A new concept process for removal of odour from post consumer waste polymer - VOCex

Although much progress has been made in recycling the easier polymer streams such as at-line production waste, or through specialist closed loop systems, the challenge to recycle Post Consumer polymer waste (mainly packaging from consumer goods such as food, sauces and detergents) is still tough, particularly for polypropylene and polyethylene. These polymers strongly absorb odours from their contents, which currently needs uneconomic levels of cleaning before they can be recycled into high value products such as automotive fascias and building products. Of the UK’s 260,000 tonnes of post consumer polypropylene waste, under 1% is recycled into high quality products; the rest is used in low value applications such as buried geotextiles, or is landfilled or incinerated. The VOCex process concept from Luxus, a recycling compounder for automotive plastics, has been specifically created to provide a cost effective method to deodourise polymers for higher value uses. This proof of concept project is intended to validate the feasibility of the process and its ability to cope with the variability in the type and levels of odour compounds that occur in post-consumer polymer, to underpin our future objectives of scaling it up to commercial application. The future embodiment of the technology is envisaged as a turnkey or retrofit option for Luxus and other existing compounders as licencees, allowing them to provide high quality polymers from materials that would otherwise have been destined for landfill or incineration.