pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S14 - Special: Recycling and Sustainable Polymers
Keynote Presentation
 
 

Depollution of post-consumer waste electrical and electronic equipment-based plastics containing brominated flame retardants using supercritical CO2

Gripon Layla (1)*, Belyamani Imane (2), Lafranche Eric (1), Cauret Laurent (2)

(1) IMT Lille Douai - Nord - France, (2) ISPA - Normandie - France

The end-of-life of plastics coming from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and containing brominated flame retardants (BFR) is restricted by the regulation 2019/1021/EU. These plastics can be recycled only if their concentrations in BFR recognized as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are inferior to the regulation limits. The objective of this work is to study the BFR extraction from WEEE-based plastic materials using supercritical CO2 (sc-CO2). Indeed, sc-CO2 extraction has been reported to be a promising process as sc-CO2 has solvent properties similar to organic solvents and diffusion properties comparable to gases (1). In the present work, experiments were performed on a post-consumer WEEE-derived ABS in which the concentration in BFR recognized as POPs was found to be four times higher than the regulation limit. The sc-CO2 process parameters such as temperature (40 and 60°C), pressure (300, 500 and 700 bars), time (6,9 and 12h), granulometry of sample (< 500 µm, 1-2 mm and 2-4 mm) and co-solvent (water and ethanol) were studied. For each parameter set, the extract and the polymer material were characterized to determine the efficiency of BFR extraction and the effect of the sc-CO2 process on the polymer matrix. The extraction process performed on < 500 µm particle size sample at 40°C and 500 bars during 6h allowed to remove 68% of BFR additives, which was the maximum extraction rate obtained. The average composition of the recovered extracts was about 95% of tetrabromobisphenol A and 5% of polybromodiphenylethers as determined by GC-MS analysis. The obtained results showed that the extraction rate can be improved by adding ethanol or water as a co-solvent and by increasing the extraction time. Finally, sc-CO2 process was found to be a promising pre-treatment technique prior to mechanical recycling as no degradation effect on the polymer matrix was measured by DSC and TGA. (1) Vandenburg, H. J. et al. The Analyst 1997, 122 (9), 101R-116R.