WPCB were first pulverized into particles to strip and
separate copper from the nonmetal materials. Then the
nonmetal particles were fed into a fluidized-bed equipment to
extract glass fibers. The main components of the nonmetal
materials are glass fibers-reinforced thermoset resins. When
nonmetals were processed in a fluidized-bed operating at hightemperature
air flow, the resins contained were broken down
and combusted. Then the glass fibers were recovered by a
cyclone separator. More detailed information about the recycling
process can be seen in previous study (Ref 9).
In order to evaluate the performance of RGF, some
commercial insulation materials, such as expanded vermiculite
(EV), expanded perlite (EP), and commercial glass fibers
(CGF), were purchased from the market for comparison. They
are all traditional insulation materials widely used in building
applications (Ref 19, 20). Physical properties of all these
materials were measured and calculated (Table 1). The porosity
of RGF and CGF was measured using measuring cup method
as was indicated by Wang and Torng (Ref 21). At first the mass
and the bulk volume of certain amount of RGF were measured.
And then the material was saturated with water in a measuring
cup with fixed quantity of water to measure the true volume of