Investigation of catalyzed thermal recycling for glass fiber‐reinforced epoxy using fluidized bed process

Abstract

An investigation of the effect of metal catalysts on thermal recycling of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy was carried out within a fluidized bed system. CuO nanopowder was integrated with epoxy to assess its ability in reducing the epoxy thermal stability and in turn reducing the typical temperatures required thermal recycling for epoxy composites. It was found that the CuO was able to significantly accelerate the thermal degradation of the selected epoxy. The CuO loading of 5 wt% of epoxy provided the largest reduction in thermal stability and activation energy of the second stage of decomposition. It was also demonstrated that the addition of CuO did not negatively affect epoxy mechanical properties or curing and in fact increased the epoxy glass transition temperature. When applied to glass fiber-epoxy (GF-epoxy) recycling within the fluidized bed process, glass fibers were recycled at just 400 C with a yield of up to 59%. POLYM. COMPOS., 40:3510-3519, 2019.

Waste thermosetting polymer and ceramic as reinforcement in thermoplastic matrix for sustainability: Thermomechanical investigations

“…21 The GF epoxy can be recycled by fluidized bed process with a yield of 59%. 22 Similar studies have been reported that with the addition of thermosetting polymer in fibre, particulate or granules formed can be used as reinforcement media for the production of thermoplastic composite materials that can sustain the comparable loading and wear conditions. 23 –26…”

“…Exposing to open environment at 250 C rapidly reduced tensile properties of glass fibre-reinforced polypropylene composites, but no significant difference of tensile properties was observed while exposing to inert atmosphere up to 400 C. 21 The GF epoxy can be recycled by fluidized bed process with a yield of 59%. 22 Similar studies have been reported that with the addition of thermosetting polymer in fibre, particulate or granules formed can be used as reinforcement media for the production of thermoplastic composite materials that can sustain the comparable loading and wear conditions. [23][24][25][26] The published literature highlights that the recycling of ABS or other thermoplastics by primary/secondary/tertiary/quaternary methods is being done in isolation.…”

A review on the recycling of waste carbon fibre/glass fibre-reinforced composites: fibre recovery, properties and life-cycle analysis

“…Plus, no information regarding the strength of the rGF's was mentioned. To improve the yield of rGF, Pender and Yang [56] used CuO as a catalyst, with the results improving the yield from 59 to 70%.…”

A Review on Current Practices of Plastics Waste Management and Future Prospects

“…The economy and technology play a vital role in plastic recycling and management (Renzini et al, 2009;Aho et al, 2007). Plastic recycling is further divided into material recycling and energy recovery (Pendern & Yang, 2019) for which mechanical recycling is mostly preferred.…”