Vinyloop

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vinyloop is the brand name of a method for recycling of PVC including wastes. It was developed by the Belgian chemical company Solvay and patented in 1998. Vinyloop is a relatively new recycling process. So far the process has been used in Ferrara (Italy) and in Futtsu (Japan). The Ferrara plant was shut down in 2018 because the products contained excessive amounts of plasticizers such as DEHP .

The process is neither classified as a chemical nor a purely mechanical recycling process, since the PVC plastic from the waste is chemically little changed and chemicals such as solvents are still used in the process.

Procedure

In the vinyloop process, an organic solvent is used to separate the plastic PVC from PVC-containing waste. In this way, the plastic can be separated from materials that have been processed into composites with it . For example, garden hoses often contain other types of plastic and textile fibers that cannot be separated from the PVC mechanically or only with great effort. When the composite is dissolved, the components of the PVC plastic are dissolved, other materials are usually resistant to the solvent and can be separated off. The polyvinyl chloride and its additives such as fillers , pigments and plasticizers are precipitated and dried. The PVC base material obtained, the PVC compound , is very similar to the conventional one and can therefore be used in the original product area.

The process can be divided into the following procedural steps:

Pretreatment
The PVC waste is pretreated differently depending on its composition. In general, the waste is shredded or milled to increase its surface area. The PVC contained dissolves faster in the solvent. The filling in the closed part of the system is adapted to the type of waste so that no solvent escapes from the pressurized system during the supply.
Dissolve
In the first reactor , the PVC waste is dissolved under exclusion of air and under pressure in butanone or in a mixture of butanone with other solvents. Depending on the type of PVC waste, dissolving takes place at temperatures between 100 and 140 ° C. In addition, an additive is added to the solution to help dissolve the PVC.
When the polymer chain of the PVC dissolves, the additives of the PVC compound are released. These are the substances that were added during manufacture, i.e. mineral fillers, plasticizers, heavy metals and other stabilizers . Some of these substances are soluble or are dispersed in the solution. They are not or only to a small extent separated off during filtration and are returned to the recycled PVC in a later step.
Filtration
The undissolved substances are separated by filtering , decanting or centrifuging , depending on the type of material . This process step must be particularly adapted to the type of waste. The separated substances (filtrate) can be washed with pure solvent to rinse out the last PVC residues. The filtrate then only contains a few percent PVC.
Failures
In the subsequent reactor, steam is fed in, which completely evaporates the solvent and removes it from the liquid phase. PVC falls out of the solution and forms an aqueous sludge. During the precipitation process, the dissolved and dispersed additives are usually included in the PVC particles that are formed. The PVC powder obtained has a grain size of about 0.4 mm and a gray color because of the various dyes that are included.
The solvent is recovered by cooling the vapor from the precipitation reactor. The water condenses and can be separated in a decanter . The solvent is available again for the next dissolving process. However, it cannot be fully recovered. A small part is released as gas during processing. In order to keep the concentration in the exhaust gas low, it is burned off with natural gas via post-combustion .
dry
The slurry of PVC compound particles and water is dried by hot air in a fluidized bed dryer. The wastewater produced may still contain solvents, PVC additives such as plasticizers and heavy metals as well as PVC residues and must therefore be treated.
The PVC recyclate from the vinyloop process is very pure compared to other recycling processes. Residues and impurities are concentrated in the form of a filtrate. Since it contains all the insoluble components of the treated waste, the filtrate can often not be used as a valuable material. In this case, in the EU, it may only be used for energy in waste incineration plants or deposited underground .

New PVC additives can be added to the solution during the dissolution and during the precipitation. In this way, the properties of the PVC recyclate can be adjusted if necessary. For example, post-stabilization or an increase in the proportion of plasticizer is possible.

Since the plasticizers contained in the old PVC are completely back in the PVC recyclate, the plasticizer DEHP can also be contained in products that are made from Vinyloop PVC. DEHP and other phthalate-based plasticizers may no longer be placed on the market in Europe from February 21, 2015 under the REACH regulation . For this reason, the operator of the Italian plant, Vinyloop Ferrara SpA , applied to the European Chemicals Agency for an exemption from the future ban on DEHP (see ↓ Ecology ).

As this is a proprietary process, no other components of the butanone-based solvent have yet been disclosed. For this reason, there are still no independent statements on the possible risk potential. Since the PVC plastic is broken down into its components that are potentially hazardous to health in the plant, the same environmental risks apply as for other polyvinyl chloride processing plants. The PVC molecules are not split into free vinyl chloride (monomer).

application

The vinyloop plant in Ferrara, Italy, went into operation in 2002. The French PVC processor Serge Ferrari recycles PVC cables and tarpaulins here. In this first industrial plant, production could be increased from a few hundred in 2002 to over 10,000 tons of recyclate per year. The recycling of PVC tarpaulins is called TexyLoop and includes the pre-treatment of the PVC tarpaulin at the recycling company MTB Trept in La Tour-du-Pin, France . The residues from the treatment in the Italian plant are incinerated in Germany.

Temporary materials from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London are treated in the facility . Serge Ferrari supplied around 80% of the PVC-coated textiles for furnishing the Olympic Stadium , the Water Polo Arena , the London Aquatics Center and the Royal Artillery Barracks . They are treated for recycling in the vinyloop process.

Together with Kobelco Eco-Solutions , a subsidiary of the Japanese steel and construction machinery manufacturer Kobe Steel , Solvay put a second plant into operation in Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture , with a capacity of 18,000 tons of recyclate per year. In contrast to the Italian one, the plant has a further area of ​​application for PVC waste.

Planning

Plants have been planned in Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Canada since 2001. A plant in the French department of Isère was intended to treat PVC tarpaulins. Up to the end of 2003, up to two systems were planned at Solvay sites in Germany. In addition to only short-term plans for a plant in Rheinberg , a plant in Bernburg with a capacity of 30,000 tons per year should be built by mid-2005 . Instead, a project in Dreux near Paris with a capacity of 40,000 tons per year was planned in 2004 , for which a feasibility study also turned out negative. With the exception of the plant in Japan, all projects had to be postponed or canceled due to excessive production costs, so that no further plant has been built to date.

The total investment for a vinyloop system was given in 2002 at 8.2 to 14 million euros, depending on the existing infrastructure. Solvay sees the supply of steam as an important location factor for a vinyloop system. The investment is therefore lower at locations that already have a steam supply. At the technical level of 2002, the average production costs were between 250 and 450 euros per tonne of PVC waste.

ecology

Like any other recycling process, Vinyloop also offers the possibility of reducing the consumption of primary raw materials , as materials that have already been used are partially made reusable. So far there is no independent evidence of the sustainability of the process.

In-house study

A study by Solvay compares the use of the vinyloop process (recycling and re-use of the recycled material in the product) with the conventional way, i.e. H. incinerate the PVC waste to be treated and recreate the amount of PVC it ​​contains. The study comes to the conclusion that the primary energy requirement can be reduced by 46 percent with Vinyloop. This results in lower greenhouse gas emissions , so that the global warming potential of the emissions is 39 percent lower under the assumptions of the study than when the waste is incinerated and new PVC is used.

The ozone depletion potential (ODP), however, increases when using Vinyloop compared to the comparison case. While conventional incineration and new production reduce the emission of ozone-depleting substances, the use of Vinyloop causes more ozone-destroying emissions. This increases the ozone depletion potential of the emissions when using Vinyloop by more than sevenfold compared to the comparison case. This is evident from the calculations of the study, but is not stated in the description of the study itself or in other publications on Vinyloop.

The values ​​were determined under the conditions of the plant operation in Ferrara. For example, the Italian electricity mix was used as a basis for the energy supply . Due to a lack of data, the study also neglects the fossil carbon dioxide emissions caused by the PVC filler calcium carbonate when it is burned. The study also does not reveal whether the results are achieved in commercial operation or under more favorable test conditions when testing new system components.

Applications for DEHP use under the REACH regulation

Old PVC composite materials usually contain plasticizers such as DEHP, which, according to the REACH regulation, since February 21, 2015, may no longer be contained in products for the European market due to its teratogenic effects . In 2013, Vinyloop Ferrara SpA , operator of the Vinyloop plant in Ferrara, together with the manufacturers of the plasticizer, applied for the approval of DEHP for certain applications to be extended beyond the deadline in order to allow further processors of the Vinyloop PVC recyclate to sell their DEHP-containing products enable.

Government organizations and NGOs , including the Danish and Swedish environmental protection authorities as well as the European Environment Office and the Association for Environment and Nature Conservation Germany , spoke out against extended use in the approval process, while the Japanese Association of Plasticizer Manufacturers and the European Automobile Manufacturers Association ACEA approve DEHP-containing approval Support vinyloop products beyond February 21, 2015. In the approval process, in which companies could apply for DEHP use for special applications, a decision had been made in only one of a total of eleven applications (including two from Vinyloop Ferrara ) by June 2014 , so that a decision on the Vinyloop application is still pending.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Chemicals Technology: Ferrara
  2. ↑ plasteurope.com: VINYLOOP: Closure of operation in Italy
  3. ↑ CLOSURE OF VINYLOOP BUSINESS AT FERRARA ( Memento from October 29, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ A. Tukker, H. de Groot, L. Simons, S. Wiegersma: Chemical Recycling of Plastic Waste (PVC and other resins) ( Memento of 12 November 2012 at the Internet Archive ), European Commission, DG III, Final report, STB-99-55, December 1999
  5. ↑ PE Europe GmbH, on behalf of Vinyl 2010: Final Report: PVC Recovery Options - Environmental and Economic System Analysis (PDF; 2.5 MB), April 2003, p. 31 ff.
  6. ↑ The Full Wiki: Vinyloop
  7. ↑ a b Solvay SA: Vinyloop: A new Process to Regenerate PVC Compounds from Composite Residues (PDF; 465 kB), presentation from 2001
  8. ↑ a b L'Usine Nouvelle, No. 2784: Vinyloop régénere le PVC souple , article of June 21, 2001
  9. ↑ Vinyl 2010: Progress Report 2011 ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.7 MB), April 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.plasticseurope.org
  10. ↑ a b L'Usine Nouvelle, No. 2816: Vinyloop passe en phase industrial , article of March 14, 2002
  11. ↑ a b Vinyloop Ferrara SpA: The VinyLoop® Eco-Footprint ( Memento of the original from January 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.7 MB), August 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vinyloop.com
  12. ^ PlasticsNews.com: PVC at Olympics destined for reuse or recycling , July 31, 2012 article
  13. ↑ Kobelco Eco-Solutions: Sustainability Report 2006 . Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  14. ↑ a b c VDI News: PVC almost like new ( memento from June 19, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). Article of March 8, 2002.
  15. ↑ Solvay Platics: Vinyl 2010: opts for Vinyloop® (PDF; 65 kB), September 2003
  16. ^ Vinyl 2010: Progress Report 2005 , May 2005
  17. ↑ European Chemicals Agency (ECHA): Authorization List: Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) . Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  18. ↑ European Chemicals Agency (ECHA): Adopted opinions and previous consultations on applications for authorization . Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  19. ↑ Chemical Watch: ECHA publishes comments on phthalate authorization consultations , January 14, 2014. Accessed June 21, 2014. Archived on June 15, 2014. ( Memento from June 15, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
  20. ↑ European Chemicals Agency (ECHA): Comments on public consultation 0008-02: Industrial use of recycled soft PVC containing DEHP in polymer processing . Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  21. ↑ Chemical Watch: REACH Committee adopts first authorization application , June 20, 2014. Retrieved June 21, 2014. Archived on June 21, 2015 ( Memento from June 21, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )