Environmentally-friendly technology for rapid on-line recycling of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, polystyrene and polypropylene using near-infrared spectroscopy

The recovery of waste acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polystyrene (PS) and polypropylene (PP) from waste white goods was inefficient due to their similar chemical and physical property. In this work, an environmental friendly equipment based on on-line dynamic recognition for recycling the waste white goods plastic stream (i.e. ABS, PS and PP mixture) was established. It included the recognition process utilizing the near infrared (NIR) range 1050 nm-1350 nm and separation process using the air ejection. In particular, NIR spectrum of waste plastic stream were acquired on-line and analyzed dynamically with the self-designed software. Results showed that although ABS, PS and PP share very similar chemical and physical property, it is possible to separate them with a high accuracy up to 99%. Meanwhile, the optimized operating parameters of the separation process were studied to guide the further industrial recycling process. The study revealed the potentiality of NIR technique as mechanical methods in recycling of plastics from the waste white goods. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.