Jigs, Hydrocyclones and Sensor-Based Sorting to Value Recycled Aggregate

Abstract

The proposition of this paper is to introduce a sorting platform aiming to increase quality on recycled aggregates by supplementary use of mineral processing techniques and more sorting. The difficulty of liberation is discussed and the methodology currently used in mineral processing is proposed. Jigs, hydrocyclones and sensor-based sorting are equipments considered as having good performances to sort adequately recycled aggregates. On the other hand, new perspectives of sorting and liberation for recycling aggregates are discussed. Based on current process in recycling platforms, the new process with supplementary sorting of the concrete recycled is presented. The gain in density and the reduction in water absorption were studied. The relation between the water content and the density of aggregates is analysed for three quality levels of recycled aggregates. Finally, the gain in density and the reduction in water absorption were linked with rates of replaced aggregates. In our study, replacing a lower quality aggregate by another with medium quality leads an expected gain in density about 4%. On the other hand, if replaced by superior quality, the expected gain will be 8.4%. As consequence, 34% on reduction in water absorption could be obtained too.