Category "News"

Last January 11 and 12, the PLAST2bCLEANED consortium met online to discuss the status of the Waste Electrical and Electronic (WEEE) plastics recycling objectives of the project.

The main work of the latest months was focused on a study to improve the Raman spectrum, comparison of the results of chemometrics with spectral analysis and the development of the classification model.

Likewise, the process development for dissolution and recovery tasks are now officially concluded and the group is now working on the process system integration and scale-up, as well as on the performance testing of process and products, mainly on Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).

Some recommendations based on the screening assessment were made in terms of life cycle costing and assessment, and the advancement in terms of communication and dissemination was presented.

On November 8, PLAST2bCLEANED was presented at Brightlands Polymer Days 2021, a series of scientific conferences in the field of polymer science and technology held online.

On behalf of PLAST2bCLEANED, Lucie Prins, Research Scientist at TNO, was in charge of showcasing how the project addresses the challenge of waste electrical and electronic equipment recycling through sorting polymers, bromine and antimony trioxide.

Lucie’s presentation entitled Recycling of plastics by dissolution-precipitation: status and challenges was part of the lectures included under the circularity section of the conference.

In the PLAST2bCLEANED project, Raman spectroscopy is researched to improve the sorting of the polymers High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) within the recycling process of Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). 

WEEE plastics usually contain certain additives like pigments or brominated flame retardants (BFR), which sometimes make difficult the correct identification of polymers with spectroscopic techniques. Certainly, the Raman spectrum of some WEEE samples presents a fluorescence or scattering effect that masks the Raman signal of the polymer. To overcome this technical challenge, in the PLAST2bCLEANED project Chemometrics is studied in combination with Raman spectroscopy for WEEE polymers identification. 

Chemometrics is a tool that uses mathematical and statistical methods to analyse and extract relevant information from a data matrix. It is based on Multivariate Analysis (MVA), which assesses the information within many variables in the measured data to find the relationship between samples and variations in a data set. 

Applied to Raman spectroscopy, MVA is used to find main patterns and correlations in spectral data in order to establish a measurable relationship between the registered spectra and the variable or characteristic object of the study. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) together with several pre-treatment algorithms are initially applied to spectral data with the objective of separating valuable information contained in the data structure from the signal due to other sources and spectral noise.

Once the spectra have been pre-processed, multivariate models are built and tested to classify analysed samples into target categories by using pattern recognition. All these techniques are being evaluated within the PLAST2bCLEANED project to analyse Raman spectral data and to define a classification model for sorting HIPS and ABS from WEEE streams.

On November 16, PLAST2bCLEANED took part at WEEE (Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment) Forum Plastics working group 2021 virtual session to showcase its state-of-the-art solution for the recycling of this kind of plastics.

Esther Zondervan van-den Beuken, Program Manager Circular Plastics at TNO and coordinator of PLAST2bCLEANED, was the person in charge of representing the project at this conference, with this presentation.

The WEEE Forum is is a not-for-profit association of 43 WEEE producer responsibility organisations across the world and was founded in April 2002.

On November 16, PLAST2bCLEANED was invited, as part as the ongoing collaboration with the NONTOX initiative, to present the latest advancements in the project during their November General Assembly meeting.

NONTOX project is a combination of multiple recycling technologies to recycle hazardous plastic waste generated from Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment (WEEE), End of Life Vehicles (ELV) and Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW). The unique combination of mechanical and chemical recycling technologies imparts several techno-economic benefits over single conventional methods.

Both projects have been working together since the beginning in 2019 and are currently seeking synergies as part of the Horizon Results Booster programme, together with Circular Flooring, Creator, and React.

Last June 29, Hans Vercammen, Director Specialty Chemicals at Campine, showcased PLAST2bCLEANED latest goals as part of his presentation Recycling antimony trioxide from industrial waste and beyond at Infohappening.

Infohappening is an annual conference addressing latest developments, devices, and technologies for textile coating, finishing and dyeing organised by Centexbel.

Check out here our latest Newsletter with information on the webinar we held, interviews we carried out, events we attended and much more!

PLAST2bCLEANED held, on July 1st, a webinar entitled Recycling of plastics: Towards a more sustainable plastic treatment in 2030, together with the CIRCULAR FLOORING, CREATOR, NONTOX, and REACT initiatives.  

For two hours, from 10:00 to 12:00 (CEST), the projects provided their different approaches to the current challenge of plastics recycling.

If you missed the day, you can check now the session here.

PLAST2bCLEANED has already achieved the milestone of its two years of life and, to celebrate that it still has two more years ahead, partners presented the main goals of the period.

252 samples were analysed from three Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment fractions using the RAMAN spectroscopy equipment. Studies on the influence of additives as well as colour/additives in the fluorescence effect were performed.

Dissolution experiments of reference samples to test separation of components were carried out, and its dissolution conditions were validated on sorted samples.

Density separation tests along multiple approaches were performed for the antimony trioxide removal, and several tests were held as well for brominated flame retardants and High Impact Polystyrene and Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene.

In terms of process design, good additive removal rates have been achieved with reference samples.

Progress was also made in plant concept and design as well as on pilot unit dissolution.

Activity on the performance testing of process and continued as well as on the environmental and economic assessment and dissemination tasks.

PLAST2bCLEANED part of the presentation Next-generation recycling processes for Plastics containing Flame Retardants in automotive as part of a circular economy.

On June 23 to 25, Lein Tange, Sustainability Director at ICL Group attended the International Automobile Recycling Congress (IARC 2021) showcasing PLAST2bCLEANED’s state-of-the-art technologies.

In the presentation (copyright ICM AG), Lein presented the project scope and results obtained so far.