Elast2Sustain focuses on developing new sustainable TPE through different routes. We will investigate whether mechanical or chemical recycling can be used to obtain building blocks that can be reused as raw materials.
Two different chemical recycling techniques (pyrolysis and chemical depolymerisation) will be investigated.
We will also develop new bio-based TPE using CO2 as a building block.
Knowledge about recycling end-of-life TPEs and producing sustainable building blocks (e.g. building blocks from biomass or non-recyclable TPE waste streams) is scarce among companies in the border region. To answer these questions, the ELASTOPLAST core group (Centexbel, URCA, ULille and KU Leuven) decided to join forces again. The strengths and weaknesses of the core group were analysed and it was decided to use Certech's expertise for the chemical recycling part. To reach an even larger target group within the Interreg region, Euramaterials was also added to the consortium as a partner.
It is expected that TPEs can be reprocessed into usable raw materials via various recycling techniques. However, the choice of the most suitable recycling technique strongly depends on the shape, hardness and contamination of the TPE products. As a first technique, mechanical recycling is studied with the aim of obtaining usable regranulates that can be reused as raw materials in various plastic processing processes (extrusion, injection moulding, 3D printing). For TPE streams that are difficult to recycle mechanically (mixed and/or contaminated plastic streams), chemical recycling can be an alternative. Two different chemical recycling techniques, pyrolysis (thermal or catalytic cracking of the materials into usable oil or gas products) and chemical depolymerisation (decomposition into monomers or oligomers) will be studied in detail.
Finally, the development of a new generation of sustainable TPEs will be investigated based on both chemical recycling and bio-based building blocks. The scale-up of different recycling and synthesis techniques will be demonstrated to recycling and plastics processing companies in the border region.
Consequently, this project will focus on 3 jointly developed pilot projects (mechanical and chemical recycling of TPE and the development of sustainable TPE).
In this way, the cross-border project aims to contribute to the development of products made from recycled and/or bio-based materials in companies in the Interreg region. This project is therefore fully in line with the European Green Deal and the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA), which aims to increase the European recycled plastics market to 10 million tonnes by 2025.
