Aiming to improve the mechanical recycling of plastics and to take this technology to the next level, BASF has teamed up a number of partners to study how this might best be achieved. In collaboration with Endress+Hauser, TechnoCompound and the Universities of Bayreuth and Jena, a new project called SpecRek has been launched.
The total project volume is €2.2 million, with two-thirds financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) from its quantum systems research program and one-third financed by the project partners.
The project aims to reliably and precisely identify, with the help of state-of-the-art measuring techniques and artificial intelligence (AI), the composition of plastic waste during the recycling process.
To that end, spectroscopic methods are being used to interpret how the material interacts with light. This will yield information about the chemical structure of the recycled plastics. The project partners intend to use this data to determine - in real time, during processing - the specific plastic grades, additives and contaminants contained in the material. In a subsequent step, an AI algorithm will recognise patterns in the measurement data and recommend which additional components should be added or how the recycling process should be adapted to improve the quality of the recycled plastic output.
“We do not currently have the necessary analysis tools to determine during processing exactly which components are contained in the mechanically recycled plastics,” explained Dr. Bernhard von Vacano, head of the Plastics Circularity research program at BASF. This information is needed, however, to evaluate and improve the quality of waste plastics. “This will enable us to use more mechanically recycled plastics to produce high-quality products and to make recycling processes more efficient and sustainable,” said von Vacano.
Strengthening the circular economy for plastics
At present, most of the plastic waste that is sent for recycling is mechanically recycled. The waste is collected, sorted, crushed, cleaned and then melted. Depending on the input material and the degree of sorting, this melted material can contain different types of plastics, additives and contaminants. Therefore, the quality of the recycled output often varies and is not always suitable for processing into high-value plastic products.
“With the increasing demand for high-quality recycled materials, and given the current legal framework, it will be crucial to perfectly understand the material properties and composition of mechanically recycled plastic waste and to optimize the process. In this way, we will strengthen the circular economy,” von Vacano said. More of this article (sustainable plastics) - link - more like this (plastics recycling) - link - more like this (BASF) - link
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