An innovative recycling process to obtain pure polyethylene and polypropylene from household waste. (January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Serranti, Silvia; Luciani, Valentina; Bonifazi, Giuseppe; Hu, Bin; Rem, Peter C.
• Is Part Of: Waste management. Volume 35(2015)
• Page Start: 12
• Page End: 20
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Subjects: Plastic recycling -- Household waste -- Polyolefin -- Magnetic density separation -- Hyperspectral imaging; Hazardous wastes -- Periodicals; Refuse and refuse disposal -- Periodicals; 363.728
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2014.10.017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0956-053X

Abstract

Highlights: Magnetic density separation applied to polyolefin-waste recycling. Polyethylene and polypropylene streams quality control by hyperspectral imaging. Recovery of high grade polyethylene and polypropylene products. Abstract: An innovative recycling process, based on magnetic density separation (MDS) and hyperspectral imaging (HSI), to obtain high quality polypropylene and polyethylene as secondary raw materials, is presented. More in details, MDS was applied to two different polyolefin mixtures coming from household waste. The quality of the two separated PP and PE streams, in terms of purity, was evaluated by a classification procedure based on HSI working in the near infrared range (1000–1700 nm). The classification model was built using known PE and PP samples as training set. The results obtained by HSI were compared with those obtained by classical density analysis carried in laboratory on the same polymers. The results obtained by MDS and the quality assessment of the plastic products by HSI showed that the combined action of these two technologies is a valid solution that can be implemented at industrial level.