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Project

Recycling Latex foam and Rubber as a Green Feedstock through Depolymerisation and Functionalization by Ozonolysis (RecycLAT).

Natural rubber is a biopolymer with many applications, but its recycling and reuse are an especially challenging problem. Until now, the most prevalent waste treatment method for rubber is either burning or landfills. Devulcanization of the rubber, necessary for for its reuse as an elastomer, is extremely difficult. Use of rubber as a green feedstock, after a useful life as an elastomer, has hardly been explored. Ozonolysis is a polyvalent technique that finds application in cutting C=C double bonds in a polymer and creating terminal functionalities where the chain has been cut. In this way, it must be possible to depolymerize natural rubber to use as feedstock for other condensation polymers that are easier to recycle than rubber itself. This, then, is the threefold goal of this project: 1. Depolymerization of rubber – latex foam and ground rubber tire- into oligomeric materials with terminal functionalization, and researching the influence of the process parameters of ozonolysis on the properties and chain lengths of these materials. 2. Researching the fate during this process of the cross-links that are created in natural latex during vulcanization. 3. Using the example of rubber as a case in the development of LCA and TEA tools, and provide real-time feedback from these studies to this project with regard to the use of certain chemicals, solvents and the general technical-economic feasibility of the process during its development.
Date:1 Jul 2020 →  31 Dec 2021
Keywords:RECYCLING, POLYMERS, RUBBER
Disciplines:Macromolecular and materials chemistry not elsewhere classified, Chemical process design, Polymer reaction engineering, Recycling, Polymer recycling