High efficiency value-added bulk recycling of polymers by solid state shear milling

塑料的年产量超过3亿吨，预计在未来20年内将翻一番。塑料已成为日常生活许多方面的重要材料，但塑料固体废物的产生正成为一个日益严重的问题，例如，每年有800万吨塑料废物进入海洋，对海洋生态系统产生巨大影响。一些相对清洁和容易分离的废塑料可以经济地回收，如饮料瓶，回收水平正在增加，但许多聚合物材料更难回收，例如含有不同材料的聚合物的复合材料，如橡胶轮胎和印刷电路板。因此，全世界迫切需要开发新的技术上和经济上可行的方法来回收这些类型的材料。这与循环经济的概念相一致，循环经济寻求保持产品和材料的使用，并设计出废物和污染。我们英国-中国联合团队的目标是开发一种工业规模的连续流程，以高效的方式成功回收和再制造目前难以回收的大宗废物流。将开发一种连续球磨工艺，将固体聚合物废物分解成性能可控的细粉，然后再加工成附加值产品。我们将进行实验，以了解碾磨过程的机理，以及如何对特定的废水进行优化。我们将对生产的材料进行表征，并研究将这些粉末转化为有用的附加值产品的不同方法。我们结合了我们中英两国集团的独特技能和优势，以解决我们两国面临的关键问题-通过高效的再利用途径有效地减少了大量的塑料垃圾。这项建议建立在布拉德福德聚合物研究中心的世界级研究实验室与四川大学聚合物材料工程国家重点实验室之间过去十年的高度成功研究合作的基础上，该实验室是RCUK Bradford Science Bridge中国平台的一个重要且在国际上屡获殊荣的部分。

Over 300 million tonnes of plastic is produced annually and this is expected to double over the next 20 years. Plastics have become vital materials in many aspects of everyday life but the generation of plastics solid waste (PSW) is becoming an increasing problem, for example 8 million tonnes of plastic waste finds its way into the oceans each year, having a huge impact on marine ecosystems. Some relatively clean and easy to separate types of waste plastics can be recycled economically, such as drinks bottles, and levels of recycling are increasing but many polymeric materials are much more difficult to recycle, for example composites containing different materials of polymers which cannot be re-melted such as rubber tyres and printed circuit boards. As such there is an urgent need worldwide to develop new technically and economically feasible methods to recycle these types of materials. This aligns with the concept of a circular economy which seeks to keep products and materials in use and design out waste and pollution. Our joint UK-China team aims to develop an industrial scale continuous process to successfully recycle and re-manufacture currently difficult to recycle bulk waste streams, with high efficiency. A continuous milling process will be developed to break down solid polymeric waste into fine powders with controlled properties, which can then be reprocessed into value-added products. We will perform experiments to understand the mechanisms of the milling process and how these can be opitimised for particular waste streams. We will characterise the materials produced and examine different ways of turning these powders into useful, value-added products. We combine unique skills and strengths of our Chinese and UK groups to address key issues facing both of our countries - effectively reducing the significant amount of plastic waste with efficient routes to re-use. This proposal builds on the highly successful research collaborations over the last decade between the world-class research laboratories of the Polymer IRC at Bradford and Sichuan University State Key Laboratory for Polymer Materials Engineering (SKLPME), an important and international award-winning part of our RCUK Bradford Science Bridges China platform.