Polymer Recycling Network

1
Polymer Recycling Network

• Seminar
• November 28th 2000

2
Who are we ?

• A multi-disciplinary network between industry and
  academia.
• Now funded by EPSRC and the Faraday Plastics
  Partnership
• Co-ordinated by University
• of Warwick

3
Aims

• DISSEMINATION
• Seminars and workshops
• Focal point for recycling issues
• Identifying funding streams/ collaborators
  Bringing interested parties together
• Exchange of ideas and technical information
• Best practise guides brochures/publications

4
Today

• 1.00pm welcome
• 1.10pm V.Goodship University of warwick
• 1.20pm Andrew Reeves Land Rover
• 1.40pm Dr Don Fleming Fleming Polymer
  Consultancy
• 2.00pm Dr Helen Rowan RAPRA
• 2.20pm Coffee
• 2.40pm Dr Richard Hooper University of Brighton
• 3.00pm Open Discussion Tour

5
Compatibilisation of End-of -Life Polypropylene

• Vannessa Goodship
• University of Warwick

6
Recyclate Properties

• Assumed to be 100 PP
• Moulding Quality
• Unmelted polymer
• Poor part quality
• Inconsistent Mouldings
• Flow Instabilities

• Contamination Sources
• Wrong parts removed
• Granulator contamination

7
Strategy

• Identify contaminants
• DSC analysis results
• polyamides, polyethylene, polypropylene
• Identify suitable compatibilisers
• PP grafted maleic anhydride (PP-MAH)
• Moulding Trials

8
Mechanism of Compatibilisation
9
How does it work ?

• Compatibiliser is made up of two sections, each
  section will glue to a different material
  forming a bond between them.
• In this case one side anchors into the
  polypropylene and the other side bonds with the
  nylon.
• Contaminants are bonded into the main material
  body producing moulding consistency.

10
Moulding Trials
11
(No Transcript)
12
Melt Flow Index
13
Rheometry
14
(No Transcript)
15
Conclusions

• The processing performance of this recycled
  material recovered for an end-of-life vehicle is
  improved by the addition of compatibiliser.
• The effects of compatibilisation can be seen in
  a decrease in the MFI of the materials, this
  being an indication that extra bonding (an
  increase in molecular weight) is occurring. This
  provides a quick and convenient method of
  measuring the effects of compatibilisation.
• Capillary rheometry confirmed the trend found in
  the MFI results but highlighted the difficulty of
  using this method on contaminated samples in
  which the contaminants are not fully dispersed
  throughout the sample.