SuperPolyWash - Supercritical CO2 washing and decontamination of post-consumer plastic film waste

新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即2019冠状病毒病）大流行促使人们更加关注对一次性塑料采取紧急行动的必要性。SuperPolyWash项目将研究使用超临界二氧化碳（ScCO 2）代替水净化受污染塑料薄膜的商业潜力，将其回收利用，重新生产高价值产品。该工艺的目标是同时去除消费后聚烯烃薄膜中的油、油墨和污染物，重点是聚丙烯（PP）和线性低密度聚乙烯（LLDPE）薄膜。现有的回收工艺使用水和表面活性剂，需要额外的能量进行干燥，并产生需要额外生化处理的污染水。ScCO 2是一种无毒、不易燃、无腐蚀性的溶剂，可以选择性地去除污染物。使用ScCO 2作为去污溶剂已经在其他行业中得到了广泛的应用。**Nextek Ltd** 是专门从事消费后塑料回收的领先组织，并开发了许多突破性回收技术，包括食品级回收高密度聚乙烯（HDPE），食品级回收PP，近红外可检测黑色塑料和聚合物分选荧光标记。Nextek Ltd还设计了大型塑料回收厂，例如位于Avonmouth的Viridor价值6500万英镑的工厂，并与国际回收机械制造商保持着良好的联系。** 分包商 * 诺丁汉大学 **最初的可行性和开发研究的大部分将在化学学院，在史蒂夫·豪德尔教授的监督下。UoN团队擅长可持续发展，聚合物化学，超临界流体的使用，分析化学，并具有学术研究商业化的经验。** 生物复合材料中心班戈尔大学 **，该中心由罗伯特·埃利亚斯博士管理，其设施包括用于化学分析的实验室规模的分析设备，以及一系列中试规模的加工设施和在原型材料和降低市场引入新创新风险方面的经验。该中心成立了超临界二氧化碳研究实验室（现为合资公司Suprex Ltd）。** 主题：** 提高我们自然资源的效益和价值--到2050年实现零废弃物经济英国塑料公约的目标是到2025年实现70%的回收含量，这将需要从垃圾填埋场和能源工厂转移额外的228千吨废膜。这将节省相当数量的废物，并每年节省228千吨二氧化碳，这是基于每回收一吨聚乙烯沿着水节省1吨碳和（处理）节省684千吨。

The Covid-19 pandemic has boosted the focus on the need for urgent action on single use plastics, The SuperPolyWash project will look at the commercial potential of using Super Critical Carbon Dioxide (ScCO2) in the purification of contaminated plastic films, instead of water, to recycle them back into high value products. The process will target the simultaneous removal of oils, inks and contamination from post-consumer polyolefinic films, with the focus being on Polypropylene (PP) and Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) films.Existing recycling processes use water and surfactants that need additional energy for drying and create contaminated water that requires additional bio-chemical treatment. ScCO2 is a non-toxic, non-flammable, non-corrosive solvent and can be selective about the contaminants it removes. Using ScCO2 as a decontamination solvent is already well established among other industries. **Nextek Ltd** is the lead organisation which specialises in the recycling of post consumer plastics and the developer of a number of breakthrough recycling technologies including food grade recycled High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) , Food grade recycled PP, Near Infra red Detectable black Plastics and Fluorescent markers for polymer sorting. Nextek Ltd also designs large scale plastics recycling plants such as the £65m plant for Viridor at Avonmouth and is well connected to international recycling machinery manufacturers. **Sub-Contractors** **University of Nottingham.** The majority of the initial feasibility and development research will be in The School of Chemistry, under the supervision of Professor Steve Howdle. The UoN team is skilled in sustainability, polymer chemistry, the use of supercritical fluids, analytical chemistry and have experience in the commercialisation of academic research. **The BioComposite Center Bangor University**, The Centre Managed by Dr Robert Elias has facilities that include lab scale analytical equipments for chemical analysis, and a range of pilot scale processing facilities and experience in prototyping materials and de-risking market introduction of new innovations. The Centre set up the supercritical CO2 Research Lab (now JV company Suprex Ltd). **Theme:** Enhancing the benefits and value of our natural resources - Zero Avoidable Waste economy by 2050 The UK Plastics Pact target of 70% recycled content by 2025 would require an additional 228kt of waste films diverted from landfill and energy plants. This would save a comparable amount of waste and also saves 228kt of CO2 savings per year based on a saving of 1 tonne of carbon per tonne of polyethylene recycled along with water and (treatment) savings of 684ktpa.