Reinforced Recycled Polymer Composites

Reinforced Recycled Polymer Composites

This project seeks to increase recycling of bottles and carpeting materials by combining both materials into desirable composite materials (such as repairable plastic pallets and acoustic panels) of a combined value significantly greater than each separately. Increasing the value of the recycled materials will motivate collection, recovery and recycle rates.

The project also provides the opportunity and motivation for the recyclers to introduce new technologies for recycling, including and especially that for the secondary material streams such as PET and carpet, making recycled plastic more economically attractive.

Project Team:
Oklahoma State University, Niagara Bottling LLC, Shaw Industries

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18-02-RR-13

CombiClean™: Facilitating Contaminant Removal in Recycled Plastics

CombiClean™: Facilitating Contaminant Removal in Recycled Plastics

The objective of the project is to develop a hyperspectral data base to enable more effective sorting and cleaning of secondary plastics feedstocks. The project will produce several tangible outcomes. An open source database, CombiClean™, will be developed, disseminated and archived in a publicly available repository. Hyperspectral characterization (combined FTIR, Raman, and LIBS) for model systems in virgin, contaminated, and cleaned conditions will be collected. Generated data will be used to train machine learning algorithms and demonstrate improved sorting. High throughput methods will be used to develop customized cleaning solutions based on specific contaminants incorporating enzymes. A process model will be populated by the cleaning data. Process economics and life-cycle impacts will be calculated to compare the new optimized processes against the present baseline of simple caustic/surfactants at high temperatures.

Project Team:
Michigan State University, Sealed Air

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19-01-MM-02