Extrusion Asia Edition 2-2021

49 Extrusion Asia Edition 2/2021 ➠ Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE 弗劳恩霍夫卓越集群循环塑料经济 CCPE www.ccpe.fraunhofer.de ➠ Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT 弗劳恩霍夫环境、安全和能源技术研究所 UMSICHT www.umsicht.fraunhofer.de , www.umsicht-suro.fraunhofer.de 防止有价值的废旧塑料变成废物，并减缓化石资源的枯竭。” 最后，为了实现循环，PP 聚合物被提供给 P&G，在那 里它被加工成无纺纤维材料。 “这个试点项目帮助我们评估了 闭环方法是否适用于卫生和医疗级塑料，”宝洁开放式创新高 级总监 Hansjörg Reick 说。 “当然，还需要进一步的工作， 但迄今为止的结果非常令人鼓舞。” 从口罩收集到生产的整个闭环试点项目仅在七个月内就 实现了开发和实施。 弗劳恩霍夫CCPE 正在进一步研究先进 的回收技术对于其它原料和化学产品的通用性。 F raunhofer Institute UMSICHT, SABIC and Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced their collaboration in an innovative circular economy pilot project which aimed to demonstrate the feasibi- lity of closed-loop recycling of single-use facemasks. Due to COVID-19, use of billions of disposable facemasks is raising environmental concerns especially when they are thoughtlessly discarded in public spaces, including – parks, open-air venues and beaches. Apart from the challenge of dealing with such huge volumes of essential personal healthca- re items in a sustainable way, simply throwing the used masks away for disposal on landfill sites or in incineration plants repre- sents a loss of valuable feedstock for new material. „Recognizing the challenge, we set out to explore how used facemasks could potentially be returned into the value chain of new facemask production,“ says Dr. Peter Dziezok, Director R&D Open Innovation at P&G. „But creating a true circular so- lution from both a sustainable and an economically feasible perspective takes partners. Therefore, we teamed up with Fraunhofer CCPE and Fraunhofer UMSICHT’s expert scientists and SABIC’s T&I specialists to investigate potential solutions.“ As part of the pilot, P&G collected used facemasks worn by em- ployees or given to visitors at its manufacturing and research sites in Germany. Although those masks are always disposed of responsibly, there was no ideal route in place to recycle them efficiently. To help demonstrate a potential step change in this scenario, special collection bins were set up, and the collected used masks were sent to Fraunhofer for further processing in a dedicated research pyrolysis plant. „A single-use medical product such as a face mask has high hy- giene requirements, both in terms of disposal and production. Mechanical recycling, would have not done the job,” explains Dr. Alexander Hofmann, Head of Department Recycling Ma- nagement at Fraunhofer UMSICHT. „In our solution, therefore, the masks were first automatically shredded and then thermo- chemically converted to pyrolysis oil. Pyrolysis breaks the plastic down into molecular fragments under pressure and heat, which will also destroy any residual pollutants or pathogens, such as the Coronavirus. In this way it is possible to produce feedstock for new plastics in virgin quality that can also meet the requirements for medical products,“ adds Hofmann, who is also Head of Research Department „Advanced Recycling“ at Fraunhofer CCPE. The pyrolysis oil was then sent to SABIC to be used as feedstock for the production of new PP resin. The resins were produced using the widely recognized principle of mass balance to com- bine the alternative feedstock with fossil-based feedstock in the production process. Mass balance is considered a crucial bridge between today’s linear economy and the more sustainable cir- cular economy of the future. „The high-quality circular PP polymer obtained in this pilot cle- arly demonstrates that closed-loop recycling is achievable through active collaboration of players from across the value chain,” emphasizes Mark Vester, Global Circular Economy Lea- der at SABIC. „The circular material is part of our TRUCIRCLE™ portfolio, aimed at preventing valuable used plastic from be- coming waste and at mitigating the depletion of fossil resourc- es.“ Finally, to close the loop, the PP polymer was supplied to P&G, where it was processed into non-woven fibers material. „This pilot project has helped us to assess if the close loop approach could work for hygienic and medical grade plastics,“ says Hans- jörg Reick, P&G Senior Director Open Innovation. „Of course, further work is needed but the results so far have been very en- couraging.“ The entire closed loop pilot project from facemask collection to production was developed and implemented within only seven months. The transferability of advanced recycling to other feed- stocks and chemical products is being further researched at Fraunhofer CCPE. www.smart-extrusion.com