The invention relates to a continuous method for removing a solvent from a suspension or solution comprising a dissolved target polymer by integrated drum-drying and extrusion of said suspension or solution comprising the dissolved target polymer. The invention also relates to a plastic waste recycling system for recycling a target polymer. Furthermore, the invention also relates to a polymer material obtained by this recycling method.

There are provided processes for recycling waste such as polystyrene thermoplastic polymer waste and/or polystyrene thermoplastic copolymer waste as well as recycled polystyrene thermoplastic polymer and/or recycled thermoplastic copolymer that may, for example, be obtained from such processes. The processes can comprise dissolving the waste in cymene, xylene or ethylbenzene or a suitable solvent, to obtain a mixture followed by heating the mixture under acidic conditions and then optionally neutral conditions in the presence of a reducing agent then cooling to obtain a supernatant comprising polystyrene thermoplastic polymer and/or polystyrene thermoplastic copolymer and a solid waste residue. The supernatant can optionally be treated with a filtration aid, then the supernatant can be contacted with a hydrocarbon polystyrene non-solvent under conditions to obtain precipitated polystyrene thermoplastic polymer and/or precipitated polystyrene thermoplastic copolymer which can be washed with additional hydrocarbon polystyrene non-solvent, and optionally dried and formed into polystyrene thermoplastic polymer pellets and/or polystyrene thermoplastic copolymer pellets.

The invention relates to a process and an installation to produce a monovinylaromatic polymer (3) comprising post-consumer recycled polystyrene (PCR-PS) wherein the process comprises the steps of mixing the PCR-PS (5) and the monovinylaromatic monomer (7) within a dissolver (9) to dissolve the PCR-PS (5) in the monovinylaromatic monomer (7) so as to produce a polymerization mixture (13); and a step of filtering the polymerization mixture (13) that includes continuously redirecting at least a part of the stream of the filtered polymerization mixture (17) back to the dissolver (9) and mixing it with the polymerization mixture (13) so as to continuously reduce the content of insoluble material in the polymerization mixture (13) contained in the dissolver (9).

Disclosed is a process for treating plastic waste chips containing a blend of polypropylene and polyethylene in an amount of at least 83.0 wt.-% to less than 100 wt.-% and further containing C7 to C11 aldehydes in an amount of 8000 ppb to 20000 ppb limonene in an amount of 5 ppm to 500 ppm, the process comprising subjecting said plastic waste chips, in a fixed bed without stirring under standard pressure or reduced pressure, to a gas flow for achieving a Reynolds number in the range of 35 to 1200 at a temperature in the range of 20° C. to a point 10° C. below the Vicat softening point (10N, ISO 306) of said plastic waste and recovering the treated plastic waste chips containing C7 to C11 aldehydes in a total amount of 50 ppb to less than 5000 ppb limonene in an amount of 0.5 to 5 ppm.

A waste polyester material is prepared for recycling by dissolving the material in a solution comprising hexafluoroisopropyl (HFIPA) and a chlorinated hydrocarbon, such as dichloromethane (DCM) and/or an aromatic hydrocarbon, such as toluene or xylene, to form a dissolved polyester sample. The dissolved polyester may be prepared for recycling by evaporation, spray drying, and/or precipitation, which produces a purified solid polyester product. The dissolution solution, which is separated from the purified solid polyester product, is also recycled through distillation with purification.

Pre-treating a waste polyester material with dichloromethane (DCM) produce purified polyester for reuse. The purified polyester can be recycled via any chemical or mechanical recycling process. Where the waste polyester material includes non-polyester contaminants, the DCM-treated polyester material produces a slurry that includes the DCM, a solid component that includes a polyester monomer product for reuse, and a waste liquid component where the non-polyester contaminants can be filtered from the top of the liquid component.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a method of recycling carbon fibers that allows efficiently obtaining carbon fibers suitable for reuse. An embodiment is the method of recycling carbon fibers that includes: preparing a carbon fiber reinforced plastic molded product containing a carbon fiber reinforced plastic containing a carbon fiber and a resin; performing a process of at least one of a heating process or an ultraviolet irradiation process on the carbon fiber reinforced plastic molded product; and removing the resin after the process from the carbon fiber by injecting a first liquid to at least the carbon fiber of the carbon fiber reinforced plastic molded product after the process.

The invention relates to a non-corrosive process for cleaning a recyclable material comprising the following steps: (a) providing a contaminated recyclable material; (b) treating the contaminated recyclable material at a temperature in the range of from 45-30° C. with a solution that contains one or more polyols to remove contaminants from the contaminated recyclable material, wherein the one or more polyols is (are) present in an amount of at least 15 wt. %, based on the total weight of the solution, thereby forming a liquid 10 mixture which comprises one or more polyols, contaminants removed from the recyclable material, and treated recyclable material; (c) separating at a temperature in the range 10-55° C. at least part of the recyclable material as obtained in step (b) from the liquid mixture as obtained in step (b); (d) allowing at least part of the remaining liquid mixture as obtained in step (c) to phase-1 separate into a polyol phase and a phase which contains contaminants removed from the contaminated recyclable material; (e) recovering the polyol phase as obtained in step (d); (f) recovering the phase which contains contaminants removed from the recyclable material as obtained in step (d); and 20 (g) recovering the separated recyclable material as obtained in step (c).

A method includes producing recycled products from a plurality of used absorbent articles, each including a top sheet, a back sheet and an absorbent body including absorbent body materials, by recovering a plurality of structural members from the plurality of used absorbent articles. At least one of the top sheet and the back sheet includes a film. The method includes: separating the plurality of used absorbent articles into a plurality of the films and the absorbent body materials; sorting the plurality of films into a plurality of types of recyclable films according to the filler contents of the plurality of films; and forming a plurality of types of recycled resin pellets from the plurality of types of recyclable films.

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to composite recycling and provide a novel and non-obvious dissolution tank, recycling system and recycling process adapted for the separation of fibers during composite dissolution. In an embodiment of the invention, a dissolution tank adapted for composite dissolution and fiber separation includes a tank, a pair of opposing perforated structures disposed within the tank, an actuator coupled to the perforated structures and configured to drive the pair of structures towards one another, and a control system programmed to direct the actuator to drive the structures towards one another responsive to a determination that a composite part disposed between the structures is transforming from a rigid state.