Plastic Technology

Although the environmental benefits of recycling plastics are well established and most geographic locations within the U.S. offer some plastic recycling, recycling rates are often low. Low recycling rates are often observed in conventional centralized recycling plants due to the challenge of collection and transportation for high-volume low-weight polymers. The recycling rates decline further when low population density, rural and relatively isolated communities are investigated because of the distance to recycling centers makes recycling difficult and both economically and energetically inefficient. The recent development of a class of open source hardware tools (e.g. RecycleBots) able to convert post-consumer plastic waste to polymer filament for 3-D printing offer a means to increase recycling rates by enabling distributed recycling. In addition, to reducing the amount of plastic disposed of in landfills, distributed recycling may also provide low-income families a means to supp...

In this research the variation of mechanical and rheological properties of the composite as a function of different processing parameters and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber content was studied. The optimum amount of dicumyl peroxide (DCP) to achieve the highest percentage of grafting of maleic anhydride to EPDM was obtained by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. In general, immiscibility between nylon 66 and EPDM, and their high interfacial tension makes their blending difficult. Maleic anhydride was grafted to EPDM to reduce interfacial tension between two phases. Also the blends were prepared at highest possible speed of mixing (screw speed in extrusion) and lowest temperature to reach a well mixed sample which can be seen in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and impact strength results. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) tests were conducted to evaluate the miscibility of the components and to measure the glass transition temperature of...

In this work, graphene was used as a filler for banyan aerial root fibers
reinforced epoxy composites at various compositions. The synergetic effect of graphene and banyan fibers, on the physical and mechanical characteristics of the epoxy thermoset, was studied. The mechanical tests, hardness, water absorption behavior and morphology of the composites were studied. Significant improvement in tensile strength, flexural strength, shore D hardness and substantial reduction in the percentage of water absorption was observed. This paper also discusses the ideal proportion of banyan fibers with graphene powder for the development of the improved epoxy composites. The optimum concentration of the composites was observed at 4% of graphene powder in the 40% banyan fiber-reinforced hybrid epoxy composites. From the results, it is proved that graphene combined with 40% banyan fiber-reinforced epoxy hybrid composites will efficiently improve the strength of the composites.

Polipropileno reciclado (rPP) proveniente de rafia sintética de grandes sacos postconsumo, fueron reforzados con 50 y 60% de harina de madera de Pinus radiata de dos tamaños de partícula (60 y 100 mesh) a través de un proceso de mezclado en fundido, con y sin polipropileno maleado (MAPP), utilizado como agente acoplante. La procesabilidad de rPP y de compositos a base de madera-rPP fue estudiada en términos del torque del proceso de mezcla, al igual que las propiedades físicas, térmicas y mecánicas, y comparadas con polipropileno virgen (PP).

¿Que tienen en común los productos de compañías tan diferentes como los productos de Apple, Nike, Nokia o BMW?
Bueno, pues además de ser líderes en sus diferentes segmentos de mercado, estas compañías están ahora desarrollando productos con un alto grado de innovación. De hecho, todas ellas están creando sus productos con una nueva metodología de diseño conocida como “innovation driven by desgin”, que traducida al castellano sería “Innovación dirigida por diseño”.
El principio de esta metodología de diseño es la de crear experiencias asociadas a cada producto (Nathan, 2008), siendo estas experiencias intensas y de fácil recordación. Y es aquí que para lograr esas experiencias y sensaciones en el uso de los productos se recurre al uso de nuevos materiales, desarrollados en muchos de los casos especialmente para ser aplicados a productos específicos.

One of the first essays to explore composite materials in architecture -- this article focuses on Postwar Plastics through precise analysis of Monsanto's House of the Future by MIT researchers for Tomorrowland -- Disneyland in the 1950s to 1960s. From original research on the successes in the plastic industry during World War II -- this article shows how Monsanto strategically went on to advance a "Second Modern Order" in architecture that opposed rectilinear panel/frame construction in favor of new "organic" curvilinear continuous-tension-shell composite sandwich panel technologies. It studies the successes and the failures of the architecture industry to advance plastics and composite fiberglass materials during the post-war period relevant to advances later made in digital design and fabrication practices of the early-twenty-first century.

In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, over 500 million tons of copper rich rock were removed from mines and treated in chemical baths to extract copper. Toxic substances have been seeping into the watersheds from the resultant waste stamp sands. Recent work on developing a circular economy using recycled plastic for distributed manufacturing technologies has proven promising, and this study investigates the potential to use this approach to form stamp sand and acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) composites. Specifically, this study found the maximum amount of stamp sand that was able to be added to waste ASA by mass with a single auger recyclebot system for compounding was below 40%. The mechanical properties of the composite were evaluated up to 40%, and the addition of stamp sand reduced the material's ultimate tensile strength by about half compared to the strength of raw recycled ASA, regardless of the percent stamp sand in the composite. However, this strength reduction plateaus and the tensile strength of the ASA and stamp sand composites can be compared favorably with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) at any level. This makes waste ASA-stamp sand composites potential replacements for outdoor applications of ABS as well as some current ASA applications. These results are promising and call for future work to evaluate the technical, economic and environmental potential for waste ASA-stamp sand composites.

Although additive layer manufacturing is well established for rapid prototyping the low throughput and historic costs have prevented mass-scale adoption. The recent development of the RepRap, an open source self-replicating rapid prototyper, has made low-cost 3-D printers readily available to the public at reasonable prices (<$1,000). The RepRap (Prusa Mendell variant) currently prints 3-D objects in a 200x200x140 square millimeters build envelope from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA). ABS and PLA are both thermoplastics that can be injection-molded, each with their own benefits, as ABS is rigid and durable, while PLA is plant-based and can be recycled and composted. The melting temperature of ABS and PLA enable use in low-cost 3-D printers, as these temperature are low enough to use in melt extrusion in the home, while high enough for prints to retain their shape at average use temperatures. Using 3-D printers to manufacture provides the ability to both change the fill composition by printing voids and fabricate shapes that are impossible to make using tradition methods like injection molding. This allows more complicated shapes to be created while using less material, which could reduce environmental impact.

As the open source 3-D printers continue to evolve and improve in both cost and performance, the potential for economically-viable distributed manufacturing of products increases. Thus, products and components could be customized and printed on-site by individual consumers as needed, reversing the historical trend towards centrally mass-manufactured and shipped products. Distributed manufacturing reduces embodied transportation energy from the distribution of conventional centralized manufacturing, but questions remain concerning the potential for increases in the overall embodied energy of the manufacturing due to reduction in scale. In order to quantify the environmental impact of distributed manufacturing using 3-D printers, a life cycle analysis was performed on a plastic juicer. The energy consumed and emissions produced from conventional large-scale production overseas are compared to experimental measurements on a RepRap producing identical products with ABS and PLA. The results of this LCA are discussed in relation to the environmental impact of distributed manufacturing with 3-D printers and polymer selection for 3-D printing to reduce this impact. The results of this study show that distributed manufacturing uses less energy than conventional manufacturing due to the RepRap's unique ability to reduce fill composition. Distributed manufacturing also has less emissions than conventional manufacturing when using PLA and when using ABS with solar photovoltaic power. The results of this study indicate that open-source additive layer distributed manufacturing is both technically viable and beneficial from an ecological perspective.

Common plastic production and use have become one of the driving forces behind climate change due to unprecedented world pollution of land and sea. The culminating production of plastic is an estimated 7.8 billion tonnes as of 2015 (Our World Data, 2015). 50% of these plastics used are single-use, and only 9% of plastic made between 1950 and 2015 has been recycled (Geyer, Jambeck and Law, 2017). 8-14 million tonnes of plastic per year make it into the sea, polluting 88% of the Ocean and waters (Sherrington, 2016). In 2019 plastic production and incineration CO2 emissions will amount to over 850 million metric tonnes in one year (Center for International Environmental Law, 2019), this is set to rise to 2.75 billion metric tonnes per year by 2050. This has led to a demand for biodegradable bioplastic alternatives to curb pollution and reach global net zero. Production of bioplastic has low costs as it can be made from natural waste products and they are easily disposable as many are compostable or recyclable. This study aims to synthesise biofilm materials from 100% renewable materials such as starch, gelatine and agar. The biofilm material was analysed to ascertain parameters of solubility, swell volumes, chemical leaching, tensile strength and biodegradability. The data obtained was used to determine suitability for industrial and commercial use. The data collected indicated that though the biofilm material produced was not suitable for long term or industrial use, it exhibited qualities suitable for short term commercial uses such as single-use food packaging.

Environmental  programs  centered  upon  widespread  analysis of air, water, and land  pollution  is
becoming an  important supplement to traditional single  media  methodologies  to environmental
protection.  Environmental regulatory agencies are beginning to embrace comprehensive,
multi-state  solutions to facility permitting, compliance assurance, education/outreach, research,
and regulatory development issues. The central concepts driving the new policy direction are that
pollutant releases to each environmental medium  from plastic industry  affect each other  and that
environmental strategies must actively identify and address these interrelationships by designing
policies for the "whole" facility. One way to achieve a whole facility focus is to design  an
industrial utilities and safety services measures to reduce the amount of waste emissions to the
environment, systems involved in this manner are; ventilation  system design, water supply
system,  Solid  waste management system, waste water  treatment system as well as safety
services.

Abstract Improving passenger car damageability has been an important topic for The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Research Council for Automotive Repairs (RCAR) council. Incorporation of new IIHS/RCAR barrier (Rigid bumper shaped ...

Purpose – A low-cost, open source, self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) has been developed, which greatly expands the potential user base of rapid prototypers. The operating cost of the RepRap can be further reduced using waste polymers as feedstock. Centralized recycling of polymers is often uneconomic and energy intensive due to transportation embodied energy. The purpose of this paper is to provide a proof of concept for high-value recycling of waste polymers at distributed creation sites.

Design/methodology/approach – Previous designs of waste plastic extruders (also known as RecycleBots) were evaluated using a weighted evaluation matrix. An updated design was completed and the description and analysis of the design is presented including component summary, testing procedures, a basic life cycle analysis and extrusion results. The filament was tested for consistency of density and diameter while quantifying electricity consumption.

Findings – Filament was successfully extruded at an average rate of 90?mm/min and used to print parts. The filament averaged 2.805?mm diameter with 87 per cent of samples between 2.540?mm and 3.081?mm. The average mass was 0.564?g/100?mm length. Energy use was 0.06?kWh/m.

Practical implications – The success of the RecycleBot further reduces RepRap operating costs, which enables distributed in-home, value added, plastic recycling. This has implications for municipal waste management programs, as in-home recycling could reduce cost and greenhouse gas emissions associated with waste collection and transportation, as well as the environmental impact of manufacturing custom plastic parts.

Originality/value – This paper reports on the first technical evaluation of a feedstock filament for the RepRap from waste plastic material made in a distributed recycling device.

This Project gives the information about to design and fabrication of Injection Molding tool or die for Production of pump gaskets by using Plastic material. For Increasing the Production rate, designing and manufacturing the multi cavity die and also Using PP (polypropylene) to overcome the existing plastic material drawbacks. The injection molding tool/die contains the core plate, cavity plate, top and bottom supported plates, channels or runners, sprue, vents, ejector and its pins and horn pins, etc. The gaskets are used to prevent leakages by provide a tight fitting joint between two surfaces. The Greek word of ‘Plastic’ meaning is ‘able to be shaped and molded’; in so many different plastic materials I am using polypropylene material for production of plastic gaskets components. For optimization Process, The selected two bolt oval gasket component is making with injection molding process by controlling parameters of plastic injection molding machine.

The rapid technical evolution of additive manufacturing (AM) enables a new path to a circular economy using distributed recycling and production. This concept of Distributed Recycling via Additive Manufacturing (DRAM) is related to the use of recycled materials by means of mechanical recycling process in the 3D printing process chain. This paper aims to examine the current advances on thermoplastic recycling processes via additive manufacturing technologies. After proposing a closed recycling global chain for DRAM, a systematic literature review including 92 papers from 2009 to 2019 was performed using the scopus, web of science and springer databases. This work examines main topics from six stages (recovery, preparation, compounding, feedstock, printing, quality) of the proposed DRAM chain. The results suggested that few works have been done for the recovery and preparation stages, while a great progress has already been done for the other stages in order to validate the technical feasibility, environmental impact, and economic viability. Potential research paths in the pre-treatment of recycled material at local level and printing chain phases were identified in order to connect the development of DRAM with the circular economy ambition at micro, meso and macro level. The development of each stage proposed using the open source approach is a relevant path to scale DRAM to reach the full technical potential as a centerpiece of the circular economy.

With the aggressive cost reductions for 3-D printing made available by the open-source self-replicating rapid prototypers (RepRaps) the economic advantage of custom distributed manufacturing has become substantial. In addition, the number of free designs is growing exponentially and the development and commercialization of the recyclebot (plastic extruders that fabricate 3-D printing filament from recycled or virgin materials) have greatly improved the material selection available for prosumer 3-D printer operators. These trends indicate that more individuals will manufacturer their own polymer products, however, there is a risk that an even larger fraction of polymer waste will not be recycled because it has not been coded. The current limited resin identification code available in the U.S. similarly restricts closing the loop on less popular polymers, which could hamper the environmental impact benefits of distributed manufacturing. This paper provides a solution for this challenge by (1) developing a recycling code model based off of the resin identification codes developed in China that is capable of expansion as more complex 3-D printing materials are introduced, (2) creating OpenSCAD scripts based on (1) to be used to print resin identification codes into products, (3) demonstrating the use of this functionality in a selection of products and polymer materials, and (4) outlining the software and policy tools necessary to make this application possible for widespread adoption. Overall the results showed that a far larger resin code identification system can be adopted in the U.S. to expand distributed recycling of polymers and manufacturing of plastic-based 3-D printed products.

El siguiente trabajo presentado ante la Universidad Nacional San Martin de la Argentina (UNSAM) – Instituto Petroquímico Argentino (IPA), para optar el Título de ESPECIALISTA EN INDUSTRIA PETROQUIMICA, muestra la viabilidad técnico-económica de la instalación de una planta de producción de Policloruro de Vinilo (PVC) en la Región Arequipa, localizada a 1,000 km al sur de Lima – Perú.
El Estado Peruano desde el año 2006 viene dando el Marco Legal y normativo para promover la Industria Petroquímica en el Perú (Ley Nro. 29163 de Promoción de la Petroquímica) a partir del Gas Natural de Camisea.
Inicialmente por cercanía al ducto de Transportadora de Gas del Perú (TGP) que trae el GN desde Camisea a la costa de Lima (Melchorita), se plantearon proyectos petroquímicos como el de Nitratos del Perú (grupos mineros Sigdo Koppers – Brescia US$ 850 MM en ciudad de Pisco – Ica a +/-100 km), CF Industries (Marcona-Ica US$ 2,000 MM, urea y amoniaco para fertilizantes), ORICA que planteo relocalizarse de Ica a Ilo.
Todos estos proyectos quedaron de lado por la Concesión otorgada (2008) para la construcción del Gasoducto Sur Andino de KUNTUR el mismo que requería demanda de GN al final del ducto en Arequipa – Ilo; y por la dación de la Ley Nro. 29690 que promueve y determina que la petroquímica del Etano solo podrá instalarse en el Sur del Perú (2011) y que obligatoriamente se deberá separar el etano del gas de Camisea para abastecer un cracker y obtener etileno para el Polo Petroquímico Descentralizado del Sur.
La decisión política de llevar la Petroquímica al Sur adoptada por el Presidente A. García (Julio 2006 – Julio 2011) se basó en qué; si bien la zona sur del Perú es la zona más excluida, postergada y de menor desarrollo; esta cuenta con infraestructura portuaria, vías de comunicación, energía, universidades, aeropuertos y otros.
Con la dación de la Ley Nro. 29970 de Afianzamiento de la Seguridad Energética y Desarrollo del Polo Petroquímico en el Sur del Perú (2013) y Resolución Suprema Nro. 005-2013-EF, que permitió que PROINVERSION convocara y adjudicara la construcción del Gasoducto Sur Peruano (GSP) conformado por Odebrecht – Enagas – Graña Montero.
Creciendo a un CAGR del 5.0%, se espera que el mercado mundial de PVC llegue a US$ 79.11 mil millones para el 2020 debido al aumento del gasto en construcción e infraestructura en los mercados emergentes de Asia Pacífico. Y América Latina siga siendo un factor clave para la demanda global de PVC.
Se viene desarrollando desde muchos años atrás los estudios para la instalación de un cracker de etileno de 1000 kta, y aquí para tal capacidad instalada se propone se produciría 840.4 kta de etileno para producir polietilenos y 159.6 kta de etileno para producir 350 kta de PVC, en una planta cercana a un proyecto minero que tiene como subproducto salmuera, materia prima requerida para instalar una Planta Cloro álcali, para producir PVC.
Se presenta el estudio económico para la instalación de una PLANTA CLORO ÁLCALI de 204,000 TMA, una planta de producción de VCM y PVC ambas con una capacidad de 350,000 TMA; este proyecto requerirá de una inversión de 1,001 millones de dólares.
El proyecto es rentable de acuerdo a la evaluación económica, a una tasa de interés del 12% el VAN es de 205.29 millones de dólares y un TIR de 13.77% demostrando la rentabilidad del proyecto sumado a un tiempo de recuperación de la inversión de 5.29 años.

Although the environmental benefits of recycling plastics are well established and most geographic locations within the U.S. offer some plastic recycling, recycling rates are often low. Low recycling rates are often observed in conventional centralized recycling plants due to the challenge of collection and transportation for high-volume low-weight polymers. The recycling rates decline further when low population density, rural and relatively isolated communities are investigated because of the distance to recycling centers makes recycling difficult and both economically and energetically inefficient. The recent development of a class of open source hardware tools (e.g. RecycleBots) able to convert post-consumer plastic waste to polymer filament for 3-D printing offer a means to increase recycling rates by enabling distributed recycling. In addition, to reducing the amount of plastic disposed of in landfills, distributed recycling may also provide low-income families a means to supplement their income with domestic production of small plastic goods. This study investigates the environmental impacts of polymer recycling. A life-cycle analysis (LCA) for centralized plastic recycling is compared to the implementation of distributed recycling in rural areas. Environmental impact of both recycling scenarios is quantified in terms of energy use per unit mass of recycled plastic. A sensitivity analysis is used to determine the environmental impacts of both systems as a function of distance to recycling centers. The results of this LCA study indicate that distributed recycling of HDPE for rural regions is energetically favorable to either using virgin resin or conventional recycling processes. This study indicates that the technical progress in solar photovoltaic devices, open-source 3-D printing and polymer filament extrusion have made distributed polymer recycling and upcycling technically viable.

A promising method of enhancing the circular economy is distributed plastic recycling. In this study plastic waste is upcycled into 3-D printing filament with a recyclebot, which is an open source waste plastic extruder. The recyclebot is combined with an open source self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printer, to enable post-consumer ABS plastic filament from computer waste to be further upcycled into valuable consumer products pre-designed in the digital commons. The total electrical energy consumption for the combined process is monitored and an economic evaluation is completed. The coupled distributed recycling and manufacturing method for complex products reduces embodied energy by half, while reducing the cost of consumer products to pennies. This economic benefit provides an incentive for consumers to both home recycle and home manufacture, which tightens the loop on the circular economy by eliminating waste associated from transportation and retail. It is clear from the results that waste plastic can be significantly upcycled at the individual level using this commons-based approach. This tightening of the loop of the circular economy benefits the environment and sustainability as well as the economic stability of consumers/prosumers.

Besides, food and clothing, shelter is a basic human need. India has been successful in meeting the food and clothing requirements of its vast population; however the problem of providing shelter of all is defying solutions. While there has been an impressive growth in the total housing stock from 65 million in 1947 to 187.05 million in 2001, a large gap still exists between the demand and supply of housing units. The Working Group on Housing for the 9th five-year plan estimated the housing shortage in 2001 at 19.4 million units-12.76 million in rural area and 6.64 million in urban area. The shortage of housing is acutely felt in urban areas more so in the 35 Indian cities, which according to the2001 census have a population of more than a million. Hence in order to overcome this problem construction process should be quick, tall and effective to accommodate huge population in a given area. So we have chosen this topic of BEHAVIOUR OF SHEARWALL IN HIGH RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING USING ETABS. This type of shear wall construction helps to build tall structure of about 18 floors within no time. Hence the construction process will become much quicker and efficient. Constructions made of shear walls are high in strength ,they majorly resist the seismic force, wind forces and even can be build on soils of weak bases by adopting various ground improvement techniques. In the present analysis a building with a height of 50 meters is analyzed in ZONE-2 & ZONE-5 with three different soils. Displacement, shears, moments is compared with different zones & soils in both Static & Dynamic analysis. We are verifying and designing this structure using Extended Three Dimension Analysis of Buildings (ETABS) 2013software.

Se han realizado ensayos de rayado como parte de una completa caracterización de una estructura polimérica bicapa rífido-flexible utilizada en los mangos o asas de herramientas y electrodomésticos. El objetivo del estudio es conocer el comportamiento y características de estas estructuras para mejorar el diseño y desempeño de estas conformaciones en el diseño y desarrollo de productos.

The extensive use of petroleum-based synthetic and non-biodegradable materials for packaging applications has caused severe environmental damage. The rising demand for sustainable packaging materials has encouraged scientists to explore abundant unconventional materials. For instance, cellulose, extracted from lignocellulosic biomass, has gained attention owing to its ecological and biodegradable nature. This article reviews the extraction of cellulose nanoparticles from conventional and non-conventional lignocellulosic biomass, and the preparation of cellulosic nanocomposites for food packaging. Cellulosic nanocomposites exhibit exceptional mechanical, biodegradation, optical and barrier properties, which are attributed to the nanoscale structure and the high specific surface area, of 533 m 2 g −1 , of cellulose. The mechanical properties of composites improve with the content of cellulose nanoparticles, yet an excessive amount induces agglomeration and, in turn, poor mechanical properties. Addition of cellulose nanoparticles increases tensile properties by about 42%. Barrier properties of the composites are reinforced by cellulose nanoparticles; for instance, the water vapor permeability decreased by 28% in the presence of 5 wt% cellulose nanoparticles. Moreover, 1 wt% addition of filler decreased the oxygen transmission rate by 21%. We also discuss the eco-design process, designing principles and challenges.

The growth of both plastic consumption and prosumer 3-D printing are driving an interest in producing 3-D printer filaments from waste plastic. This study quantifies the embodied energy of a vertical DC solar photovoltaic (PV) powered recyclebot based on life cycle energy analysis and compares it to horizontal AC recyclebots, conventional recycling, and the production of a virgin 3-D printer filament. The energy payback time (EPBT) is calculated using the embodied energy of the materials making up the recyclebot itself and is found to be about five days for the extrusion of a poly lactic acid (PLA) filament or 2.5 days for the extrusion of an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) filament. A mono-crystalline silicon solar PV system is about 2.6 years alone. However, this can be reduced by over 96% if the solar PV system powers the recyclebot to produce a PLA filament from waste plastic (EPBT is only 0.10 year or about a month). Likewise, if an ABS filament is produced from a recyclebot powered by the solar PV system, the energy saved is 90.6–99.9 MJ/kg and 26.33–29.43 kg of the ABS filament needs to be produced in about half a month for the system to pay for itself. The results clearly show that the solar PV system powered recyclebot is already an excellent way to save energy for sustainable development.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET #1) and polyolefin plastics such polyethylene (HDPE #2, LDPE #4) and polypropylene (PP #5) are major products from the chemical industry, and they comprise a significant fraction of municipal solid waste that ends up in landfills or as litter and marine debris. The reuse of these polymeric materials can be optimized through systems analysis with a view on materials flow analysis, techno-economics, environmental life cycle assessment, and consequential societal impacts. This contribution will present the overall research approach for this exploratory project within the DOE- and industry-funded REMADE Institute and end with a proposed systems analysis framework.

Syntactic foams are the materials synthesized by using prefabricated hollow microspheres which are commonly made of glass, ceramic, polymer or metal and bounded with a polymer. Syntactic foam has unique properties of high strength at low density thus these become widely used in subsea buoyancy applications. For several applications like marine, automotive and aerospace, syntactic foams are used as energy absorption sandwich core. The current study is focused to take a look of the work done in the area of characterization of Syntactic Foam composite materials and various modifications in synthetic foam. This study is attempt to take overview of different constituent materials used to make polymer composites, failure mechanism and manufacturing process of Syntactic Foam composite material. The behavior of such hybrid syntactic foam under tensile loading, compression loading, flexural loading and impact loading are the main areas of interest of researchers. This paper reviews work related to syntactic foam fabricated by using following two types of micro balloons that are hollow glass microspheres and fly ash cenospheres.

The extensive use of petroleum-based synthetic and non-biodegradable materials for packaging applications has caused severe environmental damage. The rising demand for sustainable packaging materials has encouraged scientists to explore abundant unconventional materials. For instance, cellulose, extracted from lignocellulosic biomass, has gained attention owing to its ecological and biodegradable nature. This article reviews the extraction of cellulose nanoparticles from conventional and non-conventional lignocellulosic biomass, and the preparation of cellulosic nanocomposites for food packaging. Cellulosic nanocomposites exhibit exceptional mechanical, biodegradation, optical and barrier properties, which are attributed to the nanoscale structure and the high specific surface area, of 533 m2 g−1, of cellulose. The mechanical properties of composites improve with the content of cellulose nanoparticles, yet an excessive amount induces agglomeration and, in turn, poor mechanical prope...

Chemical recycling technologies are the most promising for a waste-to-energy/material recovery of plastic waste. However, 30% of such waste cannot be treated in this way due to the presence of halogenated organic compounds, which are often utilized as flame retardants. In fact, high quantities of hydrogen halides and dioxin would form. In order to enabling such huge amount of plastic waste as viable feed-stock for recycling, an investigation on mechanochemical pre-treatment by high energy ball milling is carried out on polypropylene containing decabromodiphenyl ether. Results demonstrate that co-milling with zero valent iron and quartz sand ensures complete debromination and mineralization of the flame retardant. Furthermore, a comparative experiment demonstrates that the mechanochemical debromination kinetics is roughly proportional to the polymer-to-haloorganics mass ratio.