Recyclability of Post-Consumer Polystyrene at Pilot Scale: Comparison of Mechanical and Solvent-Based Recycling Approaches
Jean-Mathieu Pin,
Iman Soltani,
Keny Negrier
et al.
Abstract:Solvent-based and mechanical recycling technology approaches were compared with respect to each process’s decontamination efficiency. Herein, post-consumer polystyrene (PS) feedstock was recycled by both technologies, yielding recycled PS resins (rPS). The process feedstock was subjected to four recycling cycles in succession to assess the technology perennity. The physico-chemical and mechanical properties of the rPS were then evaluated to discern the advantages and drawbacks of each recycling approach. The m… Show more
“…The same differences were observed for impact strength values, where the results for toughened samples were significantly better. Similar to the strain at break values, the Charpy test results revealed that for most of the materials the impact resistance was close to the results of brittle types of thermoplastics, such as poly(lactic acid)-PLA, or polystyrene-PS [59][60][61][62], which translates to being 2 kJ/m 2 or lower. A visibly more favorable deformation mechanism characterizes the IM-modified materials since most of the samples reached 15 kJ/m 2 in Charpy tests.…”
Section: Mechanical Performance-static Tensile Tests and Impact Resis...supporting
The polymer foil industry is one of the leading producers of plastic waste. The development of new recycling methods for packaging products is one of the biggest demands in today’s engineering. The subject of this research was the melt processing of multilayered PET-based foil waste with PETG copolymer. The resulting blends were intended for additive manufacturing processing using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) method. In order to improve the properties of the developed materials, the blends compounding procedure was conducted with the addition of a reactive chain extender (CE) and elastomeric copolymer used as an impact modifier (IM). The samples were manufactured using the 3D printing technique and, for comparison, using the traditional injection molding method. The obtained samples were subjected to a detailed characterization procedure, including mechanical performance evaluation, thermal analysis, and rheological measurements. This research confirms that PET-based film waste can be successfully used for the production of filament, and for most samples, the FDM printing process can be conducted without any difficulties. Unfortunately, the unmodified blends are characterized by brittleness, which makes it necessary to use an elastomer additive (IM). The presence of a semicrystalline PET phase improves the thermal resistance of the prepared blends; however, an annealing procedure is required for this purpose.
“…The same differences were observed for impact strength values, where the results for toughened samples were significantly better. Similar to the strain at break values, the Charpy test results revealed that for most of the materials the impact resistance was close to the results of brittle types of thermoplastics, such as poly(lactic acid)-PLA, or polystyrene-PS [59][60][61][62], which translates to being 2 kJ/m 2 or lower. A visibly more favorable deformation mechanism characterizes the IM-modified materials since most of the samples reached 15 kJ/m 2 in Charpy tests.…”
Section: Mechanical Performance-static Tensile Tests and Impact Resis...supporting
The polymer foil industry is one of the leading producers of plastic waste. The development of new recycling methods for packaging products is one of the biggest demands in today’s engineering. The subject of this research was the melt processing of multilayered PET-based foil waste with PETG copolymer. The resulting blends were intended for additive manufacturing processing using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) method. In order to improve the properties of the developed materials, the blends compounding procedure was conducted with the addition of a reactive chain extender (CE) and elastomeric copolymer used as an impact modifier (IM). The samples were manufactured using the 3D printing technique and, for comparison, using the traditional injection molding method. The obtained samples were subjected to a detailed characterization procedure, including mechanical performance evaluation, thermal analysis, and rheological measurements. This research confirms that PET-based film waste can be successfully used for the production of filament, and for most samples, the FDM printing process can be conducted without any difficulties. Unfortunately, the unmodified blends are characterized by brittleness, which makes it necessary to use an elastomer additive (IM). The presence of a semicrystalline PET phase improves the thermal resistance of the prepared blends; however, an annealing procedure is required for this purpose.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.