POLYMER TESTING | ANALYSIS
announcement of the UK tax on packaging products containing less than 30% recycled content. The concept behind the FLEX 6228 standard is
Above: Hitachi High-Tech Analytical Science’s latest workflow efficiency software allows users to scan bar codes to enable automatic data storage
connecting other techniques such as FTIR, MS, and GCMS to provide R&D teams essential information about material composition and stability. For example, Hitachi High-Tech Analytical Science’s STA (TGA/DSC) can be connected to all these techniques from the major brands including the combination of STA, IR and GCMS for optimal evolved gas analysis.” German AI software specialist LabTwin has developed a voice-powered digital lab assistant that enables hands-free data capture through voice notes or connected lab instruments while working at the bench. Its system is intended to provide on-the-go access to safety or operational information and can talk scientists through protocols and record any deviations or out of specification results. Captured data is then automatically structured using LabTwin’s deep learning capabilities and enriched with metadata, the company says. Late last year, DSM said it had signed a multi-year license and collaboration agreement with LabTwin and will apply the technology in several of its Science & Innovation laboratories globally (it did not disclose if this included polymer sites).
Regulatory compliance The growing use of recycled polymers in production, together with new regulatory compliance requirements, brings added challenges for plastics processors and users. More testing is needed to ensure raw materials and finished goods meet specifications, with many manufacturers having to rethink their production processes as a consequence. Working within the UK-based Sustainable
Certification Group (SCG), Impact Solutions has lead a team of scientists and academics to develop a methodology for determining the recycled content of PET structures (now published by BSI as FLEX 6228). The work was initiated following the
46 COMPOUNDING WORLD | January 2023
that a bottle can be taken from the shelf in a supermarket and a reasonably accurate estimate made of its recycled content. The standard is not intended to be used as an alternative to a mass balance/supply chain audit approach, but in parallel with it. “The standard works by recording results from a number of simple analytical tests: Transmission and Absorbance at 350nm and 678nm; Colorimetric measurements including Lab and Yi (Yellowness index); and Crystallisation temperature. These values are then compared against a ‘training set’ of data which was used to build a mathematical model, based on ‘R’ which can predict whether the tested material has a recycled content of greater than 30%, with a 95% confidence level,” explains Steven Burns, Commercial Director at Impact Solutions. The standard deliberately biases the
classification to make false assessment of tax liability less likely by setting the probability threshold for the recycled content of the sample being >30% at a 0.3 probability (rather than 0.5 which is equivalent to 50:50), Burns says. “The testing parameters chosen were selected based on screening 86 different industrially produced packaging products, with a range of recycled contents from fully virgin to fully recycled from across the globe. They were tested in several techniques with parameters recorded and a Lasso model used to select those which best correlated with recycled content,” he says. “The principal selection criterion was to minimise overall error of the predictions, the Lasso model enabling parameter selection by identifying those variables highly correlated with the target variable and selecting the best parameter from groups of variables that are highly correlated with one another and eliminating the remainder. While the testing parameters ultimately employed are perhaps not those one might have expected at the outset, they produce the best model from the available data,” according to Burns. The standard allows blind testing to ascertain whether a material might contain recycled content and provides accurate determination of recycled content where both the source of virgin material and recycled resin are available. The data used to create the model could also be redeployed to allow the calculation of probability of recycled content being above a higher threshold. Traditionally, polymer testing takes place in a laboratory, minutes or more often hours after
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IMAGE: HITACHI HIGH-TECH ANALYTICAL
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