Diseño y construcción de un equipo lavador ácido básico de los gránulos de plástico reciclado PET

Abstract

The Design and Construction of an Equipment for the acid or basic washing of PET recycled plastic granules was developed, which will be implemented in the Laboratory of Unit Operations, School of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Sciences of the Polytechnic School of Chimborazo (ESPOCH). The inductive and deductive method was applied to determine the amount of solid waste generated by ESPOCH, based on experimental data and process variables obtained from the previous study, it was established that 17% of the solid waste corresponds to PET type plastic. The washing equipment was built with AISI 304 stainless steel, an agitation system (1HP motor reducer, transmission shaft, 4 paddles), a 240-liter storage tank, using 110V electric current as a source of energy. The washing process was carried out by preparing a washing solution of 0.1% NaClO, washing in three batches of 6.67 kg of PET flakes with a duration of 20 minutes for each washing batch. It was possible to obtain an efficiency of 91% of the equipment as well as a yield of 96% of the process, thus concluding a product suitable for its next process line, which is drying. It is recommended that the equipment be part of the second stage of the main production line for obtaining pellets.