Analysis of Hydraulic Jig Efficiency in Separation and Concentration of Ceramic Particles from Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW)

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) poses a significant environmental challenge, and the efficient recovery of high-quality recycled aggregates (RA) is vital for sustainable resource use. This study assesses how water jigging functions as a gravimetric separation method for ceramics, bricks, gypsum, and concrete, emulating the composition of inert CDW components. Material parameters, including bulk density, specific gravity, and shape factor, were initially measured to evaluate their effect on separation performance. Laboratory jig tests employed various controlled feed combinations, and the material stratification was analyzed at different levels of the jigging bed. The results exhibited that separation performance is dependent strongly on mixture complexity and density contrast. In binary mixtures, the B3 mixture showed the sharpest separation, reaching ceramic recovery to 92.65% in dense layer and separation efficiency of 90.59%. The materials with similar properties, particularly ceramics and bricks, showed greater overlap in layers and weaker stratification. In ternary systems the ceramics recovered mainly in intermediate layer with recovery range 46.8–49.6% and the maximum separation efficiency was 19.21%. Results indicating that addition of third component reduces the separation sharpness due to differences in particle morphology and overlapping density ranges. This investigation shows that water jigging has potential for ceramic-rich fractions upgrading in CDW, especially if differences between density of components are significant.