Vinyl compounds that incorporate bio-based plasticizers to make them flexible are equal or better in performance to their traditional counterparts based on petrochemicals, but may be more cost-effective. Custom plastics compounder Teknor Apex introduced the new materials at the NPE2012 show in Orlando, Fla.
The BioVinyl flexible vinyl compounds incorporate DOW ECOLIBRIUM bio-based plasticizers, which are phthalate-free. The vinyl compounds have a smaller carbon footprint than alternative plastics like polyolefins or polyurethanes, and may also be more cost-efficient than plant-based polymers.
A new family of vinyl compounds that incorporate bio-based plasticizers will be used in a variety of consumer and industrial products, including shoe soles, bicycle grips, corrugated tubing for appliances, weatherstripping, and other construction applications. (Source: Teknor Apex)
In tests conducted by Teknor Apex researchers on several application-tailored BioVinyl flexible vinyl compounds, the bio-based plasticizers showed 10 percent and 16 percent greater efficiency than standard DEHP and DINP plasticizers, respectively, Louis Cappucci, VP of Teknor Apex's vinyl division, told us. "This makes it possible to use less plasticizer per pound of compound, lowering costs. There are five or six other options for replacing phthalates, and many of them are expensive."
Typically, 30 percent of the compound by weight consists of plasticizers, 50 percent is PVC resin, and the other 20 percent consists of various custom ingredients, said Cappucci. Teknor Apex's BioVinyl compounds contain 35 percent or less petrochemical content. "Vinyl compounds that incorporate DOW ECOLIBRIUM bio-based plasticizers actually contain about 60 percent renewable resources, since half of the PVC polymer is derived from seawater."
Substituting the new plasticizers for conventional phthalates makes the carbon footprint of BioVinyl compounds much smaller than that of many plastics. Comparative data compiled by Teknor Apex indicates that CO2 emission equivalents of BioVinyl compounds is half that of polyolefin resins and even lower than that of bioplastic polylactic acid (PLA).
My concept was that the entire organic portion of the municiple waste stream, in addition to the sanitary sewerage, would all be decomposing in this rather huge "digester" dome, and the production of methane would be encouraged so that it would produce enough to be commercially worthwhile. The ultimate goal would be to discover the mechanism that converts decomposing bio-matter into petroleum. The ultimate goal would be to do in just a few days what originally took a lot of years and quite a bit of pressure. The end result would be not only a sustainable source of fuel, but a way to dispose of our daily trash production.
Of course it all does sound "a bit utopian", perhaps, but the best part is that it should not infringe on people or limit personal freedoms, but rather provide enough enery without consuming resources.
William, that's a great idea, and it's already being implemented. Microbes for quickly digesting and biodegrading plastic have been recently discovered. Meanwhile, there are already industrial composting facilities connected to landfills that reduce the amount of methane gas, and some of them capture and reuse it in power production. Waste Management is one of the biggest:
One of my ideas many years ago was an enclosed system for "digesting" garbage and sewerage into dirt and methane. The only really new discovery needed was a bacteria that would work on more materials. My idea was that all of the mixing and decomposing would happen under a gastight inflatable dome type of structure that would keep all of the methane in so that it could be separated and collected. The big challenges are that it would take up lots of realestate, and that any maintenance would be a problem because of the explosive methane atmosphere. The logistics would get complicated because of the amount of land that it would take, which would locate it far from the cities, which is where all the garbage and sewerage are created.
William, I agree that not putting things like lead, or even metals, into trash would be ideal. Lead came into the discussion because we were talking about front end and back end aspects of the cradle-to-cradle concept. As Rob and I were discussing in the comment thread below, there's no infrastructure set up yet to prevent that from occurring, and it's a complex one, indeed, that needs to be created.
BTW, biodecomposing anything to produce methane gas is not usually considered the best option, unless it's done in controlled circumstances by industrial composting facilities that recapture the methane.
Not sure just how lead got into the discussion, but there certainly is a lot of absolute hysteria about getting rid of it in all products. The solution there is actually obvious, which is: don't put the trash in landfills. The immediate recycling of metals and plastics, and possibly glass, would leave a mix that could be bio-decomposed to produce methane gas. The recovery of resources and energy would be one good way to prevent a lot of things from getting into the ecosystem, and possibly turn a profit at the same time. Of course, the recycling of mixed plasitcs does present a real challenge unless there is a cheap and low energy way to break them into more basic molecules.
The other option is sorting the plastics intothe different types, but that is quite a challenge for some of the types.
Since lead is a known poison, and in very small quantities, it's definitely not a good idea to let it leach into the ecosystem anywhere it might get into human or animal food or water sources. That's why it's no longer allowed in paint, although it still exists in many older houses where kids get sickened by it, and many workers are exposed to it in workplaces. Verifying whether a product containing lead will leach that lead into the environment is something that should be determined by objective, third-party sources not the product's manufacturer, which is highly likely to be biased.
You're right that the issue of lead not leaching into the environment was not upheld. Most people think that putting lead into a product is a bad idea even if some manufacturers say it won't go into the environment.
I do have to hand it to the European Commission. When the group was challenged by IPC and others on some of the science during RoHS redo, the EC backed off on some items.
Rob, thanks for that--I know you've written a lot about green issues. That's a good point, that RoHS tried to address EOL issues a bit, although they were mostly aimed at the front end. But I'm not aware that any of those claims about wrong-headed EU science were ever upheld. Seems like that's always the initial response from manufacturers when told their products are unhealthy by a governing body, and they must change.
You're right. Very little has been done to regulate what happens EOL. the RoHS regulations address it a tad. The effort to get lead out of solder was ultimately an EOL issue, since the EU's concern was lead slipping into the environment after the product was discarded. While many have complained the EU got its science wrong on that issue, the goal was eliminating the lead on the EOL side.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
PTC will offer a virtual desktop environment for its Creo product design applications, potentially freeing engineers to run them from remote desktops on a variety of operating systems and mobile devices.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
Now that solar and wind harvesting technologies are a thriving market, researchers are seeking other environmentally related energy sources for which they can create harvesting devices.
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