Research of condensers recyclability

Nowadays, electric and electronic equipment (EEE) are an integral part of every household and office and it could be said that EEE entered into every pore of modern society. Rapid technological development in the modern world brings as much advantages as it brings bigger amount of waste and this especially refers to the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Condensers or capacitors are an integral part of every electronic device. There are many types of capacitors. Aluminium electrolytic capacitors are the most common because their inexpensive electrolytic. The electrolytic capacitors are composed of about 50 % of aluminium by mass and because that they could be a good source of aluminium. This paper presents research of possibility of aluminium recycling from electrolytic capacitors using gravity concentration. Separation of aluminium from the cylindrical shape capacitors in size from 7 to 80 mm was carried out using wet shaking table. Four different grain sizes were tested in plant scale (+8 mm, 8/4 mm, 4/2 mm and -2 mm), while only grain size 4/2 mm were tested in a laboratory scale. The separation efficiency was evaluated on the basis of three parameters: mass yield, aluminium recovery and grade of concentrate. The results obtained in plant scale showed that aluminium recovery and grade of aluminium concentrate increases with decreasing grain size. The best results of recovery of 95.19% and grade of 99.98% were obtained in grain size 4/2 mm, while mass yield was constant at level about 23%. Grain size of 4/2 mm was also tested in laboratory scale and the results showed that small capacitors are more suitable for separation than the larger one. The results showed that it is possible to separate aluminium from capacitors into high quality concentrate.