The Washington-based American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) North American Flame Retardant Alliance (NAFRA) is collaborating with Charles Darwin University (CDU) in Darwin, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) in Al Ain to develop new processes to recover and recycle bromine and antimony from flame-retarded plastics. According to a news release from the ACC, the results of the project are expected to provide laboratory and modeling data to advance the technology to a pilot-plant stage.
“The project aims to test new ways of removing bromine and antimony safely and effectively from plastics prior to recycling the polymeric matrix into monomers and valuable fuels,” says professor Bogdan Dlugogorski of the Energy and Resources Institute at CDU and co-project leader. “CDU’s strong experience in energy and the environment will help guide this pyrolysis research effort.”
Pyrolysis is a process of chemically decomposing organic materials at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen. A key challenge with electronics recycling is its heterogeneous composition; these devices consist of various materials including metals, glass and plastics that need to be separated before being reprocessed.
“The underlying aim of this initiative is to design a process that recycles plastic with near-zero environmental pollution,” says Associate Professor Mohammednoor Altarawneh at UAEU and co-project leader. “The challenge is to underpin operational conditions that eliminate formation of bromine-bearing hydrocarbons and enable a complete fixation of bromine in the form of metal bromides, from which the metallic content could be easily separated and recovered.”
Guided by NAFRA engineers and scientists, CDU and UAEU will collaborate on the research, with experiments being performed in Darwin and quantum chemical calculations completed in Al Ain, by doctoral candidates at each of the universities.
“Professor Dlugogorski and associate professor Altarawneh are prominent scientists and chemical engineers recognized for their experience in chemical recycling and environment protection,” says Ben Gann, director of Products and Technology at ACC. “NAFRA is pleased that they are leading this initiative that will further the role of flame retardants in the circular economy and help enhance sustainability of these important safety tools.”
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