Numerical simulation of the continuous operation of a tribo-aero-electrostatic separator for mixed granular solids

Numerical simulation has proved to be a powerful tool in the research and development of new electrostatic processes. In a previous paper, the authors have introduced a simple mathematical model for simulating the outcome of a novel tribo-aero-electrostatic separation process for binary mixtures of granular materials. The mathematical model assumed that the probability of a granule to be separated can be expressed as a function of the number of impacts with granules belonging to the other class of materials. The process is characterized by the fact that the charging of the granules is produced in a fluidized bed device, in the presence of an electric field. The aim of the present paper is to simulate the continuous operation of such a device at various feed rates. The evolution in time of the mass of granules collected at the electrodes has been computed for various compositions of the granular mixture. The effect of the walls was taken into account. The computed results were in good agreement with the experiments. They demonstrate that open-loop continuous operation of the separator is possible for a range of feed-rates that depends on the composition of the materials to be separated.     

Comparative study of three high-voltage electrode configurations for the electrostatic separation of aluminum,copper and PVC from granular WEEE

Roll-type electrostatic separators are mostly employed for the selective sorting of conductive and non-conductive constituents of granular mixtures. In case of waste electric and electronic equipment, several conductive materials may be simultaneously present in the composition of the granular mixture to be separated. The aim of this paper is to prove the feasibility of processing an Aluminum/Copper/PVC mixture using a roll-type electrostatic separator. Three high-voltage electrode configurations were studied. Experiments prove that the association of a high-voltage S-shaped plate electrode with a corona wire electrode gives the best separation results. The electric forces pin the corona-charged PVC particles to the roll electrode, while the lighter aluminum and heavier copper particles are diverted to the high-voltage electrode. The aluminum contained in the copper product can be removed by a second pass in a separator that makes use only of the S-shaped electrode. In this way, 75% of the aluminum particles and 99.97% of the PVC particles can be removed, to obtain a 98% pure copper product.     

Experimental and numerical evaluation of two electrode systems for plate-type electrostatic separators

Plate-type electrostatic separators are commonly employed for the selective sorting of conductive and non-conductive granular materials. The separation generally takes place in the electric field generated between an elliptical electrode, which is connected to a high voltage supply, and a grounded S-shaped electrode. The aim of the present work is to evaluate the separation performances attainable with another electrode system, consisting of two metallic plates, a short one that is connected to the high-voltage and a long one that is grounded. The experiments are carried out with a mixture of mm-size granules of copper and PVC, originating from mechanically processed electric wire wastes. The results of the composite factorial experimental designs performed for each of the two electrode systems are quite similar. The numerical modelling and simulation of the electric field and of particle trajectories explain the experimental findings and support the practical recommendations regarding the industrial application of the two electrode systems.     

Triboelectrification of granular insulating materials as affected by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) treatment

The aim of this paper is to point out the influence of dielectric barrier discharge treatment on tribocharging of granular insulating materials. Particles of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and Polypropylene (PP) were subjected to an AC dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment in ambient airprior to tribocharging in a vibratory device. The charge to mass ratio was measured for treated and untreated materials. Electrostatic separation of a mixture of granular materials (PVC and PP) to measure the effectiveness of DBD treatment was evaluated by processing treated and untreated PVC/PP granular mixtures in a free-fall electrostatic separator. The obtained results clearly indicate that DBD has the capability to influence surface charging proprieties of polymer granular materials. In case of short treatment time, typically less than 3 s, a marked increase in the charge to mass ratios was observed for both PVC (about 35%) and PP (roughly 45%). In the same way, the quantity of DBD-treated materials, recovered after electrostatic separation, was increased by about 104% and 30% for PVC and PP, respectively, as compared to untreated case. The DBD treatment time is a key factor to increase the tribo electric effect.     

Effect of spark discharges on the trajectories of insulating particles in roll-type corona-electrostatic separators. Experimental and numerical study

Corona-electrostatic separation is a multi-variable process that has been thoroughly studied in connection with its various applications in the recycling industry. The aim of the present paper is to point out one parasitic phenomenon that adversely affects the efficiency of the separation: the sparks generated at the passage of conductive particles through the electric field zone. The experiments were carried out on a laboratory roll-type corona electrostatic separators, and the sparks were generated by introducing 16 calibrated copper pins in 40-g samples of granular insulating material (PVC; typical granule size: 1.5 mm) that were fed at a constant rate onto the surface of the grounded rotating roll electrode. The distribution of the PVC granules in the 14 boxes of the collector was altered by the occurrence of the spark discharges, as they were accompanied by the annealing of the electric field between the electrodes. The numerical simulation of insulating granules charging and movement under the action of the electric field enabled a better understanding of the interactions between the spark discharges and the other factors that influence their trajectories and affect the efficiency of the separation: roll-speed, particle size and ambient humidity. The particle dynamics equations were solved using an iterative scheme by using the electric field calculated in any point with the commercial software TRICOMP. The good agreement between the predictions made by these simulations and the experimental findings confirms the ability of the mathematical model to reflect the complexity of the physical phenomena.     

Experimental study of a tribo-aero-electrostatic separator for finely-grinded matter

The aim of this work is to evaluate the effects of several factors that affect the selective sorting of fine particles in a two-rotating-disks-type tribo-aero-electrostatic separator. The experiments are carried out on a synthetic mixture composed of 50% Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and 50% Polystyrene (PS) particles of size 500 to 1000 μm. The six factors under study are: the high voltage, the rotation speed of the disks, the duration of the tribo-charging process, the duration of the separation, the fluidisation air flow rate, and the initial mass of the granular mixture to be processed. The performance of the separator is evaluated by setting up a measurement system that enables the continuous and simultaneous recording of the charges and the masses of the separated products. The conclusions of this study will serve at the optimum design of an industrial electrostatic separator for the recycling of micronized plastics from waste electric and electronic equipment.     

Effect of particle size on the tribo-aero-electrostatic separation of plastics

Numerous research studies have been made on the electrostatic separation of granular insulating materials, with many industrial applications in the area of waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling. However, very few investigators have studied the separation of finely-ground matter (i.e., granule diameter < 1 mm), in relation with applications in mineral processing, or in food industry. The aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of particle size on the selective sorting of fine particles in a two-rotating-disks-type tribo-aero-electrostatic separator. The experiments are carried out on a synthetic mixture composed of 50% Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and 50% Polystyrene (PS) particles of size 250 to 2000 microns. The performance of this separator is evaluated by setting up a measurement system that enables the continuous and simultaneous recording of the charges and the masses of the separated products. The conclusions of this study will serve at the optimum design of an industrial electrostatic separator for the recycling of micronized plastics from WEEE.     

垂直振动颗粒混合气体的振荡现象研究

运用事件驱动算法研究颗粒混合物在垂直振动容器中的振荡现象.容器被具有一定高度的隔板分成相等大小的两个小室,并采用半径相差一倍的两种颗粒.研究结果表明,颗粒振荡周期随两种颗粒密度比的减少而急剧增加.通过计算在垂直方向上两种颗粒高度之比随颗粒密度的变化关系,说明决定颗粒振荡与否的主要因素并不是"巴西坚果效应"或"反巴西坚果效应".通过计算颗粒温度,发现颗粒振荡取决于颗粒混合气体的小颗粒温度.当小颗粒温度大于一定值时,颗粒混合气体发生颗粒振荡现象.根据Viridi等提出的流体动力学模型,文中对该模型做出相应的修改,加入密度因子,从而可以解释颗粒振荡周期与颗粒密度比的关系.     

Numerical modeling of the trajectories of plastic granules in a tribo-aero-electrostatic separator

A tribo-aero-electrostatic separator has been recently patented for the selective sorting of granular plastics mixtures generated during the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipments (WEEE). The plastics are tribo-charged in a parallelepiped fluidized bed device, two opposite walls of which being the electrodes that generate the electric field that performs the separation. In two previous papers, different sets of operating parameters of this separator have been studied by hundreds of experiments, in order to improve the efficiency of the process and the purity of the products. The aim of the present paper is to complement these studies by establishing a model for computing the trajectory of plastics granules in such separator. The distribution of electric field and the profile of the airflow between electrodes were expressed using simple analytical formulas, which were introduced in the system of differential equations that served for the calculation of granule trajectories under the action of the various electric and mechanical forces. The computations were performed for various operating parameters: applied-voltage, granule size, charge density. The model can guide the design of industrial tribo-aero-electrostatic separators and the choice of the optimum values of the operating variables of such equipment.     

Modeling and optimization of a propeller-type tribocharger for granular materials

Electrostatic separation has already proved to be an effective means for the recycling of granular plastics from industrial wastes. The aim of the present work was to optimize the operation of a novel device that could ensure effective triboelectric charging of such materials prior to their selective sorting in a high-intensity electric field. The experiments were performed on two sorts of mm-size granular materials Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene and High Impact Polystyrene, originating from the processing of waste electric and electronic equipment. The samples were introduced in a Polyvinyl Chloride cylinder, where a co-axial propeller entrained the plastic granules into a helical motion that favored their triboelectric charging by combining the mechanical and aerodynamical effects. The experimental design methodology was employed for the modeling and optimization of the tribocharging process.     

Behaviour of charged insulating particles in contact with a rotating roll electrode

The overall economic efficiency of standard industrial roll-type separators for granular materials can be improved by operation at higher velocities of the rotating roll electrode. The aim of this paper is to estimate how high this speed could be and still have a good separation. The answer to this question implied the calculation of the electric image force, which opposes the centrifugal force and sticks the corona-charged insulating particles to the rotating roll electrode. This force depends on the residual charge carried by the particles. By estimating the decay of this charge from surface potential measurements carried out on granular layers of insulating materials dispersed on grounded plate electrodes, it was possible to simulate the particle lift-off from the rotating roll electrode under various operating conditions. The results presented in the paper were obtained for fly-ash particles, but the numerical simulation methodology employed by the authors can be successfully applied for the optimisation of other electrostatic separation applications.     

Discrete element modeling of triboelectric charging of insulating materials in vibrated granular beds

The triboelectric charging of granular insulating materials is very difficult to predict because of the complex physical mechanism involved in this process. The aim of this paper is to describe in detail the implementation of a numerical model of the tribocharging process taking place in vertically-vibrated beds of granular plastics. The charge exchanged in granule-to-granule and granule-to-wall collisions is computed by taking into account some electrical properties of the respective materials, their area of contact and the effect of the electric field generated by a system of high-voltage electrodes and by the charges of the granules themselves. The electrical model is coupled with the Discrete Element Method (DEM) which undertakes the whole granular dynamics and allows to compute accurately the contact surface of two colliding particles which is involved in the triboelectric charging model.Beside the numerical simulations an experiment has been conducted with mixtures of mm-size polyamide and polycarbonate granules in a laboratory vibrated bed to validate the model. The numerical results have been found to be in good agreement with the experimental ones.     

A roe-average algorithm for a granular-gas model with non-conservative terms

A Roe-average algorithm has been derived for a granular-gas model, proposed by Goldshtein and Shapiro [Goldshtein, Shapiro, Mechanics of collisional motion of granular materials: Part 1. General hydrodynamic equations, J. Fluid Mech. 282 (1995) 75–114], which contains non-conservative terms in the Euler-like hyperbolic governing equations apart from sink terms, which arise from inelastic collision of granules and are present only in the energy equation. The non-conservative terms introduce non-isentropic effects in acoustic-wave propagation within granular media and they also contribute to the Rankine–Hugoniot relations across a discontinuity. A Roe-average algorithm, based on the same granular-gas model, was derived in the literature [V. Kamenetsky, A. Goldshtein, M. Shapiro, D. Degani, Evolution of a shock wave in a granular gas, Phys. Fluids, 12 (2000) 3036–3049] which then required the implementation of a shock-fitting technique at a discontinuity. In the present work, Roe-averaged variables have been obtained from the Rankine–Hugoniot jump relations and the non-conservative terms have been incorporated in the numerical flux formula consistent with upwind principles associated with the granular speed of sound. Results for unsteady one-dimensional granular flows, colliding with a wall, demonstrate the capability of the proposed algorithm to capture strong shocks in addition to flow features not found in molecular gases, such as a fluidized region downstream of the shock and a compacted solid-block region adjacent to the wall.     

Magneto-vibratory separation of glass and bronze granular mixtures immersed in a paramagnetic liquid

A fluid-immersed granular mixture may spontaneously separate when subjected to vertical vibration, separation occurring when the ratio of particle inertia to fluid drag is sufficiently different between the component species of the mixture. Here, we describe how fluid-driven separation is influenced by magneto-Archimedes buoyancy, the additional buoyancy force experienced by a body immersed in a paramagnetic fluid when a strong inhomogeneous magnetic field is applied. In our experiments glass and bronze mixtures immersed in paramagnetic aqueous solutions of MnCl₂ have been subjected to sinusoidal vertical vibration. In the absence of a magnetic field the separation is similar to that observed when the interstitial fluid is water. However, at modest applied magnetic fields, magneto-Archimedes buoyancy may balance the inertia/fluid-drag separation mechanism, or it may dominate the separation process. We identify the vibratory and magnetic conditions for four granular configurations, each having distinctive granular convection. Abrupt transitions between these states occur at well-defined values of the magnetic and vibrational parameters. In order to gain insight into the dynamics of the separation process we use computer simulations based on solutions of the Navier-Stokes' equations. The simulations reproduce the experimental results revealing the important role of convection and gap formation in the stability of the different states.     

Coarsening in granular systems

We review a few representative examples of granular experiments or models where phase separation, accompanied by domain coarsening, is a relevant phenomenon. We first elucidate the intrinsic non-equilibrium, or athermal, nature of granular media. Thereafter, dilute systems, the so-called “granular gases”, are discussed: idealized kinetic models, such as the gas of inelastic hard spheres in the cooling regime, are the optimal playground to study the slow growth of correlated structures, e.g., shear patterns, vortices, and clusters. In fluidized experiments, liquid–gas or solid–gas separations have been observed. In the case of monolayers of particles, phase coexistence and coarsening appear in several different setups, with mechanical or electrostatic energy input. Phenomenological models describe, even quantitatively, several experimental measures, both for the coarsening dynamics and for the dynamic transition between different granular phases. The origin of the underlying bistability is in general related to negative compressibility from granular hydrodynamics computations, even if the understanding of the mechanism is far from complete. A relevant problem, with important industrial applications, is related to the demixing or segregation of mixtures, for instance in rotating tumblers or on horizontally vibrated plates. Finally, the problem of compaction of highly dense granular materials, which is relevant in many practical situations, is usually described in terms of coarsening dynamics: there, bubbles of misaligned grains evaporate, allowing the coalescence of optimally arranged islands and a progressive reduction of the total occupied volume.     

Corona-discharge-based neutralization of charged granular insulating materials in contact with an electrode of opposite polarity

Charge neutralization is a key operation in many electrostatic processes. A wide-range of charge neutralizers have already been developed for various applications: eliminate shock and ignition hazards, avoid electrostatic discharges that might affect the operation of electronic equipment, reduce electrostatic adhesion forces that might stick granular materials in pneumatic conveyors, and so on. The aim of the present paper is to evaluate several methods of charge neutralization for charged granular insulating materials spread on an electrode energized from a voltage source of opposite polarity, a situation encountered – for instance – in two-metallic-belt tribo-aero-electrostatic separators, and which is not covered by commercially-available solutions. Three corona-discharge-based charge neutralization systems are studied: (i) DC-biased AC voltage applied to a corona dual-type electrode; (ii) DC-biased AC voltage applied to a triode-type electrode system; (iii) DC voltage applied to a corona dual-type electrode. The charged samples of polycarbonate granules are obtained at the outlet of a tribo-aero-electrostatic separator. The electric charge per mass ratio of each sample is measured before and after neutralization. The third of the above-mentioned charge neutralization solutions seems to be the most effective solution, but it requires an appropriate adjustment of the DC voltage applied to the corona dual-type electrode.     

Numerical Simulation of Phase Separation Kinetic of Polymer Solutions Using the Spectral Discrete Cosine Transform Method

A spectral discrete cosine transform (DCT) method was used to solve numerically the spatio-temporal nonlinear Cahn-Hilliard equation for a temperature-induced phase separation process of a polymer solution. The properties of a high molecular weight polystyrene solution were used in the model to reflect the behavior of a real world polymer system. Based on the value of the initial concentration, three different final morphologies of the phase separated system, granular, interconnected, and microcellular, were identified. It was shown that the initial concentration is the main factor to determine the high rate of the phase separation when the phase separation time is the primary desired parameter. The degree of phase separation, as a quantitative measure of the phase separation process, indicates the rate and amount of separated polymer material for practical applications. The model is capable of providing quantitative information of morphology evolution during phase separation processes for microstructure control purposes. The structure factor profile was extracted as a theoretical output that enables comparison with scattering experiments observations as the finger-print of phase separation morphological evolution. It is shown that the DCT method is a very suitable and feasible method for solution of the nonlinear partial differential equation of phase separation kinetics.     

Monitoring of electrostatic fire and explosion hazards at the inlet to electrostatic precipitators

The paper deals with the continuous monitoring of electrostatic fire and explosion hazards that can occur at the inlet to electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) when highly charged dust particles are transported by a gas carrier that can be the mixtures of both incombustible and combustible flue gases. The risk of ignition and even explosion is especially high in the presence of an explosive mixture of oxygen and, e.g., hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, etc. To avoid the danger of electrostatic discharges and their consequences for a whole installation including an electrostatic precipitator a method and a specially designed and built system should effectively enable the continuous monitoring of the hazards and should immediately manage any automatic control system or some other control elements. Some theoretical considerations concerning the method proposed, the physical quantities that must be measured, and the derivation of a novel dynamic safety criterion for assessing the risk of hazardous electrostatic discharges are presented. Finally, the author presents and discusses the possible practical application of the microprocessor-based measuring system verified experimentally in the past to the continuous monitoring of the hazards and to the management of an automatic control system to be put into operation. The paper presents a certain idea and proposal of the problem's solution based on the author's many years' experience in the field of pneumatic transport of dusts, powders and granular materials, of the electrostatic measurements of electric and mechanical quantities characteristic of the particulate transport, and of the risk and prevention of discharges of static electricity in transporting pipes and silos, vessels, etc.     

Combustion of slugs of propane and air moving up through an incipiently fluidized bed

A mathematical model is proposed to show the evolution of temperature, chemical composition and energy release or transfer in slugs, clouds and particulate phase, in a fluidized bed where there are slugs, of a mixture of air and propane, moving up through the particulate phase previously set in the state of incipient fluidization with air. The analysis begins as the slugs are formed at the orifices of the distributor, until they explode inside the bed or emerge at the free surface. The model also makes the analysis of what happens in the gaseous mixture that leaves the free surface of the fluidized bed until the propane is thoroughly burnt. It is essentially built upon a simple quasi-global mechanism for the combustion reaction and the mass and heat transfer equations from the two-phase model of fluidization. The aim was not to propose a new modelling approach, but to combine classical models, one concerning the reaction kinetics and the other the bed hydrodynamic aspects, to obtain a better insight on the events occurring inside a fluidized bed reactor, enhancing the understanding of this type of reactor. Experimental data to balance with the numerical model were obtained through tests on the combustion of commercial propane, in a laboratory scale fluidized bed, using four sand particle sizes: 400–500, 315–400, 250–315 and 200–250 μ m. The mole fractions of CO₂, CO and O₂ in the flue gases and the temperature of the fluidized bed were measured and compared with the numerical results.