The potential of using air jigging to sort recycled aggregates

The recycling of inert construction and demolition materials (C&D) remains problematic if these materials are used to process high-quality recycled aggregates suitable for manufacturing new concrete. Even when selective demolition is employed, the crushing and classification of C&D produces recycled aggregates with an unacceptable level of impurities, with the content of gypsum being the biggest concern. Another concern is the percentage of brick content that decreases the density of the recycled aggregate as well as its homogeneity. The present work studies an air jig sorting method to separate out concrete particles from a C&D mixture that contains high amount of gypsum (22% mass) and brick (24% mass) particles. The mixture of aggregates studied had a 4–20 mm grading. After sorting, the bottom third of the mixture had less than 1% mass of gypsum and more than 90% mass of concrete particles. In contrast, the upper third of the sorted material contained gypsum in proportion of nearly 80% mass. The separation mechanism appears to be governed by both particle density and bulk density of individual components. These results are very encouraging and prove that the air jigging method is a promising technology for the use in C&D recycling plants. Further research is warranted.