Objective
Expanded polystyrene is widely used as packaging for foodstuffs and for shipping. Several hundred thousand tonnes of polystyrene are sent unnecessarily to landfill every year in the UK and Europe, where it does not biodegrade but persists for hundreds of years. Meanwhile, oil-derived feedstocks are being consumed in the production of new polystyrene. Recycling systems for polystyrene are underdeveloped compared to those in existence for many other plastics, owing to the unfavourable economics of collecting and recycling low density material.
The proposed project will develop a new process by which an environmentally friendly
and selective solvent is used to dissolve and recycle polystyrene waste into a highpurity
product comparable to virgin material. A novel thermoplastic recovery system
will be developed and integrated within a modular, scalable recycling process. This will
facilitate:
• Reduced pressure on oil feedstocks for virgin polystyrene production
• High value-added product manufactured from effectively zero-value waste, to
be sold by the end user
The technology will build on the success already achieved under the UK TSB-funded
“HiPerPol” project, whereby solvent-based systems have been developed for the
selective separation of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene (PE) from mixed
plastic waste streams. The extension of the technology to polystyrene and
polycarbonate will greatly increase the capability of this technology to deal with the
high volumes of mixed polymer waste, whereby individual polymers can be separated
and recycled at a far higher degree of purity (and consequently value) than is
currently possible.
The process can also be extended to other thermoplastics.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
FP7-SME-2011
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
BSG-SME-AG - Research for SME associations/groupingsCoordinator
1150 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgium