Recycling | additives
Developments in additive technologies continue to offer new solutions for compounders looking to keep cost in check and to enhance sustainability credentials, writes Mark Holmes
Additives boost the recycling cause
It is never easy to make money out of recycled plastics but today’s economic circumstances make it an even tougher task. In normal times, the case for increased use of recycled materials can often be made on the basis of cost alone. But today’s low crude oil and natural gas prices has brought down the price of virgin polymer, often eliminating the fi nancial benefi t to end users of using recycled material. However, the environmental benefi ts remain and, even in the current market conditions, companies involved in development of additive technologies for recycling plastic materials insist interest remains strong and forecast growing long- term demand potential across all application areas. “Customers continue to want to re-use polymers to
decrease environmental impact and at the same time improve costs,” says Lars Öhrn, chief marketing offi cer at Nexam Chemical. “The main driver is cost and the need for solutions that can work in existing production equipment, preferably in a way that makes production more effi cient. There is certainly an awareness of the need to minimise the impact on the environment and get the business into a circular economic model.” New additive solutions from Nexam Chemical are
looking to rebuild deteriorated polymer chains to regain properties and process effi ciency. “This means rebuilding what is broken with existing equipment and process
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conditions. Apart from a homogenising and mixing unit, it could also be said that the compounding extruder can now become a reactor where properties and performance can be created. The main area of interest is how additives can help to replace virgin raw materials with good enough properties in the existing infrastructure. This means compatibilisation of complex mixtures and homogenisa- tion, as well as how to use post-consumer recycled materials in a better way. We are looking at ways of using recycled materials where the matrix is complex and is a mixture of different polymers and contaminants that limit or prevent their use today,” says Öhrn. Nexam Chemical has developed its Nexamite range
of additives to rebuild polymer chains and consequently the properties of compounds in an extruder at process- ing conditions. The company has also developed a Nexamite product that can improve compatibilisation with fi llers to improve physical properties. “One focus of our development is to tailor Nexamite to fi t with the chemical properties of specifi c polymers,” says Öhrn. “For instance, Nexamite A75 can be employed as a
chain-extender for thermoplastic polyurethanes, while A93 and A94 have been designed for chain branching and chain extension of polyamides. These modifi ers improve mechanical properties, for example burst pressure in tubes and hoses, and also to some extent
April 2016 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 41
Main image: Recycled
plastics offer an environ- mental, and sometimes a fi nancial, benefi t. Additive
technologies
can ensure they also meet
performance targets
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