fabrication of structural pet foam core boards from …

FABRICATION OF STRUCTURAL PET FOAM CORE BOARDS FROM MIXED SOURCES OF RPET AND THEIR POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS

Lisa Scholle

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730292.

Tuesday 13 April 2021

Name

SUMMARY

• About Armacell• Armacell in PlastiCircle• Applications of ArmaPET foam boards


1. ABOUT ARMACELL

3

4

ARMACELL AT A GLANCE

A global leader and the inventor of flexible elastomeric foams for equipment insulation

HQ in Luxembourg with regional head offices around the globe

3,135 employees worldwide

24 production facilities in 6 countries on 4 continents

€ 644,4 m total net sales in 2019

A multi-material andmulti-product company

2 main businesses: Advanced Insulation and Engineered Foams

6 destination markets: Commercial Equipment / Residential Equipment / Energy / Industrial / Transport / Sports & Leisure

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ENGINEERED PET FOAMSPUTTING PLASTIC WASTE TO GOOD USE

• PET Foams is a business division of Armacell and is fully dedicated to PET foam technology.

• Our diverse product portfolio of innovative, eco-friendly PET foam solutions is produced in:» Thimister-Clermont, Belgium (PET Foams headquarters)» Brampton, Canada» Suzhou, China

• Since 2010, Armacell’s rPET facilities have reused over 1,500,000,000 PET bottles and saved more than 67,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions in the process.

• That is equivalent to the emissions of ...

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FROM BOTTLE TO FOAMPUTTING PLASTIC WASTE TO GOOD USE

• Sustainable product solutions based on 100% post-consumer PET

1. PET bottles

2. RPET flakes

3. In-house granulation

4. Extrusion foaming

5. Use-phase

6. Recyclable PET foams

ArmaPET Struct ArmaPET Eco

ArmaPET Shape ArmaPET Curve

2. ARMACELL IN PLASTICIRCLE

7This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730292.

• Technical requirements of recycled polymers for the new products• Development of recycled products in lab scale

– Raw material screening & properties comparison– Recipe development

• Development of recycled products in pilot scale in the industries– Assessment of processability of RPET from tray– Analysis of cell structure & mechanical properties of the demonstrator foam board

• Technical and economic validation

Target: Production of PET foam boards using RPET from mixed sources including trays

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WP5 – RECOVERY AND RECYCLING


• Different sources of RPET were assessed on lab scale

RAW MATERIAL SCREENING


IV: Intrinsiv viscosity | CEG: Carboxyl end groups

00,10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,9

vPET rPET goodbottle grade

rPET mixedbottle grade

Tray-richmaterial

Tray

IV

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40



Tray-richmaterial

Tray

CEG

• Different sources of RPET were assessed on lab scale

– Left: Reactivity of different sources of post-consumer RPET

– Right: Reactivity of different mix of RPET from bottles and RPET from trays



*Armacell Method

00,20,40,60,8

11,21,41,61,8

2



Tray-richmaterial

Tray

Reactivity*

0,00

0,20

0,40

0,60

0,80

1,00

1,20

0,00 10,00 20,00 30,00 40,00 50,00 60,00

Tray [%]

Reactivity*

• Challenges when using RPET from tray material

– Potentially more contaminations with other materials– Lower IV– Higher CEG– Lower reactivity

Adjustments to the recipe are needed to make RPET from tray suitable for the foam extrusion process.



*Armacell Method

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,2

1,4

0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 1,2

Reac

tivity

Total reactive additives [wt.-%]

• Different optimization routes and reactive additives were assessed in lab scale

– Increase load of MM (MM1)• MM1 can be increased but will lead to degradation and

reduced shear properties at elevated levels

– Alternative MM (MM2)• MM2 alone does not show the required IV increase at low levels• Higher levels of MM2 lead to crosslinking rather than chain

extension.

RECIPE DEVELOPMENT


MM: Melt Modifier

1:1

2:1

1:0

Data labels indicate ratio of MM1 : MM2

• Target: Stable process Optimal foaming conditions Homogeneous and fine-celled microstructure Good mechanical properties of the PET foam board

• Influencing factors:• Recipe: Addition of melt modifiers• Processing parameters, like processing temperature

Development of recycled products in pilot scale


Foaming conditions Cell structure Mechanical

properties

Recipe

Process

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

255 260 265 270 275 280 285 290

pres

sure

[bar

]l

Temperature [°C]

• The RPET was selected based on the screening and recipe development Tray-rich RPET with up to 20% tray

• To achieve optimal foaming conditions, the die pressure must be kept stable.

• Low process temperature high pressure (unstable process)

• High process temperature low pressure• Low MM Low pressure• High MM High pressure (unstable process)

ASSESSMENT OF PROCESSABILITY


0

20

40

60

80

100

0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5

pres

sure

[bar

]

MM2 [%]

MM1 A-Concentration MM1 B-Concentration

MM: Melt Modifier

• Cell structure analysis of PET foam board with different proportions of MM The more MM added, the higher the number of small

cells.

ANALYSIS OF CELL STRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES


0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

160 226 276 319 357 391 422 451 479 505 529 553 575 597 618 638 658

num

bers

diameter (µm)

MM1 B-Concentration

0%

0.05%

0.1%

0.15%

0.2%

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

160 226 276 319 357 391 422 451 479 505 529 553 575 597 618 638 658

num

bers

diameter (µm)

MM1 A-Concentration

0.1%

0.15%

0.2%

0.25%

0.4%

MM: Melt Modifier

To obtain optimal foaming conditions, a homogeneous and fine-celled microstructure and finally good mechanical properties, a certain level of MM1 needed + an addition of MM2.

PROPERTY RESULT UNIT

Density 96 kg/m³

Compression strength 1.3 MPa

Compression modulus 52 MPa

Shear strength 0.7 MPa

Shear modulus 15 MPa

Tensile strength 2 N/mm²

Tensile modulus 68 N/mm²


ANALYSIS OF CELL STRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

0,00

0,50

1,00

1,50

2,00

0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5

Com

p. S

tr.

[MPa

]

MM2 [%]

Comp. Strength

0,0000,2000,4000,6000,8001,000

0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5

Shea

rStr

. [M

Pa]

MM2 [%]

Shear Strength

0,000,501,001,502,002,50

0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5

Tens

ileSt

r. [M

Pa]

MM2 [%]

Tensile Strength

MM1 Concentration-A MM1 Concentration-B

• It is possible to produce extruded foam boards from RPET with a share of RPET from trays.

• The quality is comparable to foam boards produced from RPET from bottles.

• The mechanical properties are sufficient for a wide range of applications.

• Provided that sufficient quantity of tray material of stable quality is available in the future, it is conceivable to use tray material for Armacell’sproducts.

• Benefits:– Additional source of raw material– Enable recycling of difficult to recycle packaging

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC VALIDATION


3. APPLICATIONS OF ARMAPET FOAM BOARDS

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ArmaPET Destination Markets and Applications

ROTOR BLADESOver 120,000 wind turbine blades globally are cored with ArmaPET Struct.

BODY STRUCTUREPenso’s Blue Ocean Home Delivery Pods are made of ArmaPET Struct.

FLOORINGArmaPET Struct is used in the floor panels of Czech tram For City.

BRIDGINGArmaPET Struct is used for the Millennium Walkway in Derbyshire, UK.

.

Sports EquipmentArmaPET is used in racing windsurf boards, SUP blades or skis.

.

.ECO-FRIENDLY HOUSINGA 186 m² house in Nova Scotia (Canada) made entirely of 170 ArmaPET Struct cored panels.

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ArmaPET Applications in Building and ConstructionEco-friendly housing

Formworks Modular housing Facade cladding Decorative Domes

Flooring(access floor systems)

Roof structures(in particular domes)

Interiors(partition walls, doors, worktops …)

ETICS(external thermal insulation systems)

Facade claddings(external decorative elements)

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Armacell Benelux S.C.S. Contact

Lisa Scholle

Innovation Scientist, PET Foams

Armacell

T. +32 (0)87 450 773

M. +32 476 260 119E. [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

www.plasticircle.eu

fabrication of structural pet foam core boards from …

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