With the new ‘Investing in Better’ sustainability strategy, the company has set itself ten clear targets for long-term improvement.

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Dienstleistungen

Lohnfertigung

Folien

Halbzeuge und Zwischenprodukte

Kunststoff-Halbzeuge

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Klöckner Pentaplast Launches its New Sustainability Strategy

Thanks to the combination of its Intarema TVEplus RegrindPro machine with the ReFresher, Erema has enabled the PCR-HDPE produced with it to be used in proportions of up to 100 percent for the production of packaging for direct contact with food and beverages.

In the Erema Customer Centre, test runs using an industrial class extruder-ReFresher combination can also be carried out from April onwards. Michael Heitzinger, Clemens Kitzberger and Thomas Hofstätter very much hope that more customer visits will be possible soon.

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Extrusionsanlagen

KU-Verarbeitungsmaschinen allgemein

Kunststoffverarbeitungsmaschinen

Strong Demand for Recycling Systems Featuring Erema ReFresher Technology

Styrenics Circular Solutions (SCS), the value chain initiative to increase the circularity of styrenic polymers, announced that it has filed its first application for EU authorisation of mechanically recycled polystyrene (rPS) as food contact material.

Polystyrol

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Thermoplaste

Recycled Polystyrene as Food Contact Material

Ceflex and partners PCEP, Petcore Europe, Styrenics Circular Solutions and MORE Recycling team up to understand the reality of today’s collected household packaging waste.

The study aims to understand the reality of today’s collected household packaging waste, in order to help to define and accelerate the development of infrastructure, systems and end market applications required to enable progress in delivering a circular economy.

16:9

Infrarottechnik

Elektronik

Qualitätssicherung Kunststoff

Qualitätssicherung

Study of Plastic Packaging Waste Helps to Deliver a Circular Economy

Petcore Europe, PlasticsEurope, Plastics Recyclers Europe, and VinylPlus have mutually agreed to join forces to form the organisation PolyREC. PolyREC will monitor, verify, and report their plastics recycling and uptake data in Europe.

PolyREC Created to Monitor Polymers Circularity

From April 13 – 16, 2021 Hanser launches international virtual trade fair D-Expo Circular Economy for professionals with a focus on sustainability, recycling, eco-design, life-cycle, and more.

D-EXPO Circular Economy will take place as a digital event from April 13 to 16, 2021

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Nachhaltigkeit

Regenerieren

Kunststoff-Regenerate

Digital Trade Fair for Plastics Sustainability

Virtual MeetingPack 2021, a prelude to MeetingPack 2022, will present innovations and address the challenges of the food packaging sector on 27 May through a series of presentations and round-table discussions.

Verbände, Institutionen, Messen

Biokunststoffe

Packaging Sustainability and Incorporation of Recycled Material

For a long time, chemical recycling was considered an unfinished addition to established material processes. In the meantime, however, some technologies are making the leap into large-scale industrial use: an overview of the various processes and providers.

Overview of the Various Processes and Suppliers

Polypropylen

Polyurethan

Kunststoff

Bauwesen

Baustoffe

What Is Happening in Chemical Recycling?

The development of a functioning and efficient recycling economy is strongly dependent on the quality of the recycled plastics. New plant and process technology is promoting this development.

For a functioning circular economy, plastics must not only be extracted from post-consumer waste streams, but the recyclates obtained must also be of consistent quality

Sortierer

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Advances in Plastics Recycling Processes Towards the Creation of a Circular Economy

Henkel significantly expands partnership with social enterprise Plastic Bank. The partners opened their first three plastic waste collection centers in Cairo

Henkel and Plastic Bank opened the first three collection centers in Cairo

Polyethylen

Polyethylenterephthalat

Kunststoffhandel

Handel

Henkel and Plastic Bank Open First Collection Centers in Egypt

A new chemical recycling unit at Borealis production site in Stenungsund, Sweden, is expected to commence operations in 2024.

Aerial view of Borealis production location in Stenungsund, Sweden

More Circular Base Chemicals and Plastic Products

When processing post-consumer PET bottle flakes for reuse in bottles, the purity requirement for the material combined with the high degree of contamination of the bottle flakes make high demands on melt filtration.

The fully automatic RSFgenius back flushing filtration system is the optimum retrofit solution for Nosoplas in PET bottle flake recycling

Filtration Systems for Recycling Applications

Schmelzefilter

Plant Retrofit for Bottle to Bottle Recycling

Resilux, a leading PET bottle and preform producer, has announced a major new technology investment which will result in them doubling their bottle-to-bottle PET recycling capacity by using state of the art equipment from Erema.

A Vacunite bottle-to-bottle system will be installed at the Resilux Group Recycling competence centre in Switzerland

Sondermaschinen

Resilux Set to Double Recycling Capacity Using Erema Technology

Biodegradable plastics are special polymers designed to biodegrade after use. But conventional granulation equipment cannot handle biodegradable production rejects adequately. The new Bio-Gran technology by CMG Granulators was designed to accomplish this objective.

The range of capacities of the Bio-Gran line spans form 200 kg/h all the way to 2000 kg/h.

Recycling Made Possible with Bio-Gran

LyondellBasell starts commercial production of polymers using raw material derived from plastic waste at its Wesseling site.

The chemical company starts commercial production of polymers using raw material derived from plastic waste at Wesseling

Polymers Made from Plastic Waste

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

Kreislaufwirtschaft

issue 03/2022

issue 02/2022

issue 01/2022

About the journal

About the Journal

Contact

Jobs

Media Data

My Login

Subscription

Imprint

Terms & Conditions

Terms and Conditions

Privacy Policy

News

Mobility

Packaging

Medical

Electrical/Electronics

Plastics Recycling

Lightweight Construction

Applications

Standard Thermoplastics

Engineering Plastics

High-Performance Plastics

Elastomers

Thermosets

Additives/Masterbatches

Bioplastics

Composites

Materials

Injection Molding

Extrusion

Additive Manufacturing

Further Processing Methods

Compounding

Composite Processing

Peripheral Equipment

Simulation

Processing

Research & Development

Dissertations

Patents

Journal of Plastics Technology

K-Fair

K 2022

HANSER Fachbuch

HANSER Literaturverlage

Hanser Divisions

Kunststoffe

FORM+Werkzeug

HANSER automotive

QZ Qualität und Zuverlässigkeit

WB Werkstatt + Betrieb

More Technical Portals

Publisher

E-Paper

Newsletter

Deutsch

Service Menu

linkedin

Products

Partners & Associations

Organ

Business Directory

Online Archive

Multi-User License

FACHARTIKEL_2022, FACHARTIKEL_2021, FACHARTIKEL_2020, FACHARTIKEL_2019, FACHARTIKEL_2018, INTERVIEWARTIKEL_2021, INTERVIEWARTIKEL_2020, INTERVIEWARTIKEL_2019

You want to read more? To continue reading this content please log in or register for the Hanser Customer Center.