Dynamic development of the automotive industry and the growing number of various vehicles generate demand for the global production of tires. Simultaneously, high performance of tires cause serious ...problems with further management and recycling of end-of-life tires. Therefore, searching for novel, environmentally-friendly and cost-effective rubber recycling methods is currently one of the biggest environmental challenges in the 21st century.
This work aims to report the recent progress in sustainable development of waste tires recycling technologies. A special attention was focused on current advances in waste tire rubber grinding technologies; ground tire rubber treatment methods and characteristics of ground tire rubber and reclaimed rubber.
Moreover, the main challenges affecting the future trends of the industrial application of waste tire rubber recycling technologies are also discussed.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission affects the quality of GTR-based materials and might limits their potential applications.
In this work, a brief review VOCs generated during waste rubber ...management and recycling are highlighted and discussed. A special attention was focused on: i) ground tire rubber (GTR) characteristics; ii) environmental aspects related to GTR applications and iii) GTR degradation and volatile compounds emission.
Analytical information about VOCs emission profile allows more depth understanding of rubber degradation mechanisms, generated low-molecular-weight products and their impact on the environment and human health.
This work confirms that suitable and standardized protocols for qualitative and quantitative VOCs analysis and proper monitoring of selected “markers” (e.g. benzothiazole, limonene, BTEX compounds) can be promising tool for rubber recycling products quality assessment.
In the many countries the main strategy for waste tires utilization is still energy recovery, which use waste tires as low-cost and high-calorific alternative fuel. Although, energy recovery is step ...forward for suitable waste tires collection and management, it should not be considered as a green and environmentally-friendly method.
Waste tires recycling and upcycling technologies are crucial for further realization of circular economy strategies. Therefore, improvement of already existed and searching for new methods of waste tires industrial applications are fully justified.
In this work, recent advances in development of waste tire rubber-based materials characterized by high content of ground tire rubber (defined as minimum 70 wt%) are presented and discussed. A special attention was focused on the correlation between sustainable treatment or functionalization of waste tire rubber and the structure–property relationships of the prepared materials.
Moreover, the main problems and challenges affecting the possible industrial application of materials highly modified by waste tire rubber are also highlighted.
The increasing use of bio-based fuels and fuel additives, among them biodiesel, causes significant surplus of crude glycerol on the market which creates new challenges in terms of its sustainable ...utilization. A lot of ways for the incorporation of this by-product into different branches of industry requires purification by expensive and complicated processes. Therefore, researchers are seeking for applications of untreated crude glycerol. Among the possibilities, much attention is drawn to the polymer chemistry and technology. This branch of industry is one of the biggest consumers of glycerol after food, pharmaceutical and personal care applications sectors, and probably the biggest one that does not require complicated purification of glycerol resulting from biodiesel technology. Crude glycerol can be applied in the number of processes such as fermentation, oxidation, esterification and transesterification, biomass liquefaction, oligomerization and polymerization, carboxylation, glycerolysis, hydrogenolysis, dehydration or dihydroxylation. This paper summarizes the use of glycerol in polymer technology and the attempts of crude glycerol incorporation into this field reported in literature.
Limited petroleum sources, suitable law regulations, and higher awareness within society has caused sustainable development of manufacturing and recycling of polymer blends and composites to be ...gaining increasing attention. This work aims to report recent advances in the manufacturing of environmentally friendly and low-cost polymer materials based on post-production and post-consumer wastes. Sustainable development of three groups of materials: wood polymer composites, polyurethane foams, and rubber recycling products were comprehensively described. Special attention was focused on examples of industrially applicable technologies developed in Poland over the last five years. Moreover, current trends and limitations in the future "green" development of waste-based polymer materials were also discussed.
Epoxy coatings are developing fast in order to meet the requirements of advanced materials and systems. Progress in nanomaterial science and technology has opened a new era of engineering for ...tailoring the bulk and surface properties of organic coatings, e.g., adhesion to the substrate, anti-corrosion, mechanical, flame-retardant, and self-healing characteristics. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a subclass of coordinative polymers with porous microstructures, have been widely synthesized in recent years and applied in gas and energy storage, separation, sensing, environmental science and technology, and medicine. Nevertheless, less attention has been paid to their performance in coatings. Well-known as micro- and nanoporous materials, with a tailorable structure consisting of metal ions and organic linkers, MOFs have a huge loading capacity, which is essential for the delivery of corrosion inhibitors. This review paper attempts to highlight the importance of epoxy/MOF composites for coating applications. A particular emphasis was explicitly placed on the anti-corrosion, flame-retardant, mechanical, and dielectric properties of epoxy/MOF coatings.
•State of knowledge about potential applications of brewer’s spent grain.•Innovative packaging system based on PCL and agricultural waste.•Physical properties analysis of PCL/agricultural waste ...composites.•Dynamic mechanical and thermal analysis of environmentally friendly composites.•Evaluation of interfacial interactions between the PCL and agricultural waste.
In this paper, brewer’s spent grain (BSG) was applied as potential lignocellulose biofiller in biocomposites based on polycaprolactone (PCL). The PCL/BSG biocomposites filled with varying content of biofillers were prepared via low-temperature melt-compounding. These conditions allow limiting thermal degradation of used biofillers during processing. The influence of biofiller content (ranging from 25 to 200 parts by weight on 100 parts of PCL) on processing, static and dynamic mechanical properties, thermal properties and water absorption was investigated. For better characterization of interfacial interactions between PCL and BSG obtained results were compared with properties of biocomposites filled with other agricultural waste - wheat bran (WB). It was observed that higher amount of amino-acids present in the BSG (21wt.%), in comparison to WB (4wt.%), caused partial plasticization of PCL matrix, which improved processing but simultaneously deteriorated the mechanical properties of PCL/agricultural wastes biocomposites. The melt flow index of PCL/BSG was two-folds higher than for PCL/WB composites. The best mechanical properties were achieved in case of PCL/WB biocomposites, which showed higher values of storage modulus, 5% higher values of hardness and at least 30% higher tensile strength in most cases. Obtained results suggest better compatibility between the PCL matrix and WB in comparison to the BSG, which were explained by differences in the content of proteins in applied biofillers. The conducted investigations showed that BSG and WB could be successfully applied as a low-cost substitute of lignocellulose fillers in polymer wood composites and biocomposites.
Screw extruders as continuous flow reactors allow the synthesis of new polymers, preparation of polymer blends and composites, and modification or functionalization of commercially available ...polymers. Literature data shows that the twin screw extrusion is the most popular solution used for this purpose. In contrast, the number of scientific papers on alternative methods, such as multi-screw extruders, is somewhat limited. This paper is the first review of the application of planetary roller extruders in the compounding and reactive processing of polymer blends and composites. To fill current knowledge gaps, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of planetary roller extruders compared to other screw extruders. Moreover, we summarize recent advances in planetary roller extrusion in producing thermal sensitive and biodegradable polymeric materials, rubber compounds, materials for 3D printing, or plastics and rubber recycling. This work also proposes the possible scenarios for further sustainable development of polymer blends and composites using planetary roller extruders.
Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(lactic acid) (PLA) blends were compatibilized by reactive blending and by copolymers formed during reaction in the solution. The reactive blending of PCL/PLA was ...performed using di-(2-tert-butyl-peroxyisopropyl)benzene (BIB) or dicumyl peroxide (DCP) as radical initiator. PCL-
-PLA copolymers were prepared using 1.0 wt. % of DCP or BIB via reaction in solution, which was investigated through a Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in order to better understand the occurring mechanisms. The effect of different additions such as PCL-
-PLA copolymers, DCP, or BIB on the properties of PCL/PLA blends was studied. The unmodified PCL/PLA blends showed a sea-island morphology typical of incompatible blends, where PLA droplets were dispersed in the PCL matrix. Application of organic peroxides improved miscibility between PCL and PLA phases. A similar effect was observed for PCL/PLA blend compatibilized by PCL-
-PLA copolymer, where BIB was used as initiator. However, in case of application of the peroxides, the PCL/PLA blends were cross-linked, and it has been confirmed by the gel fraction and melt flow index measurements. The thermal and mechanical properties of the blends were also investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and tensile strength.
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