Development of recovery device for particulates in fluid by magneto-Archimedes separation

This paper proposes a novel recovery device and a suitable recovery method for magneto-Archimedes separation. Separation and recovery of mixed colored glass particles in fluid was demonstrated using this developed device, which has some compartments divided by movable partitions. One compartment used for levitation and separation is located on the central axis of the bore in the superconducting magnet, and the other compartments which store captured particles are located in the off-centered position. Because the captured particles remain around the center due to the restoring force to the center, this device realized a smooth recovery operation without getting stuck. The recovery ratio was also quantitatively examined by counting glass particles with two recovery methods. One recovery method is based on direct separation of randomly mixed colored glass particles just after their levitation. The other is based on differently levitated colored glass particles collected during a second levitation starting from a stack of glass particles formed on the difference in colors after sorting during first levitation. The recovery ratio with the latter was 25% higher than that with the former.