Polypropylene (PP) is used in a wide variety of products such as automobile interiors, food and beverage packaging, consumer goods packaging, electronics, construction materials, carpets and other home furnishings. The typically very short life of PP products, of which about only 1 % is recycled, makes PP a substantial contributor to non-biodegradable plastics contamination of the environment. A cost effective and eco-friendly PP recycling process has become an important goal in the management of the global environment. Existing recycling technologies for PP are primarily mechanical and/or thermal and result in a lower quality ‘down-cycled’ product, which contains contaminants (such as dyestuffs) and degraded materials. The current EU research project (ISOPREP) under Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme aims to develop an integrated process for the solvent-based recycling of end-of-life polypropylene which will involve the optimization of dye leaching, filtration, purification, dissolvation, precipitation and solvent recovery stages and to exemplify the process at pilot scale using polypropylene carpet as feedstock. The students taking roles in this project will acquire broad knowledge and hand-on skills on the processing and recycling of polymers, separation and purification techniques and characterization of polymers.
About Project Supervisors
Serkan Ünal
Sabancı University
Composite Technologies Center of Excellence
Orta Mahalle, Üniversite Caddesi No: 27 34956 Tuzla-İstanbul TURKEY
Office: +90 216 483 9996
+90 216 300 1313
Mobile: +90 532 267 0731
Fax: +90 216 483 9885
Email: serkanunal@sabanciuniv.edu
Web: http://myweb.sabanciuniv.edu/serkanunal