Missions

At the CNRS, on Angoulème site (16), the Pprime Institute, is recruiting a researcher in collaboration with the ADEME as part of project, “Innovative solutions for improving recyclability and reincorporation of materials,” in which the Pprime Institute is participating in the French consortium that won this call for projects, led by the company Environnement Recycling.
The researcher will participate in the research activities of the Triboelectrostatic team relating to the separation of brominated and non-brominated polymers from industrial waste in the DEVIPEEE project.

Activités

The DEVIPEEE project, winner of the AAP, aims to recover brominated plastics from WEEE. The goal is to reduce the tonnage of plastics incinerated while increasing the material recovery rate. PPRIME's involvement in the project consists of proposing triboelectrostatic separation solutions for brominated/heavy plastics from successive flotation separation stages. The mixtures to be treated contain at least three polymers that are adjacent in the triboelectric series, which will require at least two successive triboelectrostatic separations. The approach will be primarily experimental. Numerical simulation will only be used on an ad hoc basis to facilitate the interpretation of certain physical phenomena.
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1-Development of a triboelectrostatic separation process for mixtures of two, three, or more brominated and non-brominated plastics. Development of specifications for an industrial prototype.

The post-doc will carry out electrostatic separation tests on the tribocharger(s) developed by the doctoral student and post-doc recruited by DEVIPEEE.
The experiments will aim to:
- identify the technological barriers that need to be overcome in order to achieve the performance indices that justify the industrial application of the process;
- evaluating the effects of the main factors that could influence the efficiency of the triboelectric charging and electrostatic separation processes, in particular the particle size of the materials and the different proportions of the three resins, ABS, PS, and PC.

The results of these tests should guide the development of the specifications for the industrial prototype, also taking into account the constraints associated with its inclusion in a facility integrating all the operations required for the extraction of antimony from brominated plastic waste.

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2-Optimization of a tribo-electrostatic separation process for brominated plastic mixtures,
Design, production, and functional validation of an industrial prototype.
The experimental response surface modeling method will be used to optimize the triboelectrostatic separation process developed in the previous stage for different particle sizes and proportions of the three resins ABS, PS, and PC.
The aim of the tests is to maximize the extraction of each polymer in products with the minimum level of purity required for their subsequent physical and chemical treatments. The design and production of the industrial prototype will be entrusted to a subcontractor. In consultation with the subcontractor's engineers, the post-doc will:
• Formulate the detailed technical specifications for the industrial prototype,
• Contribute to the design and manufacture of the prototype,
• Ensure the functional validation of the prototype under the optimal operating conditions established by experimental modeling of the process recommended by tests carried out on laboratory equipment.
The postdoctoral researcher will then analyze the results of the tests carried out on the prototype in order to propose areas for improvement or new research topics. He or she will devote time to writing the final report.

Compétences

The candidate will have the following skills:
-High voltage engineering
-Instrumentation for measuring electrical quantities (surface potential, charge)
-Design of experiments methodology
-Data acquisition and analysis techniques
-Writing technical and scientific reports

Contexte de travail

The CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) is a multidisciplinary public research body, placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and intended to advance knowledge in the service of the society.
The Pprime Institute is a CNRS UPR (Proper Research Unit) in the fields of Physical Sciences and Engineering Sciences. Its activities cover a broad scientific spectrum, from the physics of materials to the mechanics of fluids, solids, mechanical engineering and energy.
The Electro-Fluido-Dynamics team has internationally recognized skills in the experimental and numerical modeling of physical phenomena associated with the movements of charged or polarized particles in a fluid in the presence of an electric field. This ranges from electrostatic precipitation at the scale of nanometer particles to electrostatic separation of granules at the millimeter scale, including electrostatic manipulation of powders and powdery materials at the micrometer scale. The investigation approach is mainly experimental, but it is supported by a growing activity of numerical and analytical modelling.
The most important part of the activities of this team concerns the research and development of a range of triboelectric chargers (rotating cylinder, fluidized bed, vibration, planetary train) and electrostatic separators (drum, metal belt, with two disc electrodes) for the recycling of granular materials from waste electrical and electronic equipment. These industrial or laboratory facilities are the result of strong industrial partnerships with the companies CITF (two CIFRE PhD theses), Michelin, Rowenta, APR2, Environnement Recycling and GRANUPLAST, recycling specialists, as well as university collaborations (PHC – TASSILI and BRANCUSI, ERASMUS) with higher education establishments in Algeria (Sidi-Bel-Abbes, Oran, Guelma, Constantine) or Romania (Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Timisoara).

Le poste se situe dans un secteur relevant de la protection du potentiel scientifique et technique (PPST), et nécessite donc, conformément à la réglementation, que votre arrivée soit autorisée par l'autorité compétente du MESR.