SBIR Phase I: Material Properties of Ground Tire Rubber/Recycled Polypropylene Composites

SBIR 第一阶段：地面轮胎橡胶/再生聚丙烯复合材料的材料特性

• 批准号: 1013373
• 负责人: Ravi Ayyer
• 金额: $ 14.97万
• 依托单位: Lehigh Technologies, Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-07-01 至 2010-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1013373&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Material; Properties; Ground

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will re-engineer an environmentally troublesome waste material, end of life rubber tires, into value-added, sustainable raw materials for the plastics market. Previous work with composites containing ground tire rubber (GTR), manufactured using ambient or cryogenic processing, has yielded limited success. In this project we will use cryogenically-ground GTR to create extruded recycled polypropylene (r-PP) composites. Our preliminary results indicate that cryogenic GTR has a higher percentage of small particles than commercially-available ambient GTR at the same mesh size. Smaller particles provide more boundaries for impact energy dissipation and larger surface area to interact with the polymer matrix. Using this raw material, and building on knowledge of the differences in surface area and chemistry for the two types of particles, we will successfully demonstrate high-performance composite material samples. A successful outcome of this work will enable improved formulations and processing methods, resulting in superior mechanical performance of composites. This performance will be verified by laboratory tests in Phase I, leading to a Phase II effort focused on scale-up and commercialization of this process in conjunction with strategic partners. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be to enable the use of recycled rubber powders derived from end of life tires in a value-added product for the plastics market. This will increase the market potential and profitability of this recycling process and expand the range of available options for dealing with the significant environmental issue of approximately 300 million used tires generated per year nationwide. The commercial opportunity is estimated to be $0.3 - 1 billion and is spread across the construction, automotive and consumer markets. Clear and significant societal benefits would also result from the transformation of a problematic environmental waste into a versatile and sustainable raw material.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将重新设计一种环境问题的废弃材料，即报废橡胶轮胎，成为塑料市场的增值，可持续的原材料。 以前的工作与复合材料含有地面轮胎橡胶（GTR），使用环境或低温加工制造，取得了有限的成功。 在这个项目中，我们将使用低温研磨的GTR来制造挤出的再生聚丙烯（r-PP）复合材料。 我们的初步结果表明，在相同的筛目尺寸下，低温GTR比市售常温GTR具有更高的小颗粒百分比。 较小的颗粒为冲击能量耗散提供更多的边界，并提供更大的表面积与聚合物基质相互作用。 使用这种原材料，并建立在两种类型颗粒的表面积和化学差异的基础上，我们将成功地展示高性能复合材料样品。 这项工作的成功结果将使配方和加工方法得到改进，从而使复合材料具有上级机械性能。 这一性能将通过第一阶段的实验室测试进行验证，从而导致第二阶段的工作重点是与战略合作伙伴一起扩大这一过程的规模和商业化。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是使来自报废轮胎的再生橡胶粉能够用于塑料市场的增值产品。 这将增加这一回收过程的市场潜力和盈利能力，并扩大可供选择的范围，以处理全国每年产生的约3亿条旧轮胎的重大环境问题。 商业机会估计为3亿至10亿美元，分布在建筑、汽车和消费市场。 将有问题的环境废物转化为多用途和可持续的原材料也将产生明显和重大的社会效益。