Prosiding Seminar Nasional Infrastruktur Energi Nuklir 2019 ISSN: 2621-3125

Pontianak, 10 Oktober 2019

APPLICATION OF ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION FOR PLASTIC

WASTE MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA: A REVIEW AND PROSPECTUS
Yopa Eka Prawatya1, Rudi Kurnianto1, Nelly Wahyuni1,
Thami Zeghloul2, Lucian Dascalescu2
1 Universitas Tanjungpura, Jl. Prof. Dr. H. Hadari Nawawi, Pontianak 78124
2 Institut Pprime CNRS-Université de Poitier, 4 Avenue de Varsovie, Angoulême 16000
email: yopa.prawatya@industrial.untan.ac.id

ABSTRAK
APLIKASI PEMISAHAN ELEKTROSTATIK UNTUK PENGELOLAAN LIMBAH PLASTIK DI
INDONESIA: TINJAUAN DAN PROSPEKTUS. Pencemaran dari kemasan plastik di
Indonesia menjadi isu penting yang harus segera ditemukan solusinya. Selain pemanfaatan
limbah plastik. Berbagai macam penelitian telah dilakukan untuk memberikan solusi dalam
mengatasi permasalahan sampah/limbah plastik ini. Pemanfaatan limbah plastik sebagai
material konstruksi seperti paving, bata dinding, atap, engsel, pintu, dan atap, menjadi salah
satu solusi daur ulang yang memiliki nilai jual dan karakteristik khas. Pemisahan limbah plastik
merupakan salah satu langkah solutif untuk menentukan jenis proses daur ulang yang akan
dilakukan pada langkah berikutnya.
Pemisahan material berdasarkan jenisnya dapat dilakukan dengan berbagai cara, seperti:
picking, screening, magnetic, air classification, optical separation, Eddy’s current method, dan
flotation. Sampah plastik yang merupakan insulating material, dapat dipisahkan berdasarkan
jenisnya dengan metode pemisahan elektrostatik sehingga mempermudah untuk pemilihan
proses lanjutan untuk menangani limbah plastik tersebut.
Berdasarkan hasil percobaan pada laboratorium pemisahan limbah plastik di PPRIME
Institute, UPR 3346, CNRS - University of Poitiers ENSMA IUT d'Angouleme, France. Kondisi
lingkungan di Indonesia mendukung untuk diterapkannya teknologi pemisahan ini, sehingga
model tribo-corona separation dapat menjadi model green technology untuk menghadapi
bahaya pencemaran limbah plastik di Indonesia.

Kata kunci: manajemen limbah, teknologi hijau, pemisahan elektrostatik, plastik

ABSTRACT
APPLICATION OF ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION FOR PLASTIC WASTE
MANAGEMENT IN INDONESIA: A REVIEW AND PROSPECTUS. Pollution from plastic
packaging in Indonesia is an important issue that must be immediately found a solution.
Various kinds of research have been conducted to provide solutions for the problem of
garbage/plastic waste. Utilization of plastic waste as construction materials such as paving,
brick walls, roofs, hinges, doors, and roofs, has become one of the recycling solutions that
have unique selling points and characteristics. Separation of plastic waste is one of the solutive
steps to determine the type of recycling process that will be carried out in the next step.
Separation of material based on its type can be done in various ways, such as picking,
screening, magnetic, air classification, optical separation, Eddy’s current method, and
flotation. Plastic waste, which is an insulating material, can be separated by electrostatic
separation method, making it easier for the selection of further processes to handle the plastic
waste.
Based on the results of experiments on the plastic waste separation laboratory at the PPRIME
Institute, UPR 3346, CNRS - University of Poitiers ENSMA IUT d'Angouleme, France. The
environmental conditions in Indonesia are feasible for the implementation of this separation
technology so that the tribo-corona separation model could become a green technology model
to face the danger of plastic waste pollution in Indonesia.

Keyword: waste management, green technology, electrostatic separation, plastic

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APPLICATION OF ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION FOR... ISSN: 2355-7524
Yopa Eka Prawatya, et al.

INTRODUCTION

Indonesia is the largest contributor to plastic waste in the world after China. The data
from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and the Indonesian Plastic Industry Association
(INAPLAS) show that plastic waste in Indonesia reaches 64 million tons/year, of which around
3.2 million tons are discharged into the sea [1]. Plastic packaging is the dominant industry
sector in the world with production reaching 146 million tons/year with waste of 141 million
tons/year in 2015. Facing research topics in the world that have offered various solutions, in
addition to reducing the use of plastic materials and replace with biodegradable materials.
Other activities included in the management of plastic waste are selective collection: collected
plastic waste by type; reuse: reuse of plastic packaging; and recycling: plastic processing into
new materials or goods. Utilization of plastic waste as construction materials such as paving,
brick walls, roofs, hinges, doors, and roofs, becomes one of the recycling solutions that
valuable and distinctive characteristics [2].
While magnetic separation has been used successfully to detect ferrous materials,
electrostatic separation is defined as the selective sorting of electrically charged or polarized
objects under the action of an electric field force which is the preferred solution for handling
nonferrous particles contained in plastic granular materials. Different physical mechanisms
(electrostatic induction, corona filling, and triboelectric effects) and different devices (plates,
rolls, free-fall, two conveyors, belts, and disk types) are used for the separation of various
metal and plastic mixtures [3].
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of electrostatic sorting
applications of the plastic waste mixture. Preliminary studies have been conducted on
PPRIME laboratory with ambient temperature adjustment as in Indonesia and previous studies
have evaluated the relationship between electrostatic charge and temperature to the quality
of charge [4–6].

THEORY
Tribo-electrostatic separator and corona discharge: a mixture of the material to be
separated is carried by compressed air through the pipe in which they tribocharged originating
from collisions with each other and hit the wall of the pipe. Removable pipes (stainless steel,
PVC, Teflon, etc.) used to make pipes can be adjusted to be used. The charged particle is
then injected into a vertical space containing two high voltage electrodes which apply corona
discharge principle, where positively charged particles are attracted by negative electrodes
and negatively charged particles are attracted by positive electrodes [7].
Gravitational forces could play a role in particles movement on the inclined-plane during the
separation process, as a result, most particles of the mixture are oriented into the compartment
in the middle of the collector. The relative recovery rate due to the angle of inclination was
computed as follows:
(𝑅𝑒𝑐(𝜃𝑖) − 𝑅𝑒𝑐(90°) )
∆𝑅𝑒𝑐(𝜃𝑖) % = ∗ 100 (1)
𝑅𝑒𝑐(90°)

Where Rec (90°) is the recovery rate of separated products in free-fall electrostatic separator
and Rec (θi) is the recovery rate of separated products in the inclined-plane separator at an
angle θi determined with respect to the horizontal [8].

METHODOLOGY
In most industries which apply electrostatic separation, granule material is obtained after
the removal of all metal contaminants, which are then fed to the tribocharging device, and then
free fall in the electric field produced by two high voltage electrodes[9,10]. The grains are
“tribocharged” by collision and friction with each other or by the walls of the tribocharging
device [11,12]. The electrostatic forces acting on the charged granules direct them to opposite
polarity electrodes, where they are collected in an appropriate manner.

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Prosiding Seminar Nasional Infrastruktur Energi Nuklir 2019 ISSN: 2621-3125
Pontianak, 10 Oktober 2019

Figure 1. Laboratory-scale tribo-aero-electrostatic separator

The patented tribo-aero-electrostatic separator by Calin and Dascalescu [13,14] has the
peculiarity that the electrodes are two metal belt conveyors connected to a high voltage supply
(Fig. 2). The length of the active electrode (ie the distance between the two rolls of each
conveyor) is 500 mm.

Figure 2. Recently patented tribo-aero-electrostatic separator for mixed granular plastics

[13,14]; 1: feeder; 2, 3: high-voltage supplies; 4, 5: brushes; 6, 7: collectors; 9, 10: high-voltage
electrodes (metallic belt conveyors); 11: fluidized bed.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Several works have been published on triboelectric charging processes, which mainly
use: fans, rotary tubes, and fluidized[15].

Fan Charging Device

The main elements of this installation are: the PVC insulating cylindrical tube, the DC
motor that drives the insulating propeller and the metal support. The device uses the rising air

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APPLICATION OF ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION FOR... ISSN: 2355-7524
Yopa Eka Prawatya, et al.

which gives rise to turbulence in the tube containing the mixture of particles, thus causing their
tribo-electrification when they collide with each other or with the walls of the tube.
The charged mixture is recovered by pivoting the cylinder without stopping the engine
to prevent adhesion of the particles to the walls and allow complete recovery of the contents.
Note here that the material of the cylinder plays an important role in this charging mechanism
and can be chosen judiciously according to the mixture to be treated because the number of
collisions between particle-wall is important because of the centrifugal force which tries to
project the particles between the walls of the device.

Cyclone charging device

The device consists of an insulating cylinder, arranged in a vertical position. The granular or
powdery materials to be loaded are introduced horizontally, normal to the inner wall of the
cylinder, by a fan, the speed of rotation can be changed. The continuous friction between the
particles and the wall generates the majority of the charge acquired in a device of this type.
The principle of operation of this device also allows a continuous supply of the tribo-aero-
electrostatic separator, but its effectiveness in the case of fine particles remains to be tested.

The static type charging device

The static loading device is a parallelepipedal enclosure of insulating or metallic material,
inside which are arranged several inclined plates. The particles slide along these plates by
gravitation and charge by friction with them (tribo-electric effect).
The simplicity of the construction is remarkable. The other advantage of this device: the
possibility of providing it with several sets of plates, different materials, interchangeable. Thus,
the device may be equipped with plates providing a positive charge for one constituent of the
mixture to be separated and negative for the other. The kinematics of the particles inside the
device also favors collisions between particles.

Vibration charging device

Another solution for charging the particles is obtained by the vibration device. The material to
be loaded slides in zigzagging channels vibrating along the two axes X and Y. The oscillations
of the load device are controlled by an electric motor and a crank-rod system. The particles to
be charged interact firstly with the walls of the device. collisions between particle-wall are
important because of the centrifugal force which tries to project the particles between the walls
of the device.

The fluidized bed charging device

This is the most used method for tribo-electric charging. The operation of the fluidized bed in
these devices is defined by six phenomena. Which are: Vibration, Formation, Bubbling,
Pumping, Larding, and Training.

Figure 3. Regimes of a fluidized bed as a function of the fluidization velocity

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Prosiding Seminar Nasional Infrastruktur Energi Nuklir 2019 ISSN: 2621-3125
Pontianak, 10 Oktober 2019

CONCLUSIONS
Both the tribo-electrostatic and corona-electrostatic separation methods are suitable
for separate mixed plastics waste into its individual components. The future of sufficient energy
in Indonesia could support this separation process, in order to reduce plastic pollution in
Indonesia. However, plastic waste may easily be contaminated before or during the recycling
process, which would influence the surface properties, the charging efficiency, and the
outcome of the electrostatic separation. In order to minimize the contamination,
standardization of plastic waste collecting and pretreatment before electrostatic separation are
necessary.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by PPRIME Institute, UPR 3346, CNRS - University of
Poitiers ENSMA IUT d'Angouleme, France.

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