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

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）一期项目将重新设计一种对环境有害的废旧橡胶轮胎，将其转化为塑料市场的增值、可持续原材料。以前的工作是使用环境或低温加工制造含有地面轮胎橡胶（GTR）的复合材料，取得了有限的成功。在这个项目中，我们将使用低温研磨GTR来制造挤出再生聚丙烯（r-PP）复合材料。我们的初步结果表明，在相同的网孔尺寸下，低温GTR的小颗粒百分比高于商用环境GTR。较小的颗粒为冲击能量耗散提供了更多的边界，并为与聚合物基体相互作用提供了更大的表面积。使用这种原材料，并建立在两种类型的颗粒的表面积和化学差异的知识，我们将成功地展示高性能的复合材料样品。这项工作的成功成果将使配方和加工方法得到改进，从而使复合材料具有优越的机械性能。这一效果将在第一阶段通过实验室测试进行验证，然后与战略伙伴一道开展第二阶段的工作，重点是扩大这一过程的规模并将其商业化。这个项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是使从报废轮胎中提取的再生橡胶粉末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，并扩大现有选择的范围，以处理全国每年产生的大约3亿个旧轮胎的重大环境问题。商业机会估计为3 - 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功能和可持续的原材料也将产生明显和重大的社会效益。

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.