Towards circular plastics: Density and MFR prediction of PE with IR spectroscopic techniques
The high variety of tailor fitted molecular structures of polyethylene (PE) is very beneficial to fulfill requirements of various applications, however it poses a difficulty in the mechanical recycling of post-consumer PE products. To improve the quality of PE recyclates and increase the amounts of...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Polymer Testing |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142941823001745 |
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| author | M. Bredács J. Geier C. Barretta R. Horvath M. Geiser K. Ander G. Oreski S. Gergely |
| author_facet | M. Bredács J. Geier C. Barretta R. Horvath M. Geiser K. Ander G. Oreski S. Gergely |
| author_sort | M. Bredács |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The high variety of tailor fitted molecular structures of polyethylene (PE) is very beneficial to fulfill requirements of various applications, however it poses a difficulty in the mechanical recycling of post-consumer PE products. To improve the quality of PE recyclates and increase the amounts of recyclates that can be used in new products, separation of PE waste by density and melt flow rate (MFR) during mechanical sorting is essential. Therefore, 25 virgin PE grades were used to manufacture compression molded plates that were then characterized by means of Attenuated Total Reflection - Fourier transformed IR (ATR-FTIR) and near IR (NIR) spectroscopy, NIR hyperspectral imaging and dual-comb spectroscopy. The results were used to build partial least squares regression (PLS) models to predict MFR and density. ATR-FTIR and laboratory NIR spectroscopy provided sufficient information to predict the density value of PE, whereas the MFR assessments was not possible. The PLS model from the industrial NIR data also only allowed the density-based classification of virgin PE grades. The PLS models built from transmission and reflectance dual comb spectroscopy infrared (DCS-IR) of selected samples clearly showed that density and MFR prediction can be carried out with high accuracy. As DCS-IR could be implemented on plastic sorting systems using a conveyor belt, the addition of this sensor in mechanical sorting line would lead to a significantly higher quality of recycled PE with narrow well-defined density and MFR ranges. Such an improvement would immensely support the targeted recycling rates and amount by the European Union and would make a significant step towards circular plastics. |
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| id | doaj.art-f890df37870a43b281246cac1f4440f6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0142-9418 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T05:03:21Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Polymer Testing |
| spelling | doaj.art-f890df37870a43b281246cac1f4440f62023-06-17T05:17:37ZengElsevierPolymer Testing0142-94182023-07-01124108094Towards circular plastics: Density and MFR prediction of PE with IR spectroscopic techniquesM. Bredács0J. Geier1C. Barretta2R. Horvath3M. Geiser4K. Ander5G. Oreski6S. Gergely7Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH, Austria, Rosegger Street 12, 8700, Leoben; Corresponding author.Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH, Austria, Rosegger Street 12, 8700, LeobenPolymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH, Austria, Rosegger Street 12, 8700, LeobenIRsweep AG, Laubisrütistrasse Switzerland, Laubisruetistr. 44, 8712, Stäfa, SwitzerlandIRsweep AG, Laubisrütistrasse Switzerland, Laubisruetistr. 44, 8712, Stäfa, SwitzerlandREDWAVE, a Division of BT-Wolfgang Binder GmbH, Austria Wolfgang Binder Street 4, 8200, Eggersdorf bei Graz, AustriaPolymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH, Austria, Rosegger Street 12, 8700, Leoben; Department Polymer Engineering and Science, University of Leoben, Franz Josef-Street 18, 8700, Leoben, AustriaDepartment of Applied Biotechnology and Food Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Műegyetem rkp. 3, 1111, Budapest, HungaryThe high variety of tailor fitted molecular structures of polyethylene (PE) is very beneficial to fulfill requirements of various applications, however it poses a difficulty in the mechanical recycling of post-consumer PE products. To improve the quality of PE recyclates and increase the amounts of recyclates that can be used in new products, separation of PE waste by density and melt flow rate (MFR) during mechanical sorting is essential. Therefore, 25 virgin PE grades were used to manufacture compression molded plates that were then characterized by means of Attenuated Total Reflection - Fourier transformed IR (ATR-FTIR) and near IR (NIR) spectroscopy, NIR hyperspectral imaging and dual-comb spectroscopy. The results were used to build partial least squares regression (PLS) models to predict MFR and density. ATR-FTIR and laboratory NIR spectroscopy provided sufficient information to predict the density value of PE, whereas the MFR assessments was not possible. The PLS model from the industrial NIR data also only allowed the density-based classification of virgin PE grades. The PLS models built from transmission and reflectance dual comb spectroscopy infrared (DCS-IR) of selected samples clearly showed that density and MFR prediction can be carried out with high accuracy. As DCS-IR could be implemented on plastic sorting systems using a conveyor belt, the addition of this sensor in mechanical sorting line would lead to a significantly higher quality of recycled PE with narrow well-defined density and MFR ranges. Such an improvement would immensely support the targeted recycling rates and amount by the European Union and would make a significant step towards circular plastics.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142941823001745PolyethyleneIR spectroscopyDual comb infrared spectroscopyMultivariate data analysisDensity and MFR predictionMechanical recycling |
| spellingShingle | M. Bredács J. Geier C. Barretta R. Horvath M. Geiser K. Ander G. Oreski S. Gergely Towards circular plastics: Density and MFR prediction of PE with IR spectroscopic techniques Polymer Testing Polyethylene IR spectroscopy Dual comb infrared spectroscopy Multivariate data analysis Density and MFR prediction Mechanical recycling |
| title | Towards circular plastics: Density and MFR prediction of PE with IR spectroscopic techniques |
| title_full | Towards circular plastics: Density and MFR prediction of PE with IR spectroscopic techniques |
| title_fullStr | Towards circular plastics: Density and MFR prediction of PE with IR spectroscopic techniques |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards circular plastics: Density and MFR prediction of PE with IR spectroscopic techniques |
| title_short | Towards circular plastics: Density and MFR prediction of PE with IR spectroscopic techniques |
| title_sort | towards circular plastics density and mfr prediction of pe with ir spectroscopic techniques |
| topic | Polyethylene IR spectroscopy Dual comb infrared spectroscopy Multivariate data analysis Density and MFR prediction Mechanical recycling |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142941823001745 |
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