High voltage fragmentation

Mechanism

The method is based on the interaction of an electrical discharge with a solid between two electrodes
immersed in water.

Figure 1 Schematic of a SELFRAG lab unit1

The process causes a highly selective fragmentation along material interfaces. Figure 1 explains the
principle of HV pulse power fragmentation principle. The reduction of the pulse rise time to < 500ns
changes the electrical behavior of materials. In such a setting the breakdown voltage of water increases
and is larger as for solids. This makes it more likely that the discharge occur towards and into the solid
for processing. Figure 2 explains the physical principle more detailed. The reduced pulse rise time affect
the polarization mechanisms of mainly water. As a dipole water molecules are too slow to rearrange in
the evolving electrical field. Molecules in a solid on the other hand have no space to maneuver, but do
have a small amount of free electrons “floating” about in their structure. These electrons quickly get
accelerated, knocking other electrons out of place, starting an avalanche effect that ultimately causes
the electrical breakdown. This electrical breakdown channel or plasma arc is very similar to lightning,
causing a strong shockwave by the sudden collapse of the plasma arc which will ultimately fragment
solid. As the free electrodes are situated and transported to material boundaries the discharge and
fragmentation energy is placed along material interfaces which results in the highly selective
fragmentation of the products. 2
Figure 2 Physical principal of electrodynamic fragmentation by the reduction of pulse rise time to
increase the breakdown voltage of water 2

Figure 3 Effects of the electrodynamic process to water and solids in an evolving electrical field to a
discharge.2

There is no definitive understanding of the underlying physics. The literature on the topic has a more
empirical approach. Whether the internal stresses are electrostatic in nature originating from the
polarization of the interface or electrodynamic originating from the acceleration of the electrons in the
plasma itself and the subsequent flow of electrons or the chemical transformations induced by
ionization and Joule heating, the process relies largely on shock waves and induced tensile forces,
causing breakage at inhomogeneities when tensile strength is exceeded. 1 Breakage, and thus liberation,
occurs in accordance to the strength of cohesion of the material and the strength of bonds between the
components of a composite. When the adhesion strength exceeds the cohesion, the component of
lower strength will be fractured. This is a basic principle in comminution and will be true for HV
fragmentation as well as conventional mechanical comminution. The shock waves generated by the HV
pulses travel through the particles, similar to shock waves generated by comminution tools, and break
bonds and solid phases based on this principle.

Operation parameters

Number of discharges and voltage

The voltage applied to a sample determines the amount of energy deposited per discharge and each
discharge represents an incremental amount of additional spark energy. For purposes of clarity it is
important to make a distinction between pulses (every electrical burst of energy generated by the Marx
generator) and discharges (only those pulses that induce electrical breakdown in the rock sample). The
discharges–voltage comparison results suggest that total applied energy is the main variable to consider
for product size distribution, but that at lower voltages the rate at which particles get broken out of the
feed fraction may be lower. The applied voltage governs energy per discharge, and it may be that a
‘threshold’ voltage is required to fully overcome particle strength and directly cause breakage. Below
this threshold voltage particles still accrue incremental damage but it may take multiple discharges to
disintegrate particles enough to make them report to a size fraction below that of the feed. It is also
inconclusive whether certain voltage/discharge combinations yield more or less pronounced pre-
weakening and if liberation is affected. Lower voltages could be used to promote liberation over particle
size reduction.
Figure 4 The equivalent effect of varying either voltage or number of discharges on the fragmentation
degree1

A large number of minerals were tested displaying a similar fragmentation behavior (Figure 5 and 6).

Figure 5 Voltage (140 kV), electrode gap (25 mm), feed size (?20 + 14 mm) and pulse rate (3 Hz) kept
constant.1
Figure 6 No. of discharges (300), electrode gap (25 mm), feed size (?20 + 14 mm) and pulse rate (3 Hz)
kept constant.1

Pulse rate

It was observed that a higher pulse rate made development of a discharge from the high voltage pulse
more probable. Plasma effects and dissipation of electrical charge happen on a much shorter time scale
(<ms), so the pulse rate effect is likely related to residual bubbles in the process water after a discharge.
At higher pulse rates these bubbles may not have collapsed fully, or a transient product may still reside
in the processing area. The breakdown strength of gaseous phases in these bubbles is lower than that of
water, and therefore they should provide an alternative path, facilitating transfer of a discharge into the
rock sample that might otherwise not have developed breakdown in the rock sample.
Figure 8 Discharge ratio as a function of pulse rate for quartz monzodiorite. Voltage (100 kV), no. of
discharges (300) and electrode gap (25 mm) kept constant. 1

Electrode gap

The electrode gap can influence breakage through two different routes. Firstly, it governs the volume in
the processing vessel available for particles. This volume accommodates not only the physical size of the
particles, but also their movement. A low electrode gap may restrict particle movement, resulting in a
relatively small number of particles receiving the bulk of the energy whilst other particles are left largely
unaffected. The product size for some rock types is completely unaffected by variations in electrode gap,
whereas other rock types show varying degrees of dependence on electrode gap. Where electrode gap
was found to influence product size, the lower electrode gaps (i.e. higher voltage gradient but less space
for particle movement) yields the coarser product. This implies the effect is mainly caused by volume
restrictions. Secondly, the electrode gap is of direct influence on the voltage gradient between
electrodes. Electrical breakdown is a stochastic process and for this to occur the voltage gradient needs
to exceed the electrical breakdown strength of a material (both denoted in kV mm^-1). The probability
of breakdown occurring increases with voltage gradient till it is close to or at 1. Fig. 7 shows the
discharge ratio as a function of voltage gradient. Below a voltage gradient of 7 kV mm^-1, the discharge
ratio was found to vary strongly between 0.2 and 1. Above this, the discharge ratio was always larger
than 0.95.
Figure 7 No. of discharges (300) and pulse rate (3 Hz) kept constant. 1

Correlation between fragmentation behavior and material properties

Feed size

The feed size effect is so pronounced that the coarsest feed sizes invariably produce a finer product size
distribution than the smallest tested feed size after the same total spark energy applied. This suggests
the particle accrues the damage necessary to produce the finer size distributions prior to actual size
reduction, as otherwise they would not be comminuted to sizes smaller than that for smaller feed sizes.
Stronger field distortions and more complex shock wave interactions and reflections in larger particles
may be possible causes for the strong feed size dependence of high voltage breakage.

Energy transfer may also contribute to the observed feed size effect. It is conceivable that a larger
particle can provide the full bridge for a discharge from discharge to ground electrode. In this case, all
the energy is deposited in this particle, with a relatively limited travel distance through the processing
water and consequently less energy loss in the transfer process. Smaller particles on the other hand will
not be able to bridge the gap between electrodes fully and therefore sparks may be required to jump
from particle to particle several times, involving a longer total travel distance through water. During this
process a larger portion of energy may therefore be lost in the water and consequently less energy
would end up being available for fragmentation.
Figure 9 No. of discharges (300), voltage (140 kV), electrode gap (25 mm) and pulse rate (3 Hz) kept
constant.1

Material properties (mostly mechanical)

With regards to rock mass properties, it appears rock types with any combination of low acoustic
impedance, high porosity and high quartz content are most amenable to high voltage breakage.

Tensile strength, acoustic impedance, Young’s modulus, porosity and quartz content return good
correlations to breakage. Density, point load index, compressive strength, tensile strength, and
characteristic grain size did not show any significant correlation to the product size evolution with
energy input.

The relation between tensile strength and the disappearance of particles from the feed size fraction
provides experimental evidence for the hypothesis that fragmentation occurs in a tensile stress regime.
Micro-cracking of rocks is known to occur during high voltage breakage. This may significantly reduce
the tensile strength of a rock, and could explain why the correlation between tensile strength and
product size is not as significant.
Figure 10 Slope of the exponential decrease of mass in the feed size (>14 mm) fraction as a function of
tensile strength. Error bars indicate 95% confidence interval.

Figure 11 Slope of the product size–energy relationship as a function of acoustic impedance. Error bars
indicate 95% confidence interval.

A low acoustic impedance means a rock is less efficient at transferring shock wave energy, and hence
more energy is absorbed during the wave transmission process, so the increased size reduction
observed in low acoustic impedance rocks is a logical finding.
The importance of porosity may be related to the lower electrical breakdown strength of air, which
invariably is lower than that of water and rocks regardless of pulse rise time and voltage. Air trapped in
pores may therefore be more facilitating to electrical breakdown and the formation of a plasma channel,
resulting in more efficient breakage. Though permeability was not researched, it may also be of
influence on breakage by allowing treatment water to percolate into voids occupied by prior to high
voltage treatment. This could to some extent negate the positive effect of porosity on the ease of
fragmentation during high voltage breakage.

It is possible the influence of quartz content is related to piezo-electric behaviour (i.e. charge
accumulation in response to mechanical stress) of quartz, or its brittle nature but no conclusive
explanation is yet available.

Bond Work Index may serve as a very rough indicator of ease of breakage during high voltage treatment,
which may prove useful given the fact that a Work Index is determined for practically every ore being
comminuted. At the same time though, it should be pointed out that the variation in Bond Work Index
between samples is far larger than that observed in ease of breakage by high voltage discharges. A good
example is the hornfels producing nearly exactly the same product size as the limestone, despite having
a Bond Work Index almost twice as high.

Figure12 Slope of the product size–energy relationship as a function of Bond Work Index (closing screen
size = 355 µm).

Energy consumption

The energy consumption will depend on the application, i.e. the properties of the materials and the
specifications of the process, e.g. liberation of materials vs. particle size reduction. Nevertheless, the
increase with respect to mechanical processing is contained below 1 order of magnitude with most
literature reporting a factor of 2 to 3 times higher. There is consistent information on significant
improvement in the energy efficiency when going to continuous larger scale processes. When evaluated
in the context of downstream processing, i.e. the energy savings for further particle size reduction steps
due to the weakening of the material, the energy balance turns positive. Another aspect that increases
the efficiency of the process is fewer maintenance shutdowns due to limited wear of the equipment in
comparison to mechanical, compression based fragmentation.

At the same specific energy level, the high voltage fragmentation generated a much coarser product
with significantly less fines than were generated in the mechanical breakage. Despite the coarser
product, the percentage of the >95% liberated minerals of interest in the electrical comminution
product was higher than that in the mechanical breakage product, generated with the similar specific
energy.

At low specific energy input level (E3), electrical comminution requires 46% less energy than the
mechanical comminution to produce the similar degree of liberated chalcopyrite. However, at high
specific energy input level (E6), the electrical comminution requires more energy. There may exist an
optimal range of specific energy application in electrical comminution, which will give the minimum
amount of energy requirement to generate a unit mass of liberated minerals of interest for a specific
ore. It was found that in the mechanical comminution product, a large percentage of the >95% liberated
minerals was accumulated in the fine and very fine size fractions (<53 µm). In contrast, a large
percentage of the liberated minerals appeared in the larger than 53 µm sizes in the electrical
comminution product. Therefore there are potential benefits to the recovery of the liberated minerals at
coarse particle sizes prior to further grinding. 3

Applications

Photovoltaic panels

Due to the high aspect ratio, the electrical discharge is directed across the laminate structure rather
than along the interfaces. This is detrimental to the preferential release of material. It induces
perforation of the backsheet and sputtering of metals onto the polymer and glass.
Figure 13 Backsheet surface morphology of the discharge products. (a) dendritic marks along the
surface, (b) ablation round holes across the interior, (c) metal spattered on the surface. (c) is
magnification of blue area in (b)). 4

The concentration of metals in the finer fractions (<1mm) is less than convincing (Figure 14 and 15).

Figure 14 Mass percentage distribution of main metals 4

First, when the discharge electrode forms high voltage instantaneously under the action of an electric
field, the electrons are arranged at the Copper Foil–GFC (glass fiber cloth) interface. Second, the
electrons increase their energy upon increasing the potential. Owing to the influence of the tunnel
effect, the electrons begin to cross the barrier and undergo injection, and many of the free electrons
reach the GFC–Copper Foil interface, initiating the breakdown process. Meanwhile, a large number of
carriers are generated via collision ionization. Third, when the increase in current produced by the
carriers reaches a certain scale, a large number of conducting channels are formed at the Copper Foil–
GFC and GFC– GFC interfaces. These conductive channels contain high temperature and high pressure
plasma, which can intensively decompose the epoxy resin and produce small gaseous molecules,
increasing the pressure rapidly within the conducting channels as a result. Since the plasma inside the
discharge channel experiences high resistance, it generates shock waves as a result. However, different
materials have distinctive acoustic impedances. Thus, the compression waves between the copper foil
and the GFC generates tensile waves via reflection and refraction, which causes expanding cracks along
the Copper Foil–GFC interface, separating or completely dissociating the different components of PCBs.
Moreover, under the effect of the tensile waves, the original cracks existing in PCBs continuously expand
until puncturing the PCBs square of the electric field strength. This represents an electrostrictive effect
caused by the dielectric polarization under the electric field and can occur in all the dielectric material.
This effect may further assist in the dissociation process between copper foil and GFC. Because of the
existence of conductive channels, cracks are produced within the solid, thus breaking and disintegrating
the sample. Since breakdown preferentially occurs in the metal and nonmetal interfaces, copper is
mainly released at the Copper Foil–GFC interfaces. Since there is high temperature and high pressure
plasma in the discharge channel, the material may undergo physical–chemical changes during the
crushing process. The SEM images of the crushing products revealed a tumor on the surface of copper
foil, thereby revealing that the copper foil experienced elevated temperature melting during the high
voltage pulse crushing process. The EPMA images of the product revealed a large number of cracks on
the surface of GFC, and the width of the cracks formed by the discharge channel was close to 1–2 µm.
The cracks were white, suggesting that the resin was pyrolyzed at high temperatures forming resin
pyrolysis gases such as H2,CH4, and CO, which contributed to disintegrate the materials.

The inside field strength of an object is reduced upon the effect of polarization, and this stronger
polarization allows the object inner field strength to be additionally reduced. The polarization is closely
related to the dielectric constant of an object and this correlation is positive (i.e., greater dielectric
constants result in stronger polarizations). The typical dielectric constant of deionized water is 81 F/m
and that of the sample is 4.4–5.2 F/m. Thus, deionized water has higher polarization than the sample,
and this can explain the higher breakdown voltage of water and the preferential discharge on the solid
surface.
Figure 16 The process of HVEP crushing. 5

Figure 17 The product disintegrated by HVEP. 5

Ultra-high performance fiber-reinforced concrete

The high selectivity of the process arises from the way the electricity and shockwaves interact with
physico-chemical properties of the material, discontinuities in electrical permittivity and conductivity at
phase boundaries locally enhance the electric field forcing the discharge channels to these boundaries.
The combination of the shock wave with acoustic discontinuities concentrates tensile stress at phase
interfaces. The concentration of energy and stress at phase boundaries causes selective breakage, and
allows full liberation of components from the feed material.

Laboratory tests on various ores show very high liberation rates. If the ore contains metalliferous phases
on or near the particle surface, these can guide the discharge across the particle surface instead of
through the particle, losing part of the pulse energy to the water. If the metalliferous minerals occur
inside the particle, the breakdown channels result in increased internal fracturing, a feature that can be
exploited to preferentially remove metallic components or to weaken a material.

HVF allows the recovery of about 30% of steel fibers after just one treatment step performed at 5.0
kWh/t and this recovery rate reached about 60% when the treatment was done at 13.4 kWh/t. It was
also observed that fragmentation is essentially unaffected by the compressive strength of the material,
making electric-fragmentation a valid and robust process for the recycling of this material.
Figure 19 Steel fibres contained in the size fractions 0/2 mm (a) and 2/5 mm (b) obtained after HVF 6

Figure 20 SEM of the liberated fibers6

Both lab and continuous pilot-scale HVF systems were tested. The results on the continuous system
were more promising. While the fragmentation mechanisms undergone by a sample treated in the lab
and pilot machine are similar, the performance of the PWTS at a given specific energy is significantly
better than the Lab machine, in terms of both the product size and fiber recovery rate. This is most
probably due to a higher electrical energy efficiency related to the continuous pilot machine PWTS since
its generator is designed for energy efficient industrial operations, while the Lab system is designed for
small scale studies and mineral liberation for geosciences research where energy input is largely
irrelevant. This can also be explained by the characteristics of the treated sample, since only one particle
block was used at lab scale, which decreased in size with each discharge, while a continuous feed of
larger particles was used at pilot scale (feed size effect).

Glass reinforced fibers

HVF of GFRP produced cleaner fibres, longer fibre length distribution, higher percentage of fibres at
mean fibre length and lower retained resin content than composites recycled mechanically.

The specific energy for HVF was at least 2.6 times higher than mechanical recycling. For both processes,
the energy should reduce when operating at higher recycling rates, due to better utilisation of the basic
energy which dominates.
Figure 21 Fibre recovered from HVF after (a) 500 pulses, (b) 1000 pulses, (c) 1500 pulses, (d) 2000 pulses
and (e) mechanical recycling (circles show partially processed material) 7

HVF recyclates mostly have smooth and clean surface with traces of loosely attached residual resin.
Higher amount of resin was observed for mechanical recyclate.

Figure 22 (a) Virgin fibres, (b) fibres at 500 pulses, (c) fibres at 2000 pulses and (d) fibres from
mechanical treatment.7

Residual resin content in HVF depends on the number of electrical pulses applied.
Figure 23 Residual resin in recyclates from HVF and mechanical recycling trials. 7
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settings and rock properties on high voltage breakage. Miner. Eng. 46–47, 100–111 (2013).
2. SELFRAG. High Voltage Pulse Fragmentation Technology to recycle fibre-reinforced composites.
2014–2015 (2014).
3. Wang, E., Shi, F. & Manlapig, E. Mineral liberation by high voltage pulses and conventional
comminution with same specific energy levels. Miner. Eng. 27–28, 28–36 (2012).
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application of high voltage fragmentation. Waste Manag. 101, 180–187 (2020).
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printed circuit boards. Waste Manag. 77, 603–610 (2018).
6. Bru, K. et al. Investigation of lab and pilot scale electric-pulse fragmentation systems for the
recycling of ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced concrete. Miner. Eng. 128, 187–194 (2018).
7. Mativenga, P. T., Shuaib, N. A., Howarth, J., Pestalozzi, F. & Woidasky, J. High voltage
fragmentation and mechanical recycling of glass fibre thermoset composite. CIRP Ann. - Manuf.
Technol. 65, 45–48 (2016).