COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF GLASS WASTE GRINDING IN VARIOUS MILLS

Abstract

The present work deals with systematic grinding investigation and determination of grindability of container glass bottles. The systematic grinding tests were carried out in three different kinds of ball mills (a drum mill, a vibrating mill, and a planetary mill) with different energy intensities (low, medium, and high intensity) in dry conditions. In addition, the specific grinding work and specific surface area were determined in every case. The grindability test was performed by the Universal Hardgrove Mill, moreover, the Bond-Work Index was calculated from the Hardgrove Grindability Index. In this research work, the focus was on analysing the grindability of container glass bottles and the goal was energy-efficient milling of glass waste to produce glass foam powder for further utilization (for example glass foam) in a sustainable way. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that the optimal milling apparatus for container glass grinding is the drum mill. The reason why is that it has a low specific grinding work (151.52 kWh/t) in comparison with the other two types of mills (3488.37 kWh/t for the planetary mill and 1106.38 kWh/t for the vibrating mill) resulting in a relatively high specific surface area (11314 cm2/g). In the case of grinding industrial quantities of glass waste, the drum mill has a much higher capacity compared to the vibrating mill and the planetary mill.