SPE Library

The SPE Library contains thousands of papers, presentations, journal briefs and recorded webinars from the best minds in the Plastics Industry. Spanning almost two decades, this collection of published research and development work in polymer science and plastics technology is a wealth of knowledge and information for anyone involved in plastics.

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Recycling

Various topics related to sustainability in plastics, including bio-related, environmental issues, green, recycling, renewal, re-use and sustainability.

Recycled Material Standard (RMS)

Laura Thompson, February 2020

The Recycled Material Standard (RMS) is in early development stages and is ultimately meant to serve as a voluntary, market-based tool to be implemented by value chain participants and audited independently by credible third-party certification bodies. The purpose of the standard is to address some of the challenges that brands, their suppliers, and the recycling industry are facing in trying to incorporate higher amounts of recycled content into packaging or finished products. The RMS is being developed by GreenBlue for common packaging materials including paper, plastic, glass and metal, but could be employed for the same materials in markets other than packaging (e.g. the use of recycled plastic in composite lumber). The RMS will use two independent tracking system options which will be defined in separate parts of the standard: 1. The chain of custody (CoC) system will specify material management requirements within an organization in order to demonstrate that recycled content materials and products purchased, labelled and sold as RMS certified originate from recovered materials (derived from post-consumer and post-industrial sources). The chain of custody system will allow for claims to be made using either an average percentage method or credit-based claims. 2. The attributes of recycled content (ARCs) will be a certificate-based trading scheme tracked through a registration body to provide an investment mechanism for new processing capacity. Organizations purchasing ARCs will help support the development of new, additional capacity for processing recycled materials. Purchasing ARCs will also allow companies to communicate the environmental benefits associated with these materials in place of virgin raw materials.

Agilyx's Role in Commercial Recovery of Chemical Value in Post-Use Plastics

Barry Cavinaw, February 2020

Global plastic recycling rates are stagnant at roughly 10%. At the same time, plastic production exceeds 300 million tons a year and is projected to continue growing. Polyolefins account for nearly half of the world's plastics. Agilyx was established with the primary goal of dramatically increasing the world's recycling of plastics and polymers. This single focus led to innovations in polymer depolymerization technology that Agilyx deploys on a commercial scale. As Agilyx treats post-use plastics as a hydrocarbon reserve and a valuable resource, new business models emerge that support the circular plastics industry. Its 15+ years of experience working with its technology has resulted in a profound understanding of post-use polymers as well as their supply chains and variability. The company advances circular solutions for polyolefins and polystyrene using its proprietary pyrolysis technology in conjunction with vertical feedstock management. Ongoing research and development programs bolster Agilyx’s leading position in the market through continuous innovation and improvement to overall process performance, financial profiles, and the development of new product slates. Agilyx creates chemical and circular recycling pathways for end-of-use plastics through innovations, know-how, and processes that are environmentally and economically sustainable.

Technology for Ultra-pure Recycled PP

John Layman, February 2020

Consumers increasingly expect and demand sustainable products without performance and price trade-offs, and companies, like P&G, have established long-term sustainability goals that include the use of large percentages recycled resins in their products and packaging. To satisfy consumers’ expectations and achieve companies’ goals, P&G has developed a novel purification technology that converts contaminated recycled resins into virgin-like resins. The proprietary technology is based on the use of a hydrocarbon solvent at elevated temperature and pressure, and a novel combination of standard chemical engineering unit operations, such as liquid – liquid extraction, sedimentation, size exclusion and adsorbent filtrations, and devolatilization. These processes purify the recycled resins via removal of odor, volatile organic chemicals, and other organic and particulate contaminants and additives. Initial focus of the technology is on polypropylene (PP); however, purifications of other polymers are currently under development. The PP purification technology was patented by P&G and licensed to Innventure, which launched PureCycle Technologies (PCT) in September 2015 to commercialize the technology. The 70-ton capacity pilot plant started operation in July 2019, and commercialization is slated to start in 2021/22 with a ~50 kta capacity plant.

Recycling and Sustainability: Plastic Industry Challenges and How to Face Them

Jungdu Kim, February 2020

In the last 50 years, plastic materials have become one of the most important material used in the most diverse range of end-use applications. They have their benefits as well as challenges. In the recent years, plastic has been under scrutiny for its impact on environment. To understand the plastic challenge, it is important to look at a larger picture. Many aspects must be taken into consideration when selecting material: technical properties, economical aspects and environmental impact. Understanding all criteria is key to select the most sustainable material. SONGWON will explain how it can enable the industry to overcome some of the recycling challenges. It will show the importance of sustainability and the concrete actions it is taking to continuously become more sustainable.

The Use of Recycled and Waste Materials in Selected Automotive Applications

K. Tarverdi | P. Allan | P. Marsh | J. Silver, December 2019

This report is an account of a project that went under name ‘Light AND Sound’ or the acronym ‘LANDS’. The objective was to investigate the potential use of recycled and waste materials in automotive components. Five components were selected for the investigation. All of them had the potential to be manufactured from waste and recycled materials. The trial materials which included recycled polypropylene and a particulate industrial solid waste stream, were processed into prototype components that were evaluated and compared with the respective production counterparts. Finally a life cycle assessment was carried out for each prototype component that was also compared with the current part. The overall results indicated a clear potential for the use of the project materials in their respective application.

Sustainability within PVC Stabilization – A Systematic Approach

T. Seibel | S. Cockett | A. Eichholzer | S. MacDonald, October 2019

What is sustainability? the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level; avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance; Sustainability is most often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It has three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. These three pillars are informally referred to as people, planet and profits.

Understanding Failure Rate in Plastic Components

Jeff Jansen, September 2019

When a plastic part fails, a tough question is often asked, “Why are a limited number of parts failing?”. This is particularly true with seemingly random failures at significant, but low, failure rates. Two aspects are generally linked to such low failure rates, multiple factor concurrency and the statistical nature of plastic failures. Failure often only takes place when two or more factors take effect concurrently. Absent one of these factors, failure will not occur. Plastic resins and the associated forming processes produce parts with a statistical distribution of performance properties, such as strength and ductility. Likewise, environmental conditions, including stress and temperature, to which the resin is exposed through its life cycle is also a statistical distribution. Failure occurs when a portion of the distribution of stress on the parts exceeds a portion of the distribution of strength of the parts. This webinar will illustrate how the combination of multiple factor concurrency and the inherent statistical nature of plastic materials can result in seemingly random failures.

Aerogel from Food Waste

Zhang Xiwen, August 2019

What is Aerogel? Lightest but strong solid material with extreme low densities of 3 to 40 mg/cm3. Highly porous materials (> 99% of air) with large surface area. Objectives of the using coffee for aerogel: Repurpose food wastes into something useful while keeping environmental impacts to a minimum; Design a FULLY BIODEGRADABLE aerogel for various applications; Sustainable processing development for designed coffee aerogels; Functionalize the aerogels towards certain applications.

An Extreme World Needs Extreme Materials

Wenda Chen, August 2019

6 research platforms dedecated to sustainable development: New energies; Biosourced materials; Water treatment; Home efficiency and insulation; Lightweight materials; Consumer electronics.

Circular Meterials for Single-Use Flexible Packaging

Yap Chin Chong | Leong Yew Wei, August 2019

Chemical solutions for a circular economy: Mechanical recycling (Re-use: PET/PP/PE); Plastic waste to fuel (Conversion: PP/PE); Plastic waste to fine chemical (PS); Dynamic reversible crosslinker; Self-immolative, polymers; Fully recycle monomer-polymer-monomer; Bioplastics

Five Myths About Material Recycling

Kelvin Okamoto, July 2019

The debate about plastics recycling has entered the public arena, with implications for processors, material scientists, business owners, and policy makers. We have seen plastic bans and the introduction of alternative packaging materials, some of which have larger environmental footprints of the plastics they are replacing. Can paper be recycled indefinitely? Is foam impossible to recycle? In this webinar, Kelvin Okamoto, will identify 5 myths of materials recycling and present real-world examples and case studies to illuminate the complex truths of this increasingly important topic.

SPE Sustainability 2019 1st Quarter Newsletter

SPE Sustainability Division, April 2019

Read the 2019 1st Quarter issue of the SPE Sustainability Division newsletter.

Advancements In Decorative Pvd Chromium Coatings For Polymer Substrates

Michael Brazil, March 2019

Environmentally friendly PVD on plastics for automotive decoration are rapidly gaining acceptance. They replace galvanic processes, eliminating their toxic process and waste stream for plating on plastic (POP). VTI’s SuperChrome has already received approvals from Daimler and PSA. Part design for PVD, polymer selection, and available range of color and appearance will be discussed. OEM specifications based on testing, unique to PVD and distinct from both electroplate and painted surfaces are required.

Biopolyesters For Agriculture: Permeation And Degradation For Controlling Chemical Release

Margaret J Sobkowicz, March 2019

Biobased and biodegradable polymers are well suited to agricultural applications where hey can be left in the field to degrade into innocuous byproducts. These polymers are lso widely used for biomedical controlled release. However, the properties and egradation rates are not necessarily suitable for the environmental conditions and utrient demand of plants. In this work, two different biodegradable polyesters are repared and contrasted in terms of their diffusion and degradation rates.

Characterization Of Recycled Polymer Compound By Thermal Analysis

Yanxi Zhang, March 2019

Thermal analysis techniques, such as DSC, TGA, DMA and TMA are commonly used in polymer characterization. In this paper these techniques with the help of Identify, a database search software, are used to characterize recycled polymer compounds for preselection.

Heat Treated Bamboo Fiber For Sustainable Polymer Blends

Curtis Covelli, March 2019

This study evaluated polymer composites produced from recycled PA6 and PP blend with bamboo fiber. Blends of bamboo fiber were used as received, as well as heat treated. It was observed that heat treatment at 160ºC/180ºC improved the tensile and impact properties of the composite compared to untreated fiber composite. The goal of the study was to produce a thermally stable, lightweight composite suitable for under-hood applications.

Injection Molding Processing Of Bio-Based & Bio-Filled Resins

Chad Ulven, March 2019

Injection molding with bio-based and/or bio-filled resins is becoming more commonplace as the plastics industry responds to the environmental and sustainable desires of the economy. This paper presents some intricacies of part design and processing developments when injection molding with bio-based and bio-filled resins.

Sustainable Polyamide Compounds

Ying Shi, March 2019

Value added cost effective and sustainable polyamide 6 and 66 compounds were prepared by incorporating 10 to 30% recycle content without significantly sacrificing physical properties. This was achieved by reactive extrusion with chain extending additives to couple low molecular weight chains in recycled feed streams. Three types of chain extending additives with different functionalities were evaluated in this study. Based on the performance and cost, one of the chain extending additive was identified as the best option.

3D Printing Of Biodegradable Polymeric Blend By Fused Filament Fabrication (Fff): Processing & Characterization

Mawath Qahtani, March 2019

The target of this research was to fabricate and optimize a new 3D printable biobased material that can be used for biomedical applications that require biodegradability, biocompatibility and good mechanical properties. This research was successful in preparing a biobased filament made of 70% Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and 30% Poly (butylene succinate) (PBS) and 3D printing this filament using Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) technique. The rheological properties were investigated prior to 3D printing and the 3D printed specimens’ mechanical properties were compared to control specimen processed with injection molding method. The V-notched Izod impact testing of the 3D specimens showed about 30% higher impact toughness in comparison to the injection molded specimens.

Aerobic Biodegradation Of Bioplastics Under Different Environmental Conditions

Erick Omar Cisneros-L√≥pez, March 2019

In recent years, the increasing concerns on the widespread use of petro-based polymers and the pollution problems associated with their inadequate disposal and handling are driving the development of new and more sustainable polymers, especially biodegradable plastics obtained from renewable resources. The biodegradability of biopolymers depends on their physical and chemical properties, but also on the environmental conditions of the biodegradation media, on which depends the type and availability of microorganisms involved directly in the biodegradation process. Biopolymers showed biodegradability in compost, soil and marine conditions, however, presents different biodegradation rates when compared between these environments. For example, polylactic acid (PLA) showed an excellent biodegradation in compost. Conversely, in marine environment, PLA presented low mineralization rates, while polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) presented an excellent biodegradation in marine conditions. In this sense, a biopolymer with a biodegradation rate around 10% may not be considered as biodegradable in any condition and their accumulation in ecosystems can result harmful. In this study, biodegradation of bioplastics under different environmental conditions are discussed.