LDPE), which have a high difference of density, and of which large quantities can also be found in the municipal solid waste. The results show that the developed equipment is suitable not only for separating dry blended mixtures of PET/LDPE into pure components again, but also for separating prefabricated polymer blends. By this process it becomes possible to recover pure polymer substances from multi-component products during the recycling process. The adequacy of results was verified by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurement as well as optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Műegyetem rkp. 3, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Károly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dobrovszky
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Műegyetem rkp. 3, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary. Electronic address: ronkay@pt.bme.hu.
authors.forename: Ferenc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ronkay
mesh_terms: D002498:Centrifugation; D044367:Phase Transition; D020959:Polyethylene / Q000737:chemistry*; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry*; D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods*; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D020959:Polyethylene
keywords: Blend separation; Centrifugal force; Melted state separation; Polymer separation; Polymer waste