Recovery of metals and polymers from coaxial cables using different configurations of electrostatic separators

• Published in: Journal of material cycles and waste management Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 633 - 641
• Main Authors: Martins, Thiago Rodrigues, Bertuol, Daniel Assumpção, Tanabe, Eduardo Hiromitsu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.03.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aluminum; Cables; Civil Engineering; Coaxial cables; Configurations; Copper; Efficiency; Electric cables; Electronic equipment; Electronic waste; Electrostatic separators; Engineering; Environmental Management; Heavy metals; High voltage; High voltages; Materials recovery; Original Article; Parameters; Polymers; Purity; Separation; Separators; Voltage; Waste Management/Waste Technology; Plate-type electrostatic separator; Coaxial cables; Configuration comparison; Recycling; Plate/screen-type electrostatic separator
• ISSN: 1438-4957; 1611-8227
• DOI: 10.1007/s10163-021-01346-w

Technological development has led to a growing generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment, including cables. This work concerns the recycling of coaxial cables using two less common configurations of electrostatic separators. At first, the cables were comminuted and sieved. Then, they were subjected to electrostatic separation on the plate-type and the screen-type electrostatic separators. The performance of each separator was evaluated according to important parameters, including high voltage, plate angle, and splitter angle. In the sieving step, purity of 99.21% and recovery efficiency of 93.67% for aluminium were achieved. In regards to the electrostatic separation, for plate-type, the best parameters were a high voltage of 30 kV, a plate angle of 50°, and a splitter angle of − 7.5°, achieving purity of 90.86% and recovery efficiency of 88.65% for copper-clad steel. For screen-type, the best parameters were a high voltage of 30 kV, and a plate angle of 70º, attaining purity of 87.27%, and recovery efficiency of 79.86% for copper-clad steel. The results showed that the plate-type was better suited for the recovery of materials from coaxial cables, contributing to increasing the information available about these configurations and helping in the use of these separators on other types of waste.