SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project explores the technical feasibility and commercial potential of an innovative process for converting immiscible polymer wastes into self-reinforced high-performance composites. The process entails creating fibers with sheath/core morphology to self-reinforce the resulting composites and eliminate separation steps. The new recycling protocol will be initially implemented in PP/nylon blends and tested in carpet recycling. The Phase I project addresses the following critical questions: a) Can the new method be used effectively in enhancing the mechanical properties of immiscible polymer blends? and b) What are the major factors that should be considered in scaling up the process prototype? The successful completion of this project will yield a novel enabling processing route for making self-reinforced polymer composites from recycled PP/nylon cost effectively. For the carpet recycling market alone, it holds the promise of reducing more than 4 billion pounds/yr of existing landfilled carpet waste and converting them into value-added products. This will both reduce the carpet waste stream going to the landfill and reduce the demand for the petroleum-based raw materials used in plastics manufacturing. The elimination of complicated sorting and separation steps further implies less energy consumption in manufacturing. The lightness of the resultant products can further enhance fuel efficiency in transportation

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project is seeking to develop and commercialize a novel method for recycling immiscible polymer (IP) wastes into value-added products. In this new method, the IP waste is converted into highly-orientated filaments with a surface of a relatively lower melting point polymer and a core of a relatively higher melting point polymer. These high-strength bicomponent fibers are then processed into desired composite components by melting and fusing the surface polymer; because only the surface polymer is melted during processing, the end product is reinforced by its high-strength core fibril of the higher-melting-point polymer. The broader/commercial impact of this project will be an enabling process to cost effectively produce self-reinforced composites from recycled, immiscible Polyprophelene(PP)/nylon. For the carpet recycling market alone, this approach will reduce more than 5 billion pounds per year of carpet waste. By converting the waste stream into value-added products with improved mechanical properties the carpet waste will never reach our landfills. This process eliminates complicated sorting and separation steps, uses less energy for production, and reduces crude oil consumption needed for virgin polymers. For transportation applications, the self-reinforced composites' excellent strength to weight ratio can help produce lighter component parts, enhancing fuel efficiency. The new reinforced materials can be further processed by molding/forming processes to create 3-D parts with enhanced mechanical properties. This technology shows that recycled polymer blends prepared in an appropriate way can deliver superior value-added performance over virgin polymers