scholarly journals Degradable Elastomers: Is There a Future in Tyre Compound Formulation?

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (15) ◽  
pp. 4454
Author(s):  
Marco Naddeo ◽  
Gianluca Viscusi ◽  
Giuliana Gorrasi ◽  
Daniela Pappalardo

Problems related to non-biodegradable waste coming from vulcanized rubber represent one of the pre-eminent challenges for modern society. End-of-life tyres are an important source of this typology of waste and the increasingly high accumulation in the environment has contributed over the years to enhance land and water pollution. Moreover, the release into the environment of non-degradable micro-plastics and other chemicals as an effect of tyre abrasion is not negligible. Many solutions are currently applied to reuse end-of-life tyres as a raw material resource, such as pyrolysis, thermo-mechanical or chemical de-vulcanisation, and finally crumbing trough different technologies. An interesting approach to reduce the environmental impact of vulcanised rubber wastes is represented by the use of degradable thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) in tyre compounds. In this thematic review, after a reviewing fossil fuel-based TPEs, an overview of the promising use of degradable TPEs in compound formulation for the tyre industry is presented. Specifically, after describing the properties of degradable elastomers that are favourable for tyres application in comparison to used ones, the real scenario and future perspectives related to the use of degradable polymers for new tyre compounds will be realized.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Wanda Sikorska ◽  
Marta Musioł ◽  
Barbara Zawidlak-Węgrzyńska ◽  
Joanna Rydz

End-of-life options for plastics include recycling and energy recovery (incineration). Taking into account the polymeric waste, recycling is the intentional action that is aimed at reducing the amount of waste deposited in landfills by industrial use of this waste to obtain raw materials and energy. The incineration of waste leads to recovery of the energy only. Recycling methods divide on mechanical (reuse of waste as a full-valuable raw material for further processing), chemical (feedstock recycling), and organic (composting and anaerobic digestion). The type of recycling is selected in terms of the polymeric material, origin of the waste, possible toxicity of the waste, and its flammability. The (bio)degradable polymers show the suitability for every recycling methods. But recycling method should be used in such a form that it is economically justified in a given case. Organic recycling in a circular economy is considered to be the most appropriate technology for the disposal of compostable waste. It is addressed for plastics capable for industrial composting such as cellulose films, starch blends, and polyesters. The biological treatment of organic waste leads also to a decrease of landfills and thereby reducing methane emissions from them. If we add to their biodegradability the absence of toxicity, we have a biotechnological product of great industrial interest. The paper presents the overview on end-of-life options useful for the (bio)degradable polymers. The principles of the circular economy and its today development were also discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 096369351802700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Önal ◽  
Gökdeniz Neşer

Glass reinforced polyester (GRP), as a thermoset polymer composites, dominates boat building industry with its several advantages such as high strength/weight ratio, cohesiveness, good resistance to environment. However, proper recovering and recycling of GRP boats is became a current environmental requirement that should be met by the related industry. In this study, to propose in a cost effective and environmentally friendly way, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been carried out for six scenarios include two moulding methods (namely Hand Lay-up Method, HLM and Vacuum Infusion Method, VIM) and three End-of-Life (EoL) alternatives(namely Extruding, Incineration and Landfill) for a recreational boat's GRP hulls. A case study from raw materials purchasing phase to disposal/recycling stages has been established taking 11 m length GRP boat hull as the functional unit. Analysis show that in the production phase, the impacts are mainly due to the use of energy (electricity), transport and raw material manufacture. Largest differences between the methods considered (HLM and VIM) can be observed in the factors of marine aquatic ecotoxicity and eutrophication while the closest ones are abiotic depletion, ozon layer depletion and photochemical oxidation. The environmental impact of VIM is much higher than HLM due to its higher energy consumption while vacuum infusion method has lower risk than hand lay-up method in terms of occupational health by using less raw material (resin) in a closed mold. In the comparison of the three EoL techniques, the mechanical way of recycling (granule extruding) shows better environmental impacts except terrestrial ecotoxicity, photochemical oxidation and acidification. Among the EoL alternatives, landfill has the highest environmental impacts except ‘global warming potential’ and ‘human toxicity’ which are the highest in extrusion. The main cause of the impacts of landfill is the transportation needs between the EoL boats and the licenced landfill site. Although it has the higher impact on human toxicity, incineration is the second cleaner alternative of EoL techniques considered in this study. In fact that the similar trend has been observed both in production and EoL phases of the boat. It is obvious that using much more renewable energy mix and greener transportation alternative can reduce the overall impact of the all phases considerably.


Author(s):  
Rodrigo Villanueva ◽  
Emilio Jimenez-Macias ◽  
Julio Blanco-Fernandez

The current Supply Chain (SC) is under change. The traditional way to generate a product contained the following stages: product design, raw material selection, material transportation, manufacturability, distribution and disposition at end of life. Product design for instance, is considered an extremely important stage of a product, being that, it directs the way the product can potentially be managed along the SC. It defines the raw material to be used, the possible supplier to select, the industrial processes involved in its fabrication, the packaging for its transportation and the newest stage where the product reaches its end of life and needs to be disposed. The Product design then becomes Green Product Design (GPD), where energy, time, resources become critical for a company. GPD takes into account the whole product life cycle. This chapter presents the importance of having a GPD process into the SC, the way to incorporate it, and the benefits of implementing it into the SC.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3651
Author(s):  
Xiaofei Chen ◽  
Jianhua Tong ◽  
Yi Su ◽  
Langtao Xiao

Chromium is one of the major pollutants in water and soil. Thus, it is urgent to develop a new method for chromium removal from the environment. Phytoremediation is a promising approach for heavy metal pollution recovery. As a perennial giant grass with a fast growth rate, Pennisetum sinese has been widely used as livestock feed, mushroom culture medium and biomass energy raw material. Interestingly, we have found a high adsorption capacity of P. sinese for chromium. P. sinese was treated with different concentrations of chromium for 15 days. Results showed that P. sinese plantlets grew well under low concentrations (less than 500 μM) of chromium (VI). The plantlet growth was inhibited when treated with high concentrations of chromium (more than 1000 μM). Up to 150.99 and 979.03 mg·kg−1 DW of chromium accumulated in the aerial part and root, respectively, under a treatment of 2000 μM Cr. The bioaccumulation factor (BCF) of P. sinese varied from 10.87 to 17.56, and reached a maximum value at the concentration of 500 μM. The results indicated that P. sinese showed strong tolerance and high accumulation capability under Cr stress. Therefore, the chromium removal potential of P. sinese has a great application prospect in phytoremediation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Enzo Kenta Sato ◽  
Toshihiko Nakata

This study aims to propose a model to forecast the volume of critical materials that can be recovered from lithium-ion batteries (LiB) through the recycling of end of life electric vehicles (EV). To achieve an environmentally sustainable society, the wide-scale adoption of EV seems to be necessary. Here, the dependency of the vehicle on its batteries has an essential role. The efficient recycling of LiB to minimize its raw material supply risk but also the economic impact of its production process is going to be essential. Initially, this study forecasted the vehicle fleet, sales, and end of life vehicles based on system dynamics modeling considering data of scrapping rates of vehicles by year of life. Then, the volumes of the critical materials supplied for LiB production and recovered from recycling were identified, considering variations in the size/type of batteries. Finally, current limitations to achieve closed-loop production in Japan were identified. The results indicate that the amount of scrapped electric vehicle batteries (EVB) will increase by 55 times from 2018 to 2050, and that 34% of lithium (Li), 50% of cobalt (Co), 28% of nickel (Ni), and 52% of manganese (Mn) required for the production of new LiB could be supplied by recovered EVB in 2035.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duygu Karabelli ◽  
Steffen Kiemel ◽  
Soumya Singh ◽  
Jan Koller ◽  
Simone Ehrenberger ◽  
...  

The growing number of Electric Vehicles poses a serious challenge at the end-of-life for battery manufacturers and recyclers. Manufacturers need access to strategic or critical materials for the production of a battery system. Recycling of end-of-life electric vehicle batteries may ensure a constant supply of critical materials, thereby closing the material cycle in the context of a circular economy. However, the resource-use per cell and thus its chemistry is constantly changing, due to supply disruption or sharply rising costs of certain raw materials along with higher performance expectations from electric vehicle-batteries. It is vital to further explore the nickel-rich cathodes, as they promise to overcome the resource and cost problems. With this study, we aim to analyze the expected development of dominant cell chemistries of Lithium-Ion Batteries until 2030, followed by an analysis of the raw materials availability. This is accomplished with the help of research studies and additional experts’ survey which defines the scenarios to estimate the battery chemistry evolution and the effect it has on a circular economy. In our results, we will discuss the annual demand for global e-mobility by 2030 and the impact of Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt based cathode chemistries on a sustainable economy. Estimations beyond 2030 are subject to high uncertainty due to the potential market penetration of innovative technologies that are currently under research (e.g. solid-state Lithium-Ion and/or sodium-based batteries).


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette Rolf Svanholm ◽  
Jens Cosedis Nielsen ◽  
Peter Thomas Mortensen ◽  
Charlotte Fuglesang Christensen ◽  
Regner Birkelund

Background: In modern society, death has become ‘forbidden’ fed by the medical technology to conquer death. The technological paradigm is challenged by a social-liberal political ideology in postmodern Western societies. The question raised in this study was as follows: Which arguments, attitudes, values and paradoxes between modern and postmodern tendencies concerning treatment and care of older persons with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator appear in the literature? Aims: The aim of this study was to describe and interpret how the field of tension concerning older persons with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator – especially end-of-life issues – has been expressed in the literature throughout the last decade. Methods: Paul Ricoeur’s reflexive interpretive approach was used to extract the meaningful content of the literature involving qualitative, quantitative and normative literature. Analysis and interpretation involved naive reading, structural analysis and critical interpretation. Ethical considerations: The investigation complied with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. Findings and discussions: The unifying theme was ‘Normativity under change’. The sub-themes were ‘Death has become legitimate’, ‘The technological imperative is challenged’ and ‘Patients and healthcare professionals need to talk about end-of-life issues’. There seems to be a considerable distance between the normative approach of how practice ought to be and findings in empirical studies. Conclusion: Modern as well as postmodern attitudes and perceptions illustrate contradictory tendencies regarding deactivation of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator and replacement of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator in older persons nearing the end of life. The tendencies challenge each other in a struggle to gain position. On the other hand, they can also complement each other because professionalism and health professional expertise cannot stand alone when the patient’s life is at stake but must be unfolded in an alliance with the patient who needs to be understood and accepted in his vulnerability.


CERNE ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregório Mateus Santana ◽  
Roberto Carlos Costa Lelis ◽  
Emerson Freitas Jaguaribe ◽  
Rayssa de Medeiros Morais ◽  
Juarez Benigno Paes ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Considering the water scarcity problems facing many countries, the need for water reuse can make activated carbon (AC) an essential product for modern society. In this context, to contribute with better activated carbons that could be used to serve in water treatment, this article discusses these materials production, using bamboo as raw material, and analyses their application effectiveness. The bamboo was collected, transformed into activated carbon, by simultaneous chemical and physical activations, and named H3PO4/H2OAC. The obtained material was characterized by its yield, apparent density, ash content, thermogravimetric analysis, surface area, methylene blue and iodine indexes, pH and point of zero charge analysis, scanning electron microscopy and Boehm titration method. The AC was used as adsorbent for removing the metribuzin, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and furadan pesticides. The H3PO4/H2OAC had a surface area of 1196.30 m².g-1 and the obtained adsorption capacity was elevated for furadan (868.98 mg.g-1), metribuzin (756.47 mg.g-1) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (274.70 mg.g-1).


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 889-899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usón Aranda ◽  
Germán Ferreira ◽  
Zabalza Bribián ◽  
Zambrana Vásquez

The End of life tyres (ELTs) management generates CO2 eq emissions due to the involved processes. Therefore, this research has been conducted with the aim of quantifying the environmental performance of an ELTs management system, in terms of CO2 eq emissions, which includes the recycling operation through the ELTs treatment plant, the transport system and the secondary raw material derived from ELTs processing; apart from other different ELTs recovery methods. To this end, the environmental performance method based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and complemented with the Clarke and Wright's saving algorithm has been developed in order to evaluate and optimise the location of the ELTs treatment plants. To validate the proposed method, the Autonomous Community of Arag?n in Spain is shown as a case study. Different ELTs management scenarios have been analyzed for the Arag?n?s ELTs treatment plant and the optimisation of transportation of the baseline scenario is carried out by means of the Clarke and Wright algorithm. By applying the proposed methodology it has been identified that the current location of the Aragonese treatment plant has benefits in net CO2 eq emissions for the different radii studied with a maximum of 200 km. On the other hand, The Clarke and Wright method has been applied in order to obtain the transportation optimization of the total travelled distance from the 42 collection/sorting centres to the treatment plant. As a result, the travelled distance can be reduced about 15%.


1941 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 717-723
Author(s):  
W. G. Essex

Abstract The history of rubber reclaiming has been given by Alexander, and it is therefore intended only to make a brief reference to the well-known acid and alkali processes, the latter having proved to be by far the most successful method of reclaiming vulcanized rubber. The alkali process, introduced by Marks in 1899 had the outstanding advantage of simultaneously removing, from the waste, free sulfur, of which from 3 to 5 per cent was present, of destroying the fabric and of plasticizing the waste, this being accomplished by heating in a closed vessel under steam pressure with caustic soda. The acid process destroyed only the fabric, and plasticization by heat was performed in another operation in a separate vessel: by this method little or no free sulfur was removed from the waste. This latter disadvantage has since disappeared, for, with modern rubber compounding, there is little free sulfur left in vulcanized rubber. In recent years there have been widespread changes in the manufacture of rubber goods, particularly in the case of pneumatic motor tires, which are now the main source of raw material for reclaimed rubber. Organic accelerators, anti-oxidants and carbon black have made vulcanized rubber a very tough, resilient article, extremely resistant to aging and to heat, one of the chief agents used in rubber reclaiming. For example, modern motor tire treads, which are heavily reinforced with carbon black, are not so amenable to alkali and heat treatment, and tire treads reclaimed by this process have finally to be plasticized and made homogeneous by a much longer mechanical milling and refining treatment than was formerly necessary; in spite of this the treads still produce a proportion of rough, unrefinable material which has to be separated and rejected from the final reclaim. This increase in milling time, combined with lower finished production due to rejected unrefinable material, has had the effect of greatly increasing the manufacturing cost of the reclaim. Research was therefore started with the object of evolving a process which would successfully offset these difficulties caused by the changes in the properties and characteristics of the initial waste. The result of this work has been the creation of reclaimed rubber from which the disadvantages mentioned have been largely eliminated.


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