Odour and emissions | additives
Residual odour in recycled materials can be a significant obstacle to widespread adoption. Fortunately, a number of odour neutralising and masking solutions are now available to help compounders fight unpleasant smells
Putting an end to bad smells
As end-users across all industries turn their attention to reducing carbon emissions the pressure is on to use more recycled plastics and naturally-sourced reinforce- ments and fillers. While initial development activity has been focused on developing material solutions that meet mechanical and processing performance specifi- cations, a critically important factor is also the manage- ment of odour and emissions. With the growing use of post-consumer recycled plastics, this is likely to become an even bigger challenge in the future but a range of odour neutralising and masking technologies are already available to compounders. VOC reduction plays a major contribution towards
controlling emissions and odours in plastics, according to Jochen Wilms, Head of Global End-Use Thermoplas- tics at BYK Additives & Instruments. “There is increasing pressure from governments and several countries have reduced threshold values for VOCs in order to protect the environment,” he says. “As a result, the plastics industry is looking for increasingly more efficient and easy-to-apply solutions. In addition, increased use of recycled plastics and bio-based reinforcing fillers such as hemp or wood flour are being used in finished goods in the automotive industry, for example. This has led to an even greater interest in solutions for odour reduction. Compounders are looking
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for easy drop-in solutions to reduce odour and VOCs, which allows them to use their existing equipment.” The company says it has developed BYK-P 4200 - an
additive used at 1-2% of the existing compound – to meet these requirements. BYK says that the only extra equipment required in addition to standard compound- ing lines is a strong vacuum pump at the end of the extruder. BYK-P 4200 is said to function by dissolving VOCs from the raw materials during compounding. During extrusion, the active components of BYK-P 4200 are released from the carrier resin and, in combination with the high temperature and shear stress, create a micro foam. The result is a highly efficient wetting of odour and VOC components, the company claims. During downstream vacuum degassing, this micro foam collapses and the steam containing the components is extracted from the extruder. BYK says that in customer trials, a VOC reduction of up to 80% has been shown to be possible. “At the moment, the standard carrier for BYK-P 4200
is a polypropylene. By using different carriers like polyethylene, polystyrene and others, we want to make this technology available for a broad range of poly- mers,” says Wilms. Masterbatch specialist Ampacet is also developing solutions for post-consumer recycled materials, partly
January 2017 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 29
Main image: Unpleasant
odour can be a major consum- er issue, especially when using
post-consumer recycled polymers
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