Scientists at the Ƶ have developed a technology for cleaning office waste paper from toner, which involves the inclusion of a stage of "dry" paper dispersion, that is, separating it into separate fibers before removing the ink. This makes it possible to achieve a more thorough cleaning of waste paper from traces of printing with a laser printer. The technology not only improves the quality of paper or cardboard obtained from recycled materials, but also reduces the amount of chemicals used to clean waste paper, as well as reduces the amount of water and energy resources, which makes the new method more economical and environmentally friendly.
Modern laser printers use toner with a complex structure, which, due to its composition, is not so easy to remove from the surface of the paper for reuse. Because of this, after cleaning office waste paper, there are many inclusions on the final product, so it is difficult to reuse such paper. It is usually used for the production of low-quality sanitary products or egg packaging. Nevertheless, the presentation of such packages does not suit the company. Therefore, the scientists of Ƶ were faced with the task of developing a technology that would allow them to get rid of bundles of unopened printing ink.
The new technology includes an additional stage of dry dispersion, that is, dissolution using a rotary vortex mill into separate fluffed fibers - the so—called fluff. Thanks to this stage, the toner that was on the surface of the paper is distributed over the entire volume of the resulting material, leaving no visible inclusions.
"Since the contact surface of the interaction of toner and cellulose fibers increases when the dispersed fiber is added to the bulk pool with chemicals, the toner separates better, and visually it is not visible at all on the final product.",
comments Maria Midukova, a young scientist at HSTE Ƶ
At the next stage, the secondary fiber is sent to a laboratory flotation device for additional refinement. Air is supplied to the container from below, and due to the bubbling process, air bubbles trap the toner and carry it to the surface, where it is removed along with chemicals and the resulting foam. After that, only the cleaned waste paper remains in the container. Paper samples are obtained from it.
The development makes it possible to reduce the amount of chemicals used, which are not only economically unprofitable for the enterprise, but also environmentally unsafe. In addition, the dissolved cellulose fiber allows you to save water and electricity at the last stages of waste paper cleaning, since it is removed faster due to the dry-prepared method.