Analysis of PBT and PET cyclic oligomers in extracts of coffee capsules and food simulants by a HPLC-UV/FLD method.

A HPLC-UV/FLD method was validated for the quantification of six polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and four polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) oligomers. PBT oligomers are EU regulated, while the PET ones are considered non-intentionally added substances (NIAS). LOQs were higher than 0.4 and 3.5 µg kg-1 for the simulants and in the polymer extracts, respectively. Recoveries ranged from 95 to 114 % with RSDs below 12%. Migration testing of PBT and polypropylene coffee capsules were performed with H2O and simulant C, and extracts were obtained with accelerated solvent extraction (ASE). For the latter legislative limits weren't surpassed. As no migration limits are existing for the analytes, both EFSA's toxicological threshold of concern (TTC) and sum of oligomers approaches were applied. The majority of oligomers were below the TTC (90 µg/person/day), but the limit value of 50 µg/kg food was surpassed for some capsules, which indicates a significant intake in both single and multiple consumption.

Determination of adhesive acrylates in recycled polyethylene terephthalate by fabric phase sorptive extraction coupled to ultra performance liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry.

This article presents fabric phase sorptive extraction (FPSE) as a simple and effective pre-concentration method for the enrichment of acrylate compounds in different food simulants and subsequent analysis of the extracts by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (UPLC-MS). Acrylate compounds come from acrylic adhesives used commonly for sticking the paper labels on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and therefore, they may exist in recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET). Four acrylates were studied: ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDM), pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA), triethylene glycol diacrylate (TEGDA) and trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA). Five different types of FPSE media coated with different sol-gel sorbents were studied and finally sol-gel polyethylene glycol- polypropylene glycol-polyethylene glycol triblock copolymer (PEG-PPG-PEG) coated FPSE media was chosen for its satisfactory results. The optimal conditions affecting the extraction efficiency of compounds were determined in three different food simulants. Statistical evaluation of this method reveals good linearity and precision. Under the optimized conditions, the method provided limits of detection of the compounds in the range of (0.1-1.9 ng g-1, 0.1-1.2 ng g-1, 0.2-2.3 ng g-1) in EtOH 10%, HAc 3% and EtOH 20% and the enrichment factor values (EFs) after applying N2 were in the range of 11.1-25.0, 13.8-26.3, 8.3-21.9, in simulants A, B and C respectively. The optimized method was applied successfully to analyze thirteen types of recycled PET samples. Acrylates were found in some of the samples at ng g-1 levels.

Cleavage Product Accumulation Decreases the Activity of Cutinase during PET Hydrolysis.

The Fusarium solani cutinase (FsC) is a promising candidate for the enzymatic degradation of the synthetic polyester polyethylene terephthalate (PET) but still suffers from a lack of activity. Using atomic MD simulations with different concentrations of cleavage product ethylene glycol (EG), we show influences of EG on the dynamic of FsC. We observed accumulation of EG in the active site region reducing the local flexibility of FsC. Furthermore, we used a coarse-grained mechanical model to investigate whether substrate binding in the active site causes an induced fit. We observed this supposed induced fit or "breath-like" movement during substrate binding indicating that the active site has to be flexible for substrate conversion. This guides rational design: mutants with an increased flexibility near the active site should be considered to compensate the solvent-mediated reduction in activity.

PET and PVC separation with hyperspectral imagery.

Traditional plants for plastic separation in homogeneous products employ material physical properties (for instance density). Due to the small intervals of variability of different polymer properties, the output quality may not be adequate. Sensing technologies based on hyperspectral imaging have been introduced in order to classify materials and to increase the quality of recycled products, which have to comply with specific standards determined by industrial applications. This paper presents the results of the characterization of two different plastic polymers--polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC)--in different phases of their life cycle (primary raw materials, urban and urban-assimilated waste and secondary raw materials) to show the contribution of hyperspectral sensors in the field of material recycling. This is accomplished via near-infrared (900-1700 nm) reflectance spectra extracted from hyperspectral images acquired with a two-linear-spectrometer apparatus. Results have shown that a rapid and reliable identification of PET and PVC can be achieved by using a simple two near-infrared wavelength operator coupled to an analysis of reflectance spectra. This resulted in 100% classification accuracy. A sensor based on this identification method appears suitable and inexpensive to build and provides the necessary speed and performance required by the recycling industry.

Investigation of thermal treatment on selective separation of post consumer plastics prior to froth flotation.

Plastics have become the widely used materials because of their advantages, such as cheapness, endurance, lightness, and hygiene. However, they cause waste and soil pollution and they do not easily decompose. Many promising technologies are being investigated for separating mixed thermoplastics, but they are still uneconomical and unreliable. Depending on their surface characteristics, these plastics can be separated from each other by flotation method which is useful mineral processing technique with its low cost and simplicity. The main objective of this study is to investigate the flotation characteristics of PET and PVC and determine the effect of plasticizer reagents on efficient plastic separation. For that purpose, various parameters such as pH, plasticizer concentration, plasticizer type, conditioning temperature and thermal conditioning were investigated. As a result, PET particles were floated with 95.1% purity and 65.3% efficiency while PVC particles were obtained with 98.1% purity and 65.3% efficiency.

Factors affecting degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) during pre-flotation conditioning.

In general, plastics are exposed to different degrading agents in every procedure involved in their recovery from waste mixture and from subsequent recycling. In this study, two methods of pre-flotation conditioning were used to determine how these methods affect the general properties of the pre-conditioned PET particles to be recovered from the PET-PVC mixture. The first method comprised the conditioning of PET samples using an alkaline solution of nonionic surfactant (Triton X-100) based on the patent by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The second method, developed in this study, was a conditioning process which used an alkali-less solution of the same nonionic surfactant (Triton X-100) used in the first method. The following analytical methods were used to characterize properties of the pre-conditioned PET samples that were correlated to relative degradation of the samples: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), for thermal behavior of the samples; FT-IR spectroscopy, for functional groups present in the samples; and, Pohl's method, for carboxyl end-group concentration count. Results show that in addition to water the presence of NaOH in the conditioning solution contributes to the further degradation of the polymer.

Selective separation of virgin and post-consumer polymers (PET and PVC) by flotation method.

More and more polymer wastes are generated by industry and householders today. Recycling is an important process to reduce the amount of waste resulting from human activities. Currently, recycling technologies use relatively homogeneous polymers because hand-sorting waste is costly. Many promising technologies are being investigated for separating mixed thermoplastics, but they are still uneconomical and unreliable. At present, most waste polymers cause serious environmental problems. Burning polymers for recycling is not practiced since poisonous gases are released during the burning process. Particularly, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials among waste polymers generate hazardous HCl gas, dioxins containing Cl, etc., which lead to air pollution and shorten the life of the incinerator. In addition, they make other polymers difficult to recycle. Both polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and PVC have densities of 1.30-1.35g /cm(3) and cannot be separated using conventional gravity separation techniques. For this reason, polymer recycling needs new techniques. Among these techniques, froth flotation, which is also used in mineral processing, can be useful because of its low cost and simplicity. The main objective of this research is to recycle PET and PVC selectively from post-consumer polymer wastes and virgin polymers by using froth flotation. According to the results, all PVC particles were floated with 98.8% efficiency in virgin polymer separation while PET particles were obtained with 99.7% purity and 57.0% efficiency in post-consumer polymer separation.

Recovery of PET from packaging plastics mixtures by wet shaking table.

Recycling requires the separation of materials appearing in a mass of wastes of heterogeneous composition and characteristics, into single, almost pure, component/material flows. The separation of materials (e.g., some types of plastics) with similar physical properties (e.g., specific gravity) is often accomplished by human sorting. This is the case of the separation of packaging plastics in municipal solid wastes (MSW). The low cost of virgin plastics and low value of recycled plastics necessitate the utilization of low cost techniques and processes in the recycling of packaging plastics. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of production of a PET product, cleaned from PVC and PS, using a wet shaking table. The wet shaking table is an environmentally friendly process, widely used to separate minerals, which has low capital and operational costs. Some operational variables of the equipment, as well as different feed characteristics, were considered. The results show that the separation of these plastics is feasible although, similarly to the mineral field, in somewhat complex flow sheets.

Enzymatic hydrolysis of gelatin layers on used lith film using thermostable alkaline protease for recovery of silver and PET film.

To develop a new efficient and potential industrial enzymatic process for the recovery of silver and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) from used lith film for printing, which has not been recycled at all, enzymatic hydrolysis of gelatin layers on lith film was investigated using the thermostabilized mutant enzyme of the alkaline protease from alkaliphilic Bacillus sp. B21-2. The rate of gelatin hydrolysis of lith film in a stirred-tank reactor increased with the temperature and enzyme concentration. The time required to complete the hydrolysis of gelatin on lith film was longer than that on X-ray film because of the tightly cross-linked structure of the gelatin layers of lith film. The time required to complete the hydrolysis by using the mutant enzyme was less than that using the wild-type enzyme. The gelatin hydrolysis of lith film was well explained by a model that took into consideration a number of physical processes in addition to the chemical process.

Kinetics of aerobically activated sludge on terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater treatment.

Aerobically activated sludge processing was carried out to treat terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater (TPD wastewater) in a lab-scale experiment, focusing on the kinetics of the COD removal. The kinetics parameters determined from experiment were applied to evaluate the biological treatability of wastewater. Experiments showed that COD removal could be divided into two stages, in which the ratio BOD/COD (B/C) was the key factor for stage division. At the rapid-removal stage with B/C>0.1, COD removal could be described by a zero order reaction. At the moderate-removal stage with B/C<0.1, COD removal could be described by a first order reaction. Then Monod equation was introduced to indicate COD removal. The reaction rate constant (K) and half saturation constant (K(S)) were 0.0208-0.0642 L/(gMLSS).h and 0.44-0.59 (gCOD)/L respectively at 20 degrees C-35 degrees C. Activation energy (E(a)) was 6.05 x 10(4) J/mol. By comparison of kinetic parameters, the biological treatability of TPD wastewater was superior to that of traditional textile wastewater. But COD removal from TPD-wastewater was much more difficult than that from domestic and industrial wastewater, such as papermaking, beer, phenol wastewater, etc. The expected effluent quality strongly related to un-biodegradable COD and kinetics rather than total COD. The results provide useful basis for further scaling up and efficient operation of TPD wastewater treatment.

Flame treatment for the selective wetting and separation of PVC and PET.

Flame treatment has been used for many years to modify the surface of plastics to allow coatings to be added. The effect of the treatment is to produce hydrophilic species on the surface of the plastic making it water-wettable. The production of hydrophilic plastic surfaces is also required in the selective separation of plastics by froth flotation. For the process to be selective one plastic must be rendered hydrophilic while another remains hydrophobic. In this study the potential for separation of PVC and PET has been investigated. Flame treatment was shown to be very effective in producing a hydrophilic surface on both plastics, although the process was not selective under the conditions investigated. Raising the temperature of the plastics above their softening point produced a hydrophobic recovery. As the softening point of PVC was significantly lower than for PET it was possible to produce a significant difference in hydrophobicity, as judged using contact angle measurement. When immersed in water the contact angle of the PVC was found to be strongly dependent on the pH. Good separation efficiency of the two plastics was achieved by froth flotation from pH 4 to 9. One particular advantage of the technique is that no chemical reagents may be required in the flotation stage. The practicalities of designing a flake treatment system however have to be addressed before considering it to be a viable industrial process.