Production Engineering Research Association

Note. Copies of the English language references cited can be obtained from the Department of Trade and Industry Overseas Technical Information Service (OTIS). OTIS is administered by the Production Engineering Research Association (PERA) at Melton Mowbray LEI3 OLX (telephone 0664-501501). 

From an engineering perspective, recycled materials should be used in such a manner that the expected performance of the product will not be compromised. Waste and byproduct materials, however, differ vastly in their types and properties and, as a result, in the end-use applications for which they may be suited. Experience and knowledge regarding the use of these materials vary from material to material as well as from facility to facility. To recover these materials for potential use, engineers, researchers, generators, and regulators need to be aware of the properties of the materials, how they can be used, and what limitations may be associated with their use. 

The author acknowledges the aid of the New York Production Club, the National Paint, Varnish, and Lacquer Association, the Engineer Research and Development Laboratories, the General Electric Co., and the Albi Manufacturing Co. in the preparation of this paper. 

Government Grant Board. He received the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1948. For many years, he was a member of the select Royal Society Dining Club. Following the end of the 1939-1945 war, he continued his work for the Scientific Advisory Council of the Ministry of Supply, especially with the Chemical Engineering Committee. Fora period, he was a member of the Plants and Soils Committee of the Agricultural Research Council, and was a member of the Blackman Committee which reported on research and related matters for the natural-rubber industry. His work for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (D.S.I.R., later the Science Research Council) was of special importance here, he served on the Studentships Committee and as Chairman of the Chemistry Sub-Committee, and, during 1950-1955, he served as Chairman of the Chemistry Research Board. For several years, he acted as D.S.I.R. visitor to the Jute Industries Research Association, Dundee, and he was for a time a member of the Forest Products Research Board. 

From 1992 to 1997, the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) and Rutgers University, along with several RPL manufacturers, carried out a project to optimize the production process for RPL and develop demonstration projects. In 1998 to 2000, the Plastic Lumber Trade Association and BatteUe, with four RPL manufacturers, several government agencies, and others, completed a three-year cooperative effort to develop the use of RPL in structural applications in decking, marine waterfront, and material handling.As a result of these and other projects, the usefulness of plastic lumber in several types of applications is now accepted. 

The processiag costs associated with separation and corrosion are stiU significant ia the low pressure process for the process to be economical, the efficiency of recovery and recycle of the rhodium must be very high. Consequently, researchers have continued to seek new ways to faciUtate the separation and confine the corrosion. Extensive research was done with rhodium phosphine complexes bonded to soHd supports, but the resulting catalysts were not sufficiently stable, as rhodium was leached iato the product solution (27,28). A mote successful solution to the engineering problem resulted from the apphcation of a two-phase Hquid-Hquid process (29). The catalyst is synthesized with polar -SO Na groups on the phenyl rings of the triphenylphosphine. 

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