Engel has developed a new way to process plastic scrap as flakes on an injection molding machine straight after grinding. This innovation eliminates the pelletization step and significantly boosts the economics of plastics recycling. The key to consistently high product quality is to vent the plastic melt.

Test setup at the pilot plant in St. Valentin, Austria: for the two-stage process, Engel has combined a plasticizing screw with an injection screw.

16:9

Venting in a Two-Stage Process Boosts the Efficiency of Recycling Processes

Spritzgießen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Schmelzefilter

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Spritzgießmaschinen

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kreislaufwirtschaft

High-Quality Recycled Plastics Obtained Directly from Flakes

Organizers of the Plastics Recycling Awards Europe 2022 have extended the entry deadline for all seven award categories until Friday 18 March 2022.

The entry deadline for all seven award categories is Friday 18 March 2022.

Entry Deadline Extended

SER North America is the second US plant built in Anderson, Indiana, by the Italian Sirmax Group. The plant is entirely dedicated to the production of recycled polypropylene from post-industrial waste.

SER North America is entirely dedicated to the production of recycled polypropylene from post-industrial waste.

Polypropylen

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Thermoplaste

Sirmax Expands in North America

Covestro is collaborating with Fairphone, a Dutch social enterprise building a market for ethical smartphones, on the use of circular material solutions for its smartphones.

With partially recycled polycarbonates and thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs), Covestro is helping smartphone manufacturer Fairphone achieve its sustainability goals.

Polyurethan

Polycarbonat

Covestro Supports Circular Material Solutions for Smartphones

The global provider of advanced collection and sorting systems, celebrates its 50th anniversary and announces a “mission” for a world without waste.

Tomra founders Petter and Tore Planke in front of the company’s original logo.

Sortierer

Tomra Celebrates 50 Years

Repeats (Recycled PE at Scale) Group, a pan-European platform for LDPE recycling, made an investment in the Spanish recycling company Anviplas.

Aleix Vintró, CEO Anviplas, and Joan Vintró at the Navacles plant. An Intarema 1716 TVEplus from Erema is in operation there. 

Extrusionsanlagen

Anviplas Becomes Part of the Repeats Group

Proceeding on the target of commercializing chemical recycling of waste plastic, Neste is conducting a feasibility study to examine investing in capacity for processing liquefied waste plastic at its refinery in Porvoo, Finland.

Neste works on next step towards commercializing chemical recycling of waste plastic in Porvoo, Finland

Chemical Recycling of Waste Plastic

Texas-based Encina Announces $1.1 billion investment in new manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania.

Encina announced to invest USD 1.1 billion to build a new manufacturing facility in Point Township, Pennsylvania

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Encina Announces USD 1.1 Billion Investment

The company’s new office will allow the company to more effectively service customers in the country’s western region.

 Michael Lambert (CFO, Vecoplan Group), Frank Boerjan (CEO, Vecoplan LLC), Werner Berens (CEO, Vecoplan Group) and the Mayor of Eastvale (l-r).

Vecoplan Opens New Location in California

Cannon Ergos is working with Boeing on moulding trials for the feasibility of using recycled carbon fiber for the fabrication of aircraft cabin interior sidewall panels.

Luftfahrt

Andere Werkstoffe

Faserverbundwerkstoffe

Cannon Ergos Collaborates with Boeing

Greenplast 2022: Reifenhäuser Blown Film shows recyclable All-PE film with digital product passport.

With EVO Ultra Fusion, fluff (film shreds) as well as all kinds of production waste and PCR material of the lowest quality can be processed into functional films for applications such as trash or mailing bags.

Blasfolienextrusion

Recyclable All-PE Film with Digital Product Passport

Full order books make for optimistic outlook, but there is also cause for concern.

At around 60 percent, the EU-27 countries remain the most important customer market for German waste and recycling technology.

Verbände, Institutionen, Messen

Dienstleistungen

VDMA: „Industry Is Well Positioned for 2022“

Heraeus Holding GmbH announced it has invested substantial equity to take a majority stake in perPETual Technologies, one of the world’s leading PET recycling companies.

Ambitious Target: To recycle 100 million used PET bottles per day by 2026.

Hereaus Joins PET Recycler

The aim of the forum was to furnish new tools and methods for the design, use, recycling and re-use of sustainable packaging. Over 400 participants and 46 speakers, including 20 from abroad attended the event.

Impression of the debut of Packaging Speaks Green in 2020.

Packaging Speaks Green

Balance sheet 2021/22: New growth in revenues with state-of-the-art recycling technologies

Manfred Hackl (CEO): „This past financial year, we again set several milestones.“

Erema: Large-Scale Plants Drive Growth

New Compound Materials for Durable Technical Applications

In the research project “UPcyclePET”, and together with Easicomp GmbH, Fraunhofer LBF developed a new material that had to prove its qualities in practical tests.

In the research project “UPcyclePET”, and together with Easicomp GmbH, Fraunhofer LBF developed a new material that had to prove its qualities in practical tests. The resulting technical component was able to demonstrate the mechanical advantages of long glass fibers, combined with the benefits of PET such as low swellability and high dimensional stability.

Plastic scrap and its improper handling result in global environmental problems. Particularly problematic hereby are packaging plastics that must be disposed of or find their way into the environment after a relatively short life cycle. One solution for this is to convert short-lived plastic scrap into high-grade materials that find new use in durable technical applications.

In the UPcyclePET research project, and together with Easicomp GmbH – experts for long glass fibers thermoplastics – Fraunhofer LBF developed a novel and low-cost material based on used beverage bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Potential applications for the new material are found in lightweight automotive components such as engine supports or cross members.

Sustainable Materials from  Used Beverage Bottles

The main feature of this approach is that PET flakes from used beverage bottles (called rPET in the following) are processed directly in a highly integrated manufacturing process that involves compounding and pultrusion. Hereby, the mechanical benefits of the particularly long glass fibers are combined with the advantageous properties of PET, such as low swellability and high dimensional stability.

By means of tailored plastic additivation, together with an optimized process design for compounding and pultrusion, the properties of the melt and compound were adapted according to the requirements of the target applications. Hereby, the main focus was on the mechanical properties. For the long glass fiber-reinforced PET made of bottle flakes, the aim of the project partners was to obtain similar mechanical properties as exhibited by short glass fiber-reinforced plastics based on virgin material, e. g. those of polyesters or polyamides (PA-SGF, PET-SGF). On the contrary to clearly defined virgin materials, recyclates place special requirements – in terms of quality – on processing and the formulation to be developed. Numerous properties of PET – e. g. moisture sensitivity, degradation behavior during processing or slow crystallization – represent special challenges for material development and process design. In addition, the specific requirements of the pultrusion process and the glass fiber compound (e. g. regarding viscosity limits and wettability of the glass filaments) must be taken into account. This interaction, plus targeted optimization, requires deep understanding and experience of formulation and process design for the composite materials. Therefore, selected formulations with different methods were investigated systematically in the UPcyclePET project. As an example, this procedure will be described on the basis of two formulations with a 50 % content of long glass fibers (rPET-LGF50) in terms of the fiber/matrix adhesion. The behavior of these compounds were compared by scanning electron microscopy after a cold fracture (Fig. 1). By means of a coupling agent and a modified processing, it was possible to reduce the fiber pull-out; the latter is typically observed when poor interactions between fiber and polymer matrix exist. Reduction of fiber pull-out improves the mechanical properties of the composite considerably.

Furthermore, the analysis of crystallization behavior and morphology, provided a comprehensive understanding of the structure/property relationships for the upcycling of such recyclates. Subsequently, the final recipe of the new long glass fiber-reinforced rPET (called UPcyclePET in the following) was compiled. It has a 25  % glass fiber content and is named as rPET-LGF25 in the following.

CO2 Footprint of rPET and PA66

Figure 2 shows the stress-strain properties (dry as molded) of rPET-LGF25 based on PET recyclate as compared to that of PA66-SGF made of virgin material. The material properties of PA66-SGF25 and rPET-LGF25 exhibit a comparable tensile modulus, but differ slightly in tensile strength and elongation at break. Regarding CO2 footprint, the new material rPET-LGF25 based on recyclate has a decisive advantage over PA66-SGF25 based on virgin material polyamides. An indicative life cycle assessment, conducted by the project partner Öko-Institut, on material production revealed that the material UPcyclePET has a CO2 footprint of 5.1 kg CO2 equivalents/kg, whilst the material based on PA66-SGF25 has about twice as high with 11.0 kg CO2 equivalents/kg.

Based on the newly developed formulation, a component was selected which is currently being produced with short glass fiber-reinforced polyamide, and used in automotive construction. In order to evaluate the limit case (long versus short glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastics, produced in the existing mold which is designed and optimized for short glass fiber-reinforced polyamide 66), a relatively small component was chosen intentionally.

The PA66 component has a size of about 57 mm x 48 mm x 23 mm (length x width x height, see Figure 3) and consists of PA66-SGF25. The component was produced by K. S. Kunststoff-Innovation GmbH, who is a specialist for high-quality technical injection molded parts.

It was shown that injection molding of long glass fiber-reinforced rPET-LGF25 (length of LGF granulates: 11 mm) was possible with the same mold, normally used for processing the short glass fiber-reinforced PA66-SGF25, just by varying the injection molding parameters. As expected, the filling process was sub-optimal due to the longer glass fibers compared to the much shorter glass fibers of PA66-SGF25. As a result the component homogeneity and thus the quality of the component were affected.  This indicates clearly through the typical sink mark near the sprue (Fig. 4). The reason for this is that due to its long fibers, rPET-LGF25 melt cannot flow unhindered through the narrow channels in the mold within the needed short time. The result is “freezing” in the sprue region. Accordingly, the dwell pressure cannot be maintained, which leads to the sink marks. Identification of suitable components (e. g. larger, less complex components) plus optimization of fiber and granulate length of rPET-LGF25 represent the next qualification steps for the new material.

By comparison, the component made of PET-LGF25 exhibited far less shrinkage and higher dimensional accuracy than that of PA66-SGF25. A non-contact photo-optical measurement of the PET-LGF25 component showed that local shrinkage was far less than that of PA66-SGF25 component (Fig. 5). This is due to the inherent properties of PET.

In summary, the project UPcyclePET supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) successfully developed a new long glass fiber-reinforced material based on a secondary PET. It exhibits mechanical properties that are comparable to those of virgin plastics reinforced with short glass fibers (PET SGF and PA66-SGF). The material rPET-LGF25 exhibits a significantly lower CO2 footprint as compared to PA66-SGF25.

Moreover, the BMBF UPcyclePET project also showed that it is possible to use rPET-LGF25 to produce a small component with complex geometry (previously made of PA66-SGF25) in the same mold as the established product.

The demonstrator component of rPET-LGF25 features low shrinkage and particularly high dimensional accuracy.

Within the scope of the subsequent project UPcyclePETPlus, material flows other than used PET bottle flakes will be investigated. Also larger demonstrator components will be aimed for, which can be produced in molds with wider channels and sprues.

Fraunhofer-Institut für Betriebsfestigkeit und Systemzuverlässigkeit LBF Bereich Kunststoffe

https://www.lbf.fraunhofer.de

Easicomp GmbH  

https://www.easicomp.de

Ausgabenartikel

Upcycling of used PET beverage bottles into long fiber-reinforced thermoplastics

Fig. 1. Comparative REM images after cold fractures in correlation to achieved mechanical characteristics of different rPET-LGF50. These rPET-LGF50 differ in composition and processing and are compared with PET-SGF45 

Photos and source of graphic: © Fraunhofer; graphic; © Hanser

Fig. 2. Mechanical characteristics of rPET-LGF25 compared with those of PA66-SGF25 

Fig. 3. The selected component made of rPET-LGF25 is a technical part in a window roller blind system that places high demands on geometrical accuracy and mechanical properties

Fig. 4. Challenges: the left photo shows an encircled sink mark, whilst the long fibers at the sprue end are visible in the photo at right

Fig. 5. Non-contact photo-optical measurement of components. At left, the original component made of PA66 – at right, the demonstration component made of UPcyclePET

Name - Fraunhofer

Dr. Frank Schönberger is department head of Polymer Synthesis in the plastics division of Fraunhofer LBF in Darmstadt, Germany; <a href="mailto:frank.schoenberger@lbf.fraunhofer.de">frank.schoenberger@lbf.fraunhofer.de</a>

Shilpa Khare is head of the Technical Center in the plastics division of Fraunhofer LBF in Darmstadt; <a href="mailto:shilpa.khare@lbf.fraunhofer.de">shilpa.khare@lbf.fraunhofer.de</a>

Dr. Tapio Harmia is CEO of Easicomp GmbH; <a href="mailto:tapio.harmia@easicomp.de">tapio.harmia@easicomp.de</a>

Under the grant number 033RK052, this project was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the scope of its “KMU-innovativ” program.

Verbundwerkstoffe / Werkstoffverbunde

issue 09/2022

issue 08/2022

issue 07/2022

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