Recycling of plastics, textiles, composites: Pretreatment and analysis

Recycling into high-value products require knowledge about your ingoing feedstock as well as the output products from your selected recycling process. We have the tools and the expertise to both obtain and make use of that knowledge.

Pretreatment

Recycling is not possible without pretreatment of the feedstock. Each recycling technique holds limitations in the accepted type and form of feedstock. Further, the quality of recyclates can be drastically improved by a suitable pretreatment. At RISE we have both the instrumentation and expertise needed for pretreatment of plastics, textiles and composites. The pretreatment aims to prepare the material for mechanical or chemical recycling and may contain;

• Size reduction; shredder, grinder, textile grinder, saws with diamond blades (suitable for size reduction of fiber reinforced composites)

• Detoxification, for example via High Temperature Liquefaction HTL

• Decoloration

Testing and analysis

At RISE we have a long experience of identification, extraction and substitution of hazardous substances from plastics, textiles and composites to make more waste streams recyclable. We offer a multitude of analytical techniques for chemical characterization of everything from volatile organic compounds and elements to polymers and biomolecules. Further, chemical analysis is a key tool in identifying both products and by-products of the different chemical recycling methods.

Functional properties of a recycled polymeric material, such as the melting point or E-modulus is probed with mechanical or thermal analysis. We offer a wide range of testing according to relevant standards such as ISO 527-2, ISO 179 and ISO 1133. Please see the column to the right for a list of relevant techniques for analysis and testing of plastic, textile and composite materials.