Waste Management xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

Review

Flotation separation of waste plastics for recyclingA review

Chong-qing Wang, Hui Wang , Jian-gang Fu, You-nian Liu
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Resource Chemistry of Nonferrous Metals, Ministry of Education, Central South University,
Changsha, 410083 Hunan, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 23 November 2014
Accepted 18 March 2015
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Incineration
Plastics otation
Recycling
Separation
Waste management

a b s t r a c t
The sharp increase of plastic wastes results in great social and environmental pressures, and recycling, as an
effective way currently available to reduce the negative impacts of plastic wastes, represents one of the
most dynamic areas in the plastics industry today. Froth otation is a promising method to solve the key
problem of recycling process, namely separation of plastic mixtures. This review surveys recent literature
on plastics otation, focusing on specic features compared to ores otation, strategies, methods and principles, otation equipments, and current challenges. In terms of separation methods, plastics otation is
divided into gamma otation, adsorption of reagents, surface modication and physical regulation.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents
1.
2.

3.
4.

5.
6.

7.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The features of plastics flotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1.
Properties of plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.
Size reduction of plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.
Particle size of plastics for separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.
Source of plastic wastes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Strategies for plastics flotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Methods and principles of plastics flotation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.
Gamma flotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.
Adsorption of reagents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.1.
Adsorption mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.2.
Flotation sparation of plastic mixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.3.
Flotation reagents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3.
Surface modification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.4.
Physical regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Flotation equipments of plastics flotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Current challenges of plastics flotation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.1.
Mismatch between industrial need and academic work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2.
Evaluation of plastic floatability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3.
Composition analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Abbreviations: ABS, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene; GRPP, glass reinforced polypropylene; HDPE, high-density polyethylene; HIPS, high impact polystyrene; PA,
polyamide (nylon); PC, polycarbonate; PE, polyethylene; PET, poly (ethylene terephthalate); PMMA, poly (methyl methacrylate); POM, polyoxymethelene; PP, polypropylene;
PPE, poly (phenylene ether); PS, polystyrene; PUR, polyurethane; PVC, polyvinyl chloride; PVDC, poly (vinylidene chloride).
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 731 88879616.
E-mail addresses: zilangwang@126.com (C.-q. Wang), huiwang1968@163.com (H. Wang), fu_jiangang@126.com (J.-g. Fu), liuyounian@csu.edu.cn (Y.-n. Liu).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015.03.027
0956-053X/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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1. Introduction
The worlds total consumption of plastics has an average
growth rate of 56%, and will reach 297.5 million tons by 2015
(Madisonadmin, 2012). Plastic is an excellent and a very useful
material to replace ceramic, wood and metals because it is very
functional, cheap, hygienic, light and economic. The global production of plastic, therefore, has grown sharply over recent years. The
increase in plastic consumption is largely responsible for the
increase in solid wastes, and it has a great impact on their management (Derraik, 2002; Al-Salem et al., 2009).
Plastic wastes cause signicant environmental problems. Up to
now, a major portion of plastic wastes is either landlled or incinerated with municipal solid wastes (Al-Salem et al., 2009;
Subramanian, 2000; Patel et al., 2000; Hopewell et al., 2009).
Landll occupies a great number of lands since plastics need a very
long time to be degraded, and it becomes more expensive and limited owing to the increasing volume of plastics and the decreasing
landll capacity for disposal. Incineration of plastic wastes generates hazardous emission including HCl gas and dioxins containing
chlorine, and bottom ash which contains lead and cadmium
(Hopewell et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2010). There are several alternative methods for disposal of plastic wastes, e.g., pyrolysis and
incineration with energy recovery (Achilias et al., 2007;
Demirbas, 2004; Mlgaard, 1995). The pyrolysis process needs
high energy consumption for operation and emits air pollution
even though the output products from pyrolyzing plastic wastes
have a high caloric value. Incineration with energy recovery
requires a complicated device to eliminate hazardous products
before discharging to the surrounding environment. In this regard,
disposal of plastic wastes with clean technology has become an
important issue due to environmental effects.
An important characteristic of plastic materials is that they can
be melted and reprocessed without any serious change in their
physico-chemical properties. With the attitude that plastic wastes
can be considered as potential useful resources, the emphasis for
disposal of plastics has now changed. Plastic recycling receives
increasing attention due to economic, social and environmental
reasons (Al-Salem et al., 2009; Subramanian, 2000; Patel et al.,
2000; Hopewell et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2010).
Because of their chemical structure, different types of plastics
should not be mixed together for recycling process (Hopewell
et al., 2009; Garcia et al., 2007; Andricic et al., 2008).
Contamination of the main product with other polymers of different melting points or thermal stabilities can limit the quality of
recycled plastics. For example, PET remains unmelted at PVC processing temperatures, and PVC contamination of PET leads to discoloration of the products (Braun, 2002; Paci and La Mantia,
1999). Diminished physical properties resulting from polymer
polymer incompatibility, discoloration, and degradation, cause a
relatively low price for such mixed plastics compared with virgin
polymers. In this regard, selective separation of waste plastics is
the weakest link in the plastic-recycling industry. Recycling of
plastics is limited by difculties in the separation of plastics from
one another.
Numerous methods were developed for plastic separation, such
as manual separation, triboelectrostatic separation (Park et al.,
2007; Hearn and Ballard, 2005), gravity separation (Pascoe, 2006;
Malcolm Richard et al., 2011; Gent et al., 2009), selective otation
(Shent et al., 1999; Fraunholcz, 2004; Alter, 2005) and selective
dissolution (Pappa et al., 2001). Manual separation is labor-intensive, low efcient and poor in working conditions (Edward,
2000). Due to similar properties of plastics, triboelectrostatic separation and gravity separation are signicantly limited for separation of plastic wastes (Shent et al., 1999; Buchan and Yarar,

1996). In the case of selective dissolution, the toxic organic solvents associated with high costs makes alternative methods more
attractive. Selective otation, as a promising alternative, shows
remarkable advantages, such as cost-effective and high efciency
(Jody et al., 2003).
The application of otation to separation of plastic mixtures is
relatively new. The earliest study dates back to 1970s and initiates
from S. Izumi (Izumi and Saitoh, 1978; Izumi and Tanaka, 1975).
Early studies on plastics otation focused on testing depressants
used in ore otation or on optimizing the hydrodynamics of the
otation device used (Saitoh et al., 1976; Valdez and Wilson,
1979). Considering later studies, surface treatments by utilizing
specic chemical and physico-chemical properties of plastics were
developed, such as critical surface tension, chain degradation,
absorption of reagents (Sisson, 1993; Buchan and Yarar, 1995;
Kobler, 1993), which resulted in a number of different techniques
for surface treatment of plastic particles to achieve selective bubble attachment in otation.
In this paper, we discuss the specic features of plastics otation compared to ores otation, and review the technology of plastics otation with respective to strategies for plastics otation,
methods and principles of plastics otation, otation equipments,
and current challenges. We will focus on experimental studies on
separation of plastics by otation. The problems that hinder the
application of plastics otation are also presented.
2. The features of plastics otation
Though application of otation to plastic separation is a further
step of ores otation, plastics otation exhibits a number of specic features, and these features are related to the distinct properties
of plastics, such as low density and low surface energy. The features can provide some insights into plastics otation, and a brief
survey of the important features of plastics otation is shown
below.
2.1. Properties of plastics
The hydrophobicity of plastic surface depends on the electrochemical property, which is related to the properties of plastics,
involving chemical composition, plasticizers, degree of polymerization, crystallinity, surface structure, and the like (Izumi and
Saitoh, 1978; Rossier et al., 1999; Erbil et al., 2003). The difference
in these properties is considered to affect the hydrophobicity of
plastic surfaces. In addition, the additives in plastics was found
to inuence the surface properties and the oatability of PVC plastics (Wang et al., 2014). Therefore, from the viewpoint of
fundamental study, the effects of properties and additives of plastics should be examined in detail.
Unsimilar to minerals, the properties and additives of plastics
can be easily obtained from manufacturers. This helps to conduct
fundamental research on plastics otation. However, the properties of plastics can be changed through mechanical action or contacting with other materials during the utilization of plastic
products. Also, prerequisite steps usually employed before selective otation, including washing, crushing, sink-oat separation
or surface treatment, cause changes in properties of plastics.
2.2. Size reduction of plastics
The major application of plastics otation is separation of
shredded plastic particles since liberation and decontamination
are prerequisite steps before separation. Size reduction involves
creation of new surface, and thus the surface of shredded particles
is composed of new surface and original surface. The ratio of new

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C.-q. Wang et al. / Waste Management xxx (2015) xxxxxx

surface depends on the original shape and size of plastic samples as

well as that of the shredded particles.
The covalent bonds in the vicinity of the cut area are broken up
during shredding, and it is assumed that the fraction of macromolecules that will break up during cutting relates to a number
of factors, such as molecular mass, the velocity of the cutting edge
and interaction forces between the macromolecules. The created
radicals will be oxidized immediately or react otherwise. The
hydrophobicity of new surface, in terms of oxidization, will be
smaller than that of original surface since some hydrophilic groups
such as AOH and @O may be introduced into plastic surface.
Therefore, the difference should be taken into consideration
between new surface and original surface with respect to otation.
Another point different from ores is the rearrangement of polymer chains, which is driven by a reduction of the surface free
energy. The oxidized molecular parts will turn away from the surface and thus the caused effect often fades away with time, which
is demonstrated by plasma treatment of PC and ABS (Fraunholcz,
2004; Stckrad, 1996; Lohr and Stuckrad, 1996). Due to surface
rearrangement, environment has a signicant effect on the properties of polymers (Khongtong and Ferguson, 2002; Chen et al., 2002;
Vaidya and Chaudhury, 2002). The characterization of the surface
properties of the samples, such as contact angle and surface free
energy, are usually conducted on original polymer surface only.
Thus, a systematic study is necessary to get a more reliable judgment of the effects of crushing.
2.3. Particle size of plastics for separation
Different plastics in most plastic products are adequately liberated at much larger sizes than ores. Due to low density, the maximum particle size capable of oating is large for plastics compared
with ores. The size of plastic particles subjected to otation is usually one or two order of magnitude larger than that of ore particles.
The particle size of ores ranges between about 301000 lm while
air bubble are up to 1.5 mm in diameter, but plastic particles are
usually several millimeters in size (Fraunholcz, 1997). As shown
in Fig. 1, different congurations of bubble-particle aggregates in
ores otation and plastics otation will be formed (Shen et al.,
2001). A single bubble is capable of carrying several solid particles
in ores otation. Numerous bubbles will attach to one particle in
plastics otation, and aggregates are observed in which several
plastic particles cluster together through bubbles.
A bubble-particle aggregate will oat when its average specic
gravity is below the density of the otation medium. Factors determining the average density of a bubble-particle aggregate are the
size distribution of bubbles, the fraction of the particle surface covered by bubbles, the density and size of the particle as well as its
specic surface area. The theoretical density of bubble-particle
aggregate can be shown as Eq. (1) Shen et al., 2001.

qa

qp V p
V p nV b

where qa is the density of bubble-particle aggregate; qp and Vp are

the density and volume of plastic particle, respectively; Vb is the
volume of bubble; n is the number of attaching bubbles.
Since the specic surface area of a particle depends on its shape,
it can be concluded that the oatability of plastic particle is related
to particle shape. Fraunholcz (1997) pointed out plastic particle
with different shapes such as cubes, akes and plates showed different qa. From the Eq. (1), it can be seen that plastic particles with
large diameter and density are more difcult to oat than small
ones, as conrmed by Shen et al. (2001) and Marques and
Tenrio (2000). Reducing particle size leads to increase of the
specic surface area of particles, and hence the bubble coverage
that is needed for otation declines with particle size. The selectivity decreased signicantly with the size of particles below 1 mm
(Stckrad, 1996). Vogt (1981) pointed out that plastic particles that
is smaller than approximate 50 lm oat unselectively irrespectively of the type and quantity of the used depressant. The suitable
range of particle size might be 2.06.0 mm at bench scale, and also
it should be noted that the specic suitable range of particle size
depends on the otation device.
Furthermore, surface roughness of plastics is related to the
hydrophilicity and should be taken into consideration due to larger
particle size. Olh et al. (2005) pointed out that the surface
hydrophilicity might increase with a decline in surface roughness.
Dilute alkaline solutions, in which the concentration of alkaline is
very low, can reduce the roughness slightly, which is due to cleaning the surface contaminates, but surface modication such as
alkaline treatment and ozonation were shown to increase the
roughness of plastics (Martin et al., 2011; Drelich et al., 1998).
2.4. Source of plastic wastes
A great number of plastic wastes were generated, and they can
be considered as secondary resource. The differences between
plastic resource and ore deposits are summarized: (a) the composition of the ore deposit is usually more valuable than the composition of plastics that varies from places and changes during the
time; (b) ore deposits are usually more homogeneous than plastic
wastes that are frequently heterogeneous in size and in composition; (c) the characteristic of the concentrates coming from
mineral processing are well specied by market standards, while
economic value of waste plastics are usually more indenite; (d)
plastic wastes frequently present contamination due to associate
materials or llers (Gente et al., 2003). The above factors make
the recycling process, especially separation, more complication.
Though recycling of secondary resources receives increasing attention due to social, economic and environmental pressures, recycling of plastic wastes does not obtain enough attentions chiey
owing to above reasons.
3. Strategies for plastics otation

Fig. 1. Bubble-particle aggregates in (a) ores otation and (b) plastics otation
(Shen et al., 2001).

The principle of otation technology is making, selectively,

hydrophobic surfaces to come in contact with bubbles. Flotation
separation is based upon selective attachment of bubble on the
particles to be separated, which requires a sufcient difference in
the wettability of particle surface. As shown in Fig. 2, there are
basically two approaches with respect to otation separation of
plastic mixtures (Fraunholcz, 2004).
Due to the inherent hydrophobicity that is the characteristic of
a vast majority of plastics, changing selectively the surface characteristics of specic plastic from hydrophobic to hydrophilic should
be achieved before otation separation of plastics, namely the

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Fig. 2. Strategies for otation separation of plastic mixtures (Fraunholcz, 2004).

former method shown in Fig. 2. A major difculty in plastics otation lies in nding efcient methods of selective wetting of plastics,
which can be obtained through lowering liquidvapor surface tension (dened as gamma otation), chemical conditioning and surface treatment (Shent et al., 1999; Fraunholcz, 2004; Alter, 2005).
The mechanism of these methods are presented in Section 4.
The majority of recycling processes start with size reduction followed by sink-oat separation to separate the lighter components,
such as polyolens (PP and PE) and foamed resins (PUR and
expanded PS), from heavier plastics (ABS, PS, PET, PVC and PC
etc.), and obviously, froth otation is suitable for separation of
heavier plastics. As a result of aging of plastics, wet grinding and
sink-oat separation, plastic particles lose a great deal of their
inherent hydrophobicity, which may make the latter method
shown in Fig. 2 more practicable.
4. Methods and principles of plastics otation
Shent et al. (1999) divided plastics otation into three groups:
gamma otation, chemical conditioning and physical conditioning,
but this is not rigorous. Since physical conditioning involves
chemical reactions on the plastic surface, it should be referred as
surface modication in case of physical methods that cause chemical reactions. In addition, the methods facilitate otation separation of plastics through only changing physical properties of
plastics can be dened as physical regulation. Therefore, the principles of plastics otation can be categorized as: gamma otation,
adsorption of reagents, surface modication and physical
regulation.
4.1. Gamma otation
Fig. 3 shows the Young equation expressing the balance of the
surface tensions. Zisman (1964) determined plots of cos h versus
critical surface tension cc, the surface tensions of series of homologous liquids, and the experimental line is extrapolated to cos h = 1.
The abscissa value at the intersection is dened as the critical surface tension cc. If there exists a sufcient difference between the
critical surface tension of two hydrophobic materials, selective
wetting can be achieved by reducing the liquid-surface tension
cL=G . At appropriate values of cL=G , air bubble will adhere onto

particles with the lower cc value whereas particles having the

higher cc value will be wetted sufciently as to suppress bubble
attachment. This method is referred to as gamma otation.
Gamma otation is achieved by the reduction of the liquid surface
tension to a value between the critical surface tension of the two
plastics. The determined cc value of polymers is shown in Table 1.
cLV is the surface tension between liquid and vapor, cSL the surface tension between solid and liquid, cSV the surface tension
between solid and vapor; h is the contact angle of a liquid drop
on a solid surface.
Experimental results reported by Buchan and Yarar (1995) and
Kelebek et al. (1989) showed that decreasing surface tension of
otation liquid results in gradual wetting of all components of
plastic mixtures rather than sudden wetting of one component
upon reaching its critical surface tension. When the plastic component having the largest cc is wetted by the liquid with zero at cL/
G = cc, the other plastics will have lost a great deal of their
hydrophobicity. Moreover, wetting with zero contact angle is usually not necessary for suppressing bubble attachment. Therefore,
the proposed condition cc1 < cL=G < cc2 by Buchan and Yarar
(1995) is not necessary for otation separation of plastics. This
might be due to that in conventional otation liquidvapor surface
tension vary in different parts of the pulp as suggested by
Kirjavainen et al. (2003). The authors pointed that it is important
to have constant liquidvapor surface tension in plastics otation,
especially for gamma otation.
Buchan and Yarar (1995) applied gamma otation to separate
PET and PVC. PET became wetted after reducing the liquid surface
tension to appropriate values while PVC maintained hydrophobic.
Shen et al. (2002a) investigated the oatability of seven plastics
(POM, PVC, PET, PMMA, PC, PS and ABS) in the presence of alkyl
ethoxylated nonionic surfactant (15-S-7) and proposed that the
wetting effect of surfactant 15-S-7 was mainly due to reducing surface tension.
Gamma otation often provides insufcient selectivity in the
case of wetting selectively two or more plastic types, and this
can be explained by the fact that the difference in surface free
energy of different plastic types is rather small. Furthermore, in
gamma otation, an appropriate organic liquid, such as aqueous
solutions of methanol, is commonly used to control the surface
tension of the otation liquid (Buchan and Yarar, 1995; Kelebek
et al., 1987), and this toxic substance associated with high costs
makes alternative methods more attractive.
4.2. Adsorption of reagents
4.2.1. Adsorption mechanism
Flotation reagents (referred as depressants) widely used in ores
otation can be divided into frothers, depressants and collectors
(Araujo et al., 2005; Pearse, 2005; Sis and Chander, 2003; Urbina,
2003). Adsorption of hydrophilic reagents is a promising alternative for selectively reducing hydrophobicity of plastics.
Depressants tested for plastics otation is employed in order to
Table 1
The critical surface tension of the plastics (Alter, 2005).

Fig. 3. Contact angle of a sessile drop (Alter, 2005).

Polymers

cc (N. Fraunholcz)

cc (T. Fort)

PE
PS
PVC
PET
PMMA
PA6
PA11
PA6.6
PA10.10

31
3336
39
4043
39
42
3342
4246
32

28

42
33
42
32

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C.-q. Wang et al. / Waste Management xxx (2015) xxxxxx

selectively wet plastics rather to prevent the action of collectors in

ores otation, and thus they can be referred as wetting agents for
plastics otation. Suitable wetting agents for plastics otation are
composed of molecular parts capable of adsorbing on plastic surface and molecular groups that render plastic particles hydrophilic.
A series of wetting agents suitable for plastics otation were
reported such as tannic acid (Abbasi et al., 2010; Shibata et al.,
1996), methylcellulose (Shen et al., 2002b) and lignosulfonates
(Wang et al., 2014), and numerous studies were conducted to
investigate the action mechanism during the past two decades.
Stuckrad et al. (1997) discussed the interaction between the
molecules of the plastic surface and wetting agent molecules,
and proposed the mechanisms: (a) the predominant number of
the lateral groups of the polymer chains of the plastics consists
of non-polar carbon hydrogen, which is the reason for mainly
physical interactions between the molecules of the plastics surface
and wetting agent molecules, and the interaction forces include the
van der Waals force and hydrogen bonds; (b) the polar lateral
groups with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine or other atoms contained
in some polymers enable dipoledipole van der Waals interaction
and Lewis acid-base interactions with the dipoles of wetting agent
molecules; (c) chemical bonds between plastic surface and wetting
agent molecules are very rare due to low surface energy and
chemically inertness of plastics; (d) electrostatic interaction occur
seldom because of the absence of a minimum amount of free
charge carriers.
Fraunholcz and Dalmijn (1997, 1998) investigated the mechanisms of the adsorption of wetting agents on plastic surface and
suggested the mechanisms: (a) the adsorption of wetting agents
on plastics is mainly driven by physisorption; (b) the interaction
forces include hydrophobic interactions and electrostatic forces;
(c) non-selective adsorption of surfactants occurs on most types
of plastics, but bubble attaches selectively to different plastics during otation; (d) the intrinsic surface polarity of plastics plays an
important role for the effect of wetting agents; (e) metal ions
reduce the repulsion between the charged segments of polyelectrolytes, facilitating adsorption, and modify the segment-surface
electrostatic interactions.
Le Guern et al. (2000, 2001) examined the adsorption of
lignosulfonate on PET and PVC and found that co-adsorption of
lignosulfonate and calcium occurred. The author attributed the
mechanism of adsorption mainly to electrostatic interaction and
suggested calcium ion acted as a bridge between the lignosulfonate
molecules and plastic surface.
Basarov et al. (2005) studied the inuence of otation agents
on the wettability of PS. It was proposed that adsorption mechanism of tannic acid and calcium lignosulfonate was different. It is
concluded that macromolecular wetting agents of the polyelectrolyte type adsorb more quickly on polymers that do not contain
oxygen molecules in their structures, and the nonionic macromolecular wetting agents are more easily bound by polymers containing oxygen molecules.
Wang et al. (2013a, 2013b, 2011) studied interactions between
different phases in plastics otation system, involving van der
Waals force, Lewis acid-base interaction and hydrogen bonds.
Through study on wetting behavior of plastics and adsorption
mechanism of reagents, adsorption models of reagents on plastic
surface were proposed. It was presented that adsorption of wetting
agents on polymer surface was achieved through hydration shell
taken as mesophase, and three-category surfaces of polymer
materials were dened, on which adsorption of frothers occurs in
different manners.
As presented above, interactions between wetting agents and
plastic surface involve mainly van der Waals force, Lewis acid-base
force, electrostatic force and hydrogen bonds, and adsorption of
wetting agents is driven by these interactions, but attempts to

disclose the interaction forces that dominate adsorption on plastic

surfaces are rather hypothetical. Although a great number of projects have been initiated on plastics otation, fundamental studies
reported on this subject are insufcient, and different authors suggested different or even inconsistent mechanisms. Therefore, further research on mechanism of adsorption of wetting agents on
plastic surface is necessary.
4.2.2. Flotation sparation of plastic mixtures
Wang et al. (2012) studied otation separation of ABS and PS
waste plastics by dissolved air otation. Dissolved air otation is
achieved by dissolving air in the water under pressure and then
releasing the air at atmospheric pressure in a otation column.
Based on otation behavior of plastics conditioned by tannic acid,
otation separation of ABS and PS plastics was obtained at bench
scale.
Saisinchai (2013) obtained complete separation of PET and PVC
plastics by multiple stages otation. PET was selectively wetted by
calcium lignosulfonate under optimum condition. The factors of
feed mixtures component ratios, calcium lignosulfonate concentration and conditioning time were examined.
Dodbiba et al. (2002) investigated sink-oat and otation techniques for purication of shredded PET-bottle from PE or PP. A
drum separator combining sink-oat method and otation technique was designed, and the grade of 99.995% PET was achieved
by using the drum separator. It was shown that PET could selectively separate from PET/PE or PET/PP mixtures using dodecylamine acetate or polyvinyl alcohol as wetting agent.
Fraunholcz (1997) investigated the inuence of macromolecular organic depressants on otation behavior of plastics.
Adsorption on low-energy surface solids in water is chiey due
to considerably weak non-electrostatic surface-segment interactions and ionic strength. In the case of non-ionic depressants, quebracho and tannic acid show a strong wetting action under acidic
to weakly basic conditions, the depressant effect of polyvinyl alcohol is independent of pH, and starch presents signicantly weaker
depressant effect. Polyethylene oxides (PEO) did not show any
depressant effect on polar and apolar plastics, and only PA6 was
depressed by PEO460 and PEO4600.
Saitoh et al. (1976) and Izumi and Saitoh (1976a, 1976b) disclosed patents for otation separation of plastics. Flotation separation of plastics utilizing selective wetting characteristics in
order to change the surface of specic plastics from hydrophobic
to hydrophilic. Shibata et al. (1996) separated PVC, PC, POM and
PPE through a three-step process. Le Guern et al. (2001) performed
otation separation of PVC/PET, and selecting suitable reagents
was based on the behaviors of PVC and PET during grinding process
using different type of mills, surface morphology after grinding,
and surface chemistry. Shen et al. (2002b) studies the oatability
of seven plastics (POM, PVC, PET, PC, PMMA, PS and ABS) in the
presence of methylcellulose.
From above research, it can be seen that numerous wetting
agents were employed for otation separation of plastics, and
researches are mainly focus on PVC/PET, ABS/PS, PE/PET and PP/
PE mixtures. The results of otation separation of plastic mixtures
at bench scale are summarized in Table 2.
4.2.3. Flotation reagents
A great number of reagents have been studied for otation separation of plastics. Table 3 shows the reagents studied for plastics
otation with respect to otation behavior of polymer materials
(virgin resins or waste plastics). According to otation behavior
of plastics in the presence of otation reagents, suitable reagents
can be selected for separation plastic mixtures. Additionally, these
results can give some insights into action mechanism of reagents.

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Table 2
Flotation separation of plastic mixtures.
Authors

Reagents

Wang et al. (2014)

Tannic acid

Lignin sulfonate

Methylcellulose

Triton X-100

Saisinchai (2013)
Pongstabodee et al. (2008)
Marques and Tenrio (2000)
Deiringer et al. (1993)
Singh, 1998
Valdez and Wilson (1979)

Kangal (2010)
Abbasi et al. (2010)
Burat et al. (2009)
Shibata et al. (1996)

Izumi and Saithoh (1979)

Calcium lignosulfonate
Calcium lignosulfonate
Calcium lignosulfonate
Calcium lignosulfonate
Montanol 531
Sodium lignin sulfonate
Sorbitan momolaurate
Sodium silicate
Aeromine 3037
Sodium silicate
Aeromine 3037
Methyl isobutyl carbinol (1000 g/t)
Tannic acid
Epoxidized linseed oil (300 mg/L)
Lignin sulfonate
Lignin sulfonate
Lignin sulfonate
Saponin
Tannic acid
Sorbitan
Tannic acid
Sodium lignin sulfonate
Sodium lignin sulfonate

Plastics

Grade (wt%)

Recovery (wt%)

Float

Non-oat

Float

Non-oat

Float

Non-oat

PS
PC
PS
PET
PS
PC
PET
PS
PC
PET
PS
PC
PET
PS
PC
PVC
PVC
PS
PVC
PVC
POM
POM
PS
D-Nylon
PS
ABS
HDPE
PVC
PET
PC
POM
PPE
POM
PPE
PPE
PP
PP
PP

PET
PET
PC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PET
PET
ABS
PET
PET
PVC
PVC
D-Nylon/Z-Nylon
Z-Nylon
ABS/Z-Nylon
Z-Nylon
PET
PET
PVC
PVC
PVC
PVC
PC
PC
POM
PS
ABS
PE

94.81
92.51
94.58
95.85
95.46
94.97
98.36
98.12
97.24
94.07
93.89
93.04
91.41
91.04
89.44
100

99.3
100
96.0
96.0
92.5
91.7
97.0
86.5
100
96.34
99.7
99.5
90.8
94.9
88.0
98.8
96.2
96.1
98.8
98.8

98.54
95.67
97.00
98.58
98.83
96.87
99.24
96.76
98.07
96.81
96.73
91.88
70.17
72.65
69.05

98.9
100
92.0
90.7

99.0

99.4

92.25

79.3
96.5
97.3
99.7
87.2
78.7
100
97.8
97.3

98.60
95.83
97.08
98.63
98.88
96.94
99.25
96.71
98.09
96.72
96.62
91.98
59.88
64.75
58.25
100
98.7
99.0
98.9
100
95.0
80.0
100
99.0
96.0
96.6
99.6
91.89
57.0
74
96.7
87.4
99.5
85.5
73.4

94.60
92.24
94.44
95.73
95.30
94.86
98.35
98.15
97.21
93.90
93.71
93.13
94.38
93.63
93.13

90.6
96.3
99.3
100
97.0
95.0

98.5

89.0

96.51

99.6
90.2
95.0
86.3
99.0
98.0

4.3. Surface modication

Physical techniques can be employed to change the wettability
of plastic surfaces, which is referred as surface modication or surface treatment. Numerous methods are available to increase the
hydrophilic degree of plastics surface, such as ame treatment
(Pascoe and OConnell, 2003a, 2003b), wet oxidation (Wang et al.,
2014), ozonation (Reddy et al., 2008; Okuda et al., 2007; Reddy
et al., 2007, 2010), plasma treatment, corona discharge and photografting (Fraunholcz, 2004). The mechanism of surface modication can be chiey explained by surface oxidation, which
results in grafting hydrophilic functionalities such as hydroxyl, carboxyl and carbonyl onto the polymer chains located on the surface
(Fraunholcz, 2004).
The alkaline solution that facilitates the removal of labels and
glue from plastics surface is often applied to clean plastics. Since
sodium hydroxide breaks up the ester bonds in PET, alkaline treatment can be employed to make PET surface wettable selectively,
and otation separation of PET from other plastics was achieved
combined with alkaline treatment at bench scale (Saisinchai,
2013; Drelich et al., 1998, 1999; Burat et al., 2009; Wang et al.,
2014; Okuda et al., 2007). Similarly, PC is sensitive to ammonia
solution, and thus ammonia treatment can be applied to separate
PC from plastics that are insensitive to ammonia by otation.
Flotation separation of ABS/PC was obtained combined ammonia
treatment, and the purity of ABS and PC was up to 99.72% and
99.23%, respectively (Wang et al., 2014).

Stckrad (1996) proposed a method applying a plasma treatment to achieve selective wetting of plastic particles.
Experiments demonstrated that both plasma-treated PC and ABS
were wetted, and the oatability of ABS restored while PC
remained wettable within a few days. The selective inuence of
time on the oatability of different plasma-treated plastics is
attributed to the difference in the molecular mobility of polymer
chains.
Pascoe and OConnell (2003a, 2003b) applied ame treatment
to aid otation separation of PVC and PET, and the ame treatment
system is shown in Fig. 4. Flame treatment was effective in rendering the surface of both plastics hydrophilic, but it failed to produce
enough difference in hydrophilic. Raising the temperature of the
plastics above their softening point produced a hydrophobic recovery selectively. A combination of a two-stage otation process and
ame treatment was tested for the separation of PET and PVC.
However, the efciency of the process needs to be improved before
being of commercial interest.
Ozonation was applied for selective modication of the PVC
surface, and otation separation of PVC from plastic wastes was
achieved (Reddy et al., 2008; Okuda et al., 2007; Reddy et al.,
2007, 2010). It was demonstrated that the effect of ozonation on
PVC surface was mainly due to the produced hydrophilic groups
by ozonation and reducing surface roughness.
In addition, a few methods were conducted for surface modication of polymer materials, such as corona discharge, photografting, ultraviolet, ion beam or laser treatments (Rnby,

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4.4. Physical regulation

Table 3
Reagents employed for otation separation of plastics.
Reagents

Plastics

Authors

Diacetone alcohol, methyl isobutyl

carbinol, tripolypropylene glycol
methyl ether, iso-octanol, pine oil,
polyethylene glycol dodecyl ether
8 EO, nonylphenol polyglycol
ether 10EO, arabicum gum, Nacarboxymethyl cellulose, Nalignin sulfonate, potato starch,
quebracho, tannic acid
Acetic acid, methanol, quebracho,
sodium carboxymethyl cellulose,
pine oil
Terpineol, polyethylene glycol
dodecyl ether, calcium
lignosulfonate, tannic acid
Calcium lignosulfonate, polyvinyl
alcohol

GRPP, PS, ABS,

PC, PA6,
PMMA, PVC,
POM

Fraunholcz (1997)

ABS, HIPS

Pascoe (2005)

PS

Basarov et al.
(2005)

PET, POM,
PVC

Lignosulphonate

PVC, PET

Sodium ligninsulfonate, sorbitan

monolaurate
Sodium ligninsulfonate, tannic acid,
aerosol OT, sorbitan monolaurate,
polyoxyethylene lauryl ether,
polyvinyl alcohol, saponin
Alkyl ethoxylated nonionic surfactant
(15-S-7), methyl cellulose

POM, PVC

Takoungsakdakun
and Pongstabodee
(2007)
Le Guern et al.
(2000)
Singh (1998)

Dodecylamine acetate, polyvinyl

alcohol
(C2H4O)40C15H24O, aeromine 3037,
sodium lignin sulfonate, fatty
amine salt
Tannic acid, lignin sulfonate,
methylcellulose, triton X-100,
terpineol, methyl isobutyl
carbinol, TPnB, diethyl phthalate

PVC, PC, POM,

PPE

Shibata et al. (1996)

PVC, POM,
PET, PMMA,
PC, PS, ABS
PET, PE, PP

Shen et al. (2002a,

2002b)

PET, ABS, PVC

PET, ABS, PVC,

PC, PS

Dodbiba et al.
(2002)
Izumi and Saithoh
(1979)
Wang et al. (2014,
2011)

Fig. 4. Flame treatment system (Pascoe and OConnell, 2003a).

1992; Waddell et al., 1992; Ozdemir et al., 1999; Allmar et al.,

1988). These methods could cause an increase in the wettability
of polymer surface, and thus they can be employed to aid otation
separation of plastics.
There might be certain difference between oatability of plastics and that of virgin resins due to degradation, contaminants
and treatments, and thus surface modication is more practicable
than other methods with respect to otation separation of plastics.
In addition, surface modication reduces the use of chemical
reagents in the otation step, reducing the requirement for water
treatment of plant efuent.

Compared with surface modication, physical regulation is

based on the intrinsic physical properties, and no chemical reactions occur in the process. A few of methods of physical regulation
were put forward, which provide alternative strategies for otation
separation of plastic mixtures.
Wang et al. (2014) proposed a new method for separation of
ABS and PS, which is a combination of boiling treatment and froth
otation. Boiling treatment was effective in producing a hydrophilic surface on ABS plastic, and the mechanism was explained by
surface rearrangement. The selective inuence of boiling treatment
on the oatability of boiling treated plastics may be attributed to
the difference in the molecular mobility of polymer chains.
Flotation separation of ABS and PS plastics with different particle
sizes was achieved efciently combined with boiling treatment.
Conditioning plastics with plasticizers was proposed for separation of plastic mixtures. Boo and Mikofalvy (1993) presented
that pretreatment of PVC with plasticizers such as dioctyl phthalate could decrease its density, which was achieved by adsorption
of plasticizers. Guney et al. (2013) studied otation separation of
PET/PVC by the method. Plasticizers were used to reactivate the
contaminated surface of plastics, and it was demonstrated that
thermal treatment was ineffective to selectively change the
hydrophobic surface.
Reddy et al. (2010) studied the feasibility of the separation of
chlorinated lms from plastic packaging wastes by twist formation
and gravity separation. The difference of elasticity and tensile
strength between chlorinated plastics and other plastics will cause
selective twist formation for PVC and PVDC lms, which makes
chlorinated lms attach bubbles more easily and stably.
Therefore, twist formation can be employed as a pretreatment to
facilitate plastics otation of plastic packaging wastes.
Shen et al. (2001) suggested that plastic otation is a combination of froth otation and gravity separation. Accordingly, particle
control was applied for separation of mixed plastics, and it was
observed that PVC and PMMA products were selectively separated
by otation. The recovery and the purity of each collected product
were higher than 98%.
Difference in absorbing water can be utilized to increase the
selectivity of wetting plastics. PA can absorb more water comparing with other plastics, and thus oatability of PA can be selectively
reduced by putting PA in water for a few hours. Complete separation of PA from other plastics was achieved through this
method (Fraunholcz, 2004).
Separation of plastics by otation in an aqueous dispersion was
disclosed by Nugent (1991). The aqueous dispersion was a suspension of a substantially insoluble substance such as calcium carbonate with an average mean particle size 175 lm. Grimm and
Sehlmeyer (1986) proposed a method for separating equal-density
PET and PVC by application of a solution composed of a low density
solvent of PVC, water and NaOH. The density can be reduced selectively by adsorption of the low density solvent, and thus separation
of PET and PVC can be achieved by otation or oat-sink method.

5. Flotation equipments of plastics otation

Flotation devices can be rectangular or cylindrical mechanically
agitated cells or tanks, otation columns or machines. According to
air absorption manner, two distinct groups of otation equipments
are classied, namely mechanical and pneumatic machines. The
diagrams of conventional otation machines are shown in Fig. 5.
Mechanical cells use a large mixer and diffuser mechanism at the
bottom of the mixing tank to introduce air and provide mixing
action. Flotation columns use air spargers to introduce air at the

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Fig. 5. Diagram of otation column and cell.

bottom of column while adding feed above. The countercurrent

motion of the feed owing down and the air owing up provides
mixing action. Generally, mechanical cells have a higher throughput rate, but produce products that is of lower quality, while otation columns generally have a low throughput rate but produce
higher quality products. As demonstrated in Section 2.3, the size
of plastic particles subjected to otation is usually larger than that
of ore particles, and thus otation cell is limited for application of
plastics otation.
Due to the immobility of bubbles on the surface of plastics,
aggregates of bubbles and plastic particles are exposed to shear
forces and pressure uctuations under turbulent conditions, which
may result in disintegration of the aggregates (Fraunholcz, 1997).
Apart from a detachment of bubbles, high turbulence hinders the
otation of large plastic particles. Due to turbulence sensitivity,
low-turbulence otation devices with pneumatic aeration, such
as otation columns, are more suitable for plastics otation.
Compared to otation machines, the gas velocity and bubble size
distribution of otation columns are more independent of the
power input of the agitator, if present.
Although high turbulence is unfavorable for otation of plastic
particles, low-turbulence is essentials in the process of otation.
Bubbles occasionally adheres to wetted particles, and low turbulence is desirable to remove bubbles owing to the weak adhesion
force between bubbles and such particles (Fraunholcz, 1997). In
addition, turbulence can avoid the sedimentation of plastic

particles with high density owing to its large settling velocity.

High-turbulence otation cells was used for plastics otation in
certain cases (Sisson, 1993; Hwang, 1995; Kobler, 1995). In most
of these applications, the separation was carried out on akeshaped particles less than about 12 mm in size having a thickness
less than 0.75 mm. The relatively small particles can be oated
despite the high turbulent conditions.
A apparatus is patented for separating mixed plastics using
otation techniques including a rst stage initial washing tank
and at least one separation module (Daniels et al., 2007). The initial
washing tank includes a perforated basket to hold heavy materials,
washing of incoming plastics and providing a rst separation process. Each separation module includes a separation tank, a feeding
section and a collecting section. The separation tank has no moving
parts. Each separation tank and the rst stage initial washing tank
is a standard off-the-shelf circular tank with a at bottom.
Washing and drying steps are eliminated between separation
stages.
A device comprising a otation tank, a pulsation device, a perforated plate as intermediate bottom, a plurality of swiveling aps,
were disclosed for separating plastics materials (Koslow, 2011).
In order to purify shredded PET-bottle from PE or PP akes,
combination of sink-oat separation and otation technique was
developed, and the drum separator that uses the combination of
sink-oat separation and otation was designed (Fig. 6) Dodbiba
et al., 2002.

Fig. 6. Schematic design of the drum separator (Dodbiba et al., 2002).

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6. Current challenges of plastics otation

Although a great number of efforts were made to develop plastics otation for separating and recovering plastics from plastics
waste streams, there exists several problems in the current situation with respect to the technique, including mismatch between
industrial need and academic work, how to rapidly evaluate plastic
oatability and lack of online composition analysis.
6.1. Mismatch between industrial need and academic work
The comparison of the obtained results obtained by different
authors is difcult since several variables such as procedure, equipment and reagents change from study to study. Moreover, there is
some mismatch between the current industrial need for otation
research and the actual academic work in this eld (Fraunholcz,
2004; Carvalho et al., 2012). This is because in the majority of
scientic research studies, untreated virgin plastics are used and
the obtained results are seldom compared with results on actual
samples from waste streams.
The need for industrial separation mainly concerns the treatment of waste plastics, the surface properties of which can be
strongly altered in comparison with virgin resins (Fraunholcz
et al., 2000). First, the surface of waste plastics can have a complex
history of physical and mechanical treatments and has been in
contact with a large number of different materials during its service. An additional complication is that industrial processing for
the recycling of plastic waste involves a series of pretreatments,
such as fragmentation, washing and sink-oat separation prior to
separation by froth otation can be applied. These treatments often
inuence the wettability of the plastics treated. Moreover, the
composition of plastics differs from places, applications and
brands, and the obvious example is the case of PVC. In some cases
PVC was collected from pipes, and in other cases from bottles; virgin PVC and additives used in these two applications may be quite
different, and thus the surface properties will also be strongly
affected (Wang et al., 2014). The above factors increase signicantly the difculty of separation of plastic mixtures. In this regard,
the results reported in the literature should be considered as an
indication of the expected trends and behavior of the plastics
recovered from real waste plastics.
6.2. Evaluation of plastic oatability
The crucial point in plastics otation lies in dening a suitable
method to obtain selective bubble attachment on the plastic particles to be separated. Since bubble attachment is a dynamic process,
nding a suitable physical parameter that can be used to evaluate
the oatability of the particles is an important question. In the
majority of studies on plastics otation, either otation recovery
or contact angle are used to this end (Drelich et al., 1998; Abbasi
et al., 2010; Shen et al., 2002b; Takoungsakdakun and
Pongstabodee, 2007; Pascoe and OConnell, 2003a; Drelich et al.,
1999).
Flotation recovery might be the only true indicator of oatability, because it is determined by the simultaneous inuence of the
hydrophobicity and specic surface area of plastic particles, bubble
size distribution and hydrodynamic conditions (Fraunholcz, 2004).
However, the value of otation recovery obtained in different types
of otation devices may be difcult to compare, and the evaluation
of the separation results of otation tests can be difcult or time
consuming.
Measuring the contact angle of particles is a relatively quick
method, if appropriate samples are available. This method, however, shows several drawbacks. First, the results depend on

whether the advancing or the receding contact angle is measured.

Le Guern et al. (2000) found that the receding contact angle reects
the otation response of mixtures of PVC and PET akes treated in
a surfactant solution better than the advancing contact angle.
Second, there is substantial evidence in the literature that wetting
with zero contact angle is usually not necessary to suppress otation. Widman (Fraunholcz, 2004) demonstrated that PET displaying an advancing contact angle of 50 after a caustic soda
treatment was almost completely depressed in otation, and the
similar results were also reported by Le Guern et al. (2000) and
Wang et al. (2014). Furthermore, there is no available method to
predict otation recovery from contact angle data.
Vogt et al. (1981) proposed to measure the adhesion force of a
bubble attaching onto the surface of a plastic particle in an aqueous
solution of the same composition as the actual otation liquid, but
there is no standard device available on the market to carry out
such measurements, and thus it is impossible to pick up this
method for researchers in this eld.
6.3. Composition analysis
Since the purity of separated products is an important index of
otation separation of plastic mixtures, the major drawback of the
technology is lack of effective methods for analysis of the composition of separation products. As waste plastics are a mixture
of virgin resin, additives and contaminants, no simple, rapid and
accurate methods are developed for composition analysis. As to
most of the reported experiments conducted at bench scale, plastic
samples with different color were selected, which makes analysis
of purity of the separated products through manual sorting easier.
Selective dissolution and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis were proposed for composition analysis (Pascoe, 2006; Reddy
et al., 2007). Selective dissolution method shows certain analysis
error and it is time-consuming; in the case of FT-IR analysis, no
detail was given. Moreover, froth otation is mainly driven in continuously operation, and online/on stream methods for composition analysis of separation products are imperative. Selective
dissolution and Fourier transform infrared analysis are off line
techniques and take at least several hours. The results from experimentation are known with an unacceptable delay, especially in
optimization studies in continuous operation since the acquisition
of results in time is critical to know the responses to variable
manipulation (Carvalho et al., 2010).
7. Conclusions
Flotation is a promising method for separation of waste plastics,
and plastics otation receives increasing attention for recycling of
plastics, which reduces the negative effect of waste plastics on
environment and makes a good use of the secondary resource.
This review surveys recent advances on plastics otation, with
respect to specic features compared to ores otation, strategies,
methods and principles, otation equipments, and current
challenges.
The specic features of plastics otation compared to ores otation was discussed, and it can be concluded that plastics otation is
different from ores otation. In addition, several factors make plastics otation more complicated: plastic wastes are frequently heterogeneous in size and in composition; economic value of waste
plastics are usually more indenite; plastic wastes present contamination due to associate materials or llers.
Four methods were classied in terms of plastics otation,
namely gamma otation, adsorption of reagents, surface modication and physical regulation. Adsorption of reagents receives
more attention, and numerous efforts were conducted for otation

Please cite this article in press as: Wang, C.-q., et al. Flotation separation of waste plastics for recyclingA review. Waste Management (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015.03.027

10

C.-q. Wang et al. / Waste Management xxx (2015) xxxxxx

separation of plastics, but fundamental studies reported on this

subject are insufcient. Surface modication is more feasible to
aid otation separation of specic plastics. A combination of surface modication and adsorption of reagents can be an effective
strategy for otation separation of multi-component waste
plastics.
In addition, there exist several problems in the current situation
with respect to the technique, including mismatch between industrial need and academic work, how to rapidly evaluate plastic
oatability and lack of online analysis. Therefore, more efforts
are necessary for industry application of plastics otation.

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