TECHNOLOGY | REACTIVE COMPOUNDING
Right: The MMAtwo project aims to use reactive extrusion to recycle some of the 300,000 tonnes of PMMA produced annually in Europe
Hayato Hobo: “The upgraded trial facility has been realised to conduct the wider range and more difficult trials in cooperation with the customers. We also hope to further strengthen our team here, for example with process engineers, in order to provide the advanced solutions against the growing requirements. Our strength is to be able to respond to customers’ challenging requirements flexibly.” The technical centre is equipped with three
laboratory extruders (TEX25αIII, TEX30α and TEX44αIII) for trial-based production of a wide variety of plastics material types. “The most challenging trial series would be, for example, chemically reactive processing and devolatilisation processing,” says Hobo.
Upgrading acrylic One area where JSW’s expertise in reactive extrusion is currently being applied is in the MMAtwo project, funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The overall aim of this four-year project, which commenced last October and involves 13 partners, is to develop a new recycling value chain for polymethylmeth- acrylate (PMMA) based on production of second- generation methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer by depolymerising post-consumer and post-industrial PMMA products. According to the project organisers, JSW
Below:
Addisperse has developed an additive masterbatch to ease vis-break- ing of recycled PP films and non-wovens
Europe provides the core technology of PMMA depolymerisation in its twin-screw extruder (similar technology has already been used in Japan). Within the MMAtwo project, JSW Europe will conduct PMMA depolymerisation trials on col- lected PMMA scrap in its extrusion technical centre with the goal of further improving the technology. MMAtwo project organisers say that around 300,000 tonnes of PMMA are produced in Europe each year, representing a value of close to €1bn.
They say that although MMA can be obtained from the polymer by thermal depolymerisation, it is estimated that currently only 30,000 tonnes of waste is recycled each year. They also point out that most of this current recycling involves a lead-based process, which has the potential only to repolymer- ise the monomer obtained into low-quality PMMA. Furthermore, the focus until now has been on post-industrial PMMA, rather than end-of-life material “which represents the main share of the total PMMA waste stream which is either exported, landfilled or incinerated.” The PMMA recycling process will be validated at
a TRL 7 scale (which means Technology Readiness Level 7 or a pre-commercial system demonstrated in an operational environment), enabling the possibility of a first commercial unit soon after the end of the project.
Polyamide recycling Returning to the IKT, Pagel says reactive extrusion also has potential for use in polyamide recycling. “Polyamides are very suitable for recycling because of their high mechanical values and chemical resistance against many organic solvents,” she says. Cast polyamides are especially suitable, she notes, due to the availability of large amounts of waste of this form of the polymer. Furthermore, cast polyam- ides have a higher molecular weight than typical polyamides synthesised through polycondensation. “However, the high molecular weight degrades
if the cast polyamides wastes are extruded without additives. This can be traced to the fact that the waste still includes residual catalyst from the synthesis. The degraded molecular weight results in a melt viscosity that is suitable for injection moulding but not for processing methods like blow or thermoforming,” Pagel says. “Again, reactive extrusion can solve this prob-
34 COMPOUNDING WORLD | August 2019
www.compoundingworld.com
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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