Electrostatic separation of polymeric granular mixtures from medium and low voltage cables

Recycling of electrical and electronic equipments is one of the most important topics that have a great significance for environmental protection. Currently, the most part of electrical cables used for power delivery contains huge amounts of conductors and polymeric materials. Therefore, every year thousands of kilometers of cables are disaffected and the polymeric insulation and metals are recovered for other applications. Generally, the electrical insulation and polymeric sheath of the most part of medium and low voltage cables are made of polyvinyl chloride (PCV) and polyethylene (PE). In view to recycling the mixtures that result from cables chopping, an effective method widely used is the electrostatic separation. The present paper is focused on the electrostatic separation of granular mixtures containing two different PCV sorts that are used for insulation and sheaths of cables. A laboratory-scaled roll-type electrostatic separator is used in order to process a specially prepared granular mixture that consists of particles of sheath and insulations PCV. The results show that the particles of PCV used for conductors´ insulation can be sorted from those resulting from PCV sheath chopping. Also, it is observed that, the separation efficiency can be increased by adjusting the applied voltage and the rotation speed of the roll electrode.