Recycling of Plastics Waste

J. Aguado and D. Serrano, Feedstock Recycling of Plastic Wastes, Royal Society of Chemistiy, Cambridge, 1999 p. 34. 

Table 5 is based on the TNO study Chemical recycling of plastics waste (a.l). It gives a tentative comparison of the costs of the different treatment routes. 

BIS(HYDROXYETHYL) ETHER OF BISPHENOL A. AN APPROACH TO THE CHEMICAL RECYCLING OF PLASTIC WASTES AS MONOMERS... 

THERMAL METHODS OF RAW MATERIALS RECYCLING OF PLASTICS WASTES... 

BP Chemical s work in feedstock recycling of plastics waste is examined, and the feasibility is discussed of the construction of a commercial chemical recycling plant in the UK. The company s Grangemouth plant, which could handle 500 tons/year of plastic waste is noted, but the... 

The recycling of plastics waste is eonsidered with respect to energy recovery through incineration. It is claimed that burning solid municipal waste could produce nearly 10% of Europe s domestic electricity and heat and conserve resources by replacing, for example, over half of current coal imports to Western Europe. The potential for power from waste plastics and examples of energy from waste in action are described. 

This reports on the developments by a German company in the use of gasification in the chemical recycling of plastics waste. Brief details are given. 

Different methods available for material recycling of plastics waste into raw materials for the chemical industry are reviewed and discussed. The technical problems, energy efficiencies and cost efficiencies of the processes are examined. 35 refs. 

Development of multipurpose industrial units for recycling of plastic wastes by on-line pattern recognition of polymers features (SURE-PLAST) (European Project) BRPR-CT-98-0783... 

Pospfsil J, NeSpurek S, Pfaendner R and Zweifel H (1997) Material recycling of plastics waste for demanding applications, Trends Polym Sci 5 294-300. 

This report discusses the options for feedstock recycling of plastics waste, including aspects of the environmental and economic pros and cons relating to feedstock recycling in comparison with incineration or mechanical recycling of municipal solid waste, based on a number of life cycle assessments. Particular reference is made to the experience of the TNO-CML Centre of Chain Analysis.485 refs. 

He is currently supervising a group of 15 students and scientists in the field of pyrolysis of plastic waste in a fluidized bed process and a group in the field of metal-locene/methylaluminoxane chemistry. His past experience includes the development of pilot plants for the feedstock recycling of plastic wastes and scrap tires, and discovering highly active metallocene catalysts for the polymerization of olefins. He has published more than 300 papers and books and holds 20 patents. He has organized several international symposia in the field of pyrolysis and olefin polymerization. 

A. Tukker (TNO-STB), lug H. de Groot (TNO Industrial Research), lr.L. Simons (TNO-STB), Ir. S. Wiegersma (TNO Industrial Research), Chemical Recycling of Plastics Waste (PVC and Other Resins), TNO-Report STB-99-55 Final, 1999, European Commission, DG 111... 

A. Tukker, H. de Gruoot, L. Simons, and S. Wiegersma, Chemical recycling of plastics waste (PVC and other resins). TNO-report STB-99-55 Final, The Netherlands (1999). 

Pyrolytic recycling of plastic wastes has already been achieved on a commercial scale, albeit to a limited extent. Nevertheless, the development and improvement of pyrolysis plastics recycling technologies in recent years has shown great commercial... 

J. Bez and T. Nilrrenbach, Feedstock Recycling of Plastic Waste in the Polymer Cracking Process of the BP-consortiim, Fraunhofer-Institut Final Report for APME, 2001. 

RECYCLING OF PLASTICS WASTES FROM ELECTRONIC PARTS PRODUCTION PROCESSES... 

N. Kiran, E. Ekinci, and C. E. Snape, Recycling of Plastic Wastes via Pyrolysis, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 29(4), 273-283. 

As a consequence of their low density, plastics cause a greater visual impact on disposal than many other materials. Similarly, the light weight of plastics is the origin of important limitations on the recycling of plastic wastes, due to increased collection and transportation costs. Thus, to... 

The severe limitations on the mechanical recycling of plastic wastes highlight the interest and potential of feedstock recycling, also called chemical or tertiary recycling.17,18 It is based on the decomposition of polymers by means of heat, chemical agents and catalysts to yield a variety of products ranging from the starting monomers to mixtures of compounds, mainly hydrocarbons, with possible applications as a source of chemicals or fuels. The products derived from the plastic decomposition exhibit properties and quality similar to those of their counterparts prepared by conventional methods. 

Several petrochemical companies have considered the possible feedstock recycling of plastic wastes in existing refinery facilities, which would avoid the need to invest and build new processing plants.19-21 This alternative is based on the similarity of elementary composition between plastics and petroleum fractions. Moreover, taking into account the differences in production between plastics and the total of petroleum-derived products, plastic wastes could be incorpo-... 

The processes of feedstock recycling of plastic wastes considered in this chapter are based on contact of the polymer with a catalyst which promotes its cleavage. In fact, plastic degradation proceeds in most cases by a combination of catalytic and thermal effects which cannot be isolated. As was described in Chapter 3, the use of catalysts is also usual in chemolysis processes of plastic depolymerization. However, there are two main differences between catalytic cracking and chemolysis there is no chemical agent incorporated to react directly with the polymer in catalytic cracking methods, and the products derived from the polymer decomposition are not usually the starting monomers. 

Plastics and rubber are essential materials in today s industrialized societies. The consumption of plastics has grown by a factor of about 60 in the past 30 years, which has led to a corresponding increase in the generation of plastic wastes. One of the most valuable properties of plastics, their low density, is one of the major limitations in the recycling of plastic wastes. Thus, to recover one tonne of plastics it is necessary to collect about 20 000 plastic bottles. Plastic wastes are mainly found in municipal solid wastes (MSW). As a consequence of their low density, plastics account for just 8 wt% of the MSW, but this value increases to over 20% in volume terms. In spite of the great diversity of plastic materials, plastic wastes are made up of a relatively small number of polymers polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene terephthalate. These resins account for more than 90% of total plastic wastes. 

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