Sustainable manufacturing of circular economy elastomer products
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Abstract
The sustainability of rubber products is a major global challenge mainly due to the huge amount of rubber waste generated each year. Furthermore, many elastomer products including most car tyres are manufactured from fossil fuel-based materials, which are not renewable. This proposed research programme aims to tackle these challenges by manufacturing novel circular economy elastomer products from renewable biobased feedstocks, with zero waste, high resource efficiency and no reliance on fossil fuels, thus transforming the elastomer field. Two types of elastomer products will be manufactured for various applications, namely self-healing natural rubber products which can self-repair repeatedly after damage, and be reused, reprocessed and recycled after their end of life; and biobased thermoplastic elastomer products which can be reprocessed and recycled due to their thermoplastic nature. The new elastomers will be prepared and characterised, followed by the process optimisation, manufacture and evaluation of representative elastomer products using the optimal elastomers and elastomer composites as well as manufacturing processes. Subsequently, the self-repair, reuse, reprocessing and recycling behaviour of the new elastomer products will be assessed. Finally, the energy consumption and carbon emissions of the product lifecycle, product costs and the impact of the new products on the whole supply chain will be assessed. An interdisciplinary team of rubber and polymer scientists and manufacturing engineers, as well as a management scientist, will work on the programme together employing a holistic approach ranging from material design and synthesis, through to product manufacturing and finally self-repair, reuse and recycling. At the end of the programme, innovative biobased circular economy elastomer products will have been sustainably manufactured with their fundamental science and broader impact understood. The sustainable materials, manufacturing technologies, and the scientific understanding obtained from this research can be extended to other elastomer products in the future, ensuring the long-lasting sustainability of elastomer products and industry.
Publications
Griggs T
(2024)
A bio-based thermoplastic polyurethane with triple self-healing action for wearable technology and smart textiles
in Materials Advances
Kaur A
(2024)
Recyclable sulfur cured natural rubber with controlled disulfide metathesis
in Communications Materials
Murphy JF
(2024)
Biofabrication and biomanufacturing in Ireland and the UK.
in Bio-design and manufacturing
Yoon S
(2025)
Biomimetic Elastomer-Clay Nanocomposite Hydrogels with Control of Biological Chemicals for Soft Tissue Engineering and Wound Healing.
in ACS applied bio materials
| Description | This project aims to manufacture novel circular economy elastomer products from renewable biobased feedstocks and investigate their underlying fundamental science and broader impacts, addressing the major challenges associated with the recyclability of vulcanised rubber, and the resource efficiency and renewability of elastomers. To date, the following four key findings have been achieved. 1. We demonstrate that tuning the curing process to favour a reversibly cross-linked network based on disulphide and polysulphide bonds enables recyclability of natural rubber. 2. We demonstrate that a suitable catalyst can be incorporated into existing rubber waste streams to promote recyclability. 3. We demonstrate that biobased polyether-based thermoplastic polyurethanes, with a wide variety of structures and properties can be created from renewable resources. 4. Different types of product can be manufactured from these biobased thermoplastic polyurethanes using common polymer processing technologies, such as extrusion, and injection moulding, for diverse potential applications. |
| Exploitation Route | Further collaborations with industrial partners and other end users are needed to take the outcomes of this funding forward and put to use by others. These will be helpful for adopting the new sustainable elastomers and their processing methods developed from this project in different sectors of industry. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Construction Electronics Energy Environment Healthcare Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Transport |
| Description | Evaluation of biobased self-healing polymers as medical device adhesives |
| Amount | £9,720 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account Funding Awards Scheme |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2024 |
| End | 09/2024 |
| Description | Microstructural simulations of elastomer-nanoparticle composites |
| Amount | £161,268 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Aditya Birla Group |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Global |
| Start | 08/2024 |
| End | 03/2028 |
| Description | Net Zero Impact Follow-on Fund - Manufacturing sustainable medical tubes from biobased thermoplastic elastomers |
| Amount | £49,627 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2025 |
| End | 07/2025 |
| Title | Dataset for "A bio-based thermoplastic polyurethane with triple self-healing action for wearable technology and smart textiles" |
| Description | This dataset underpins the figures presented in the following paper in Materials Advances, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry Article title: A Bio-based Thermoplastic Polyurethane with Triple Self-healing Actions for Wearable Technology and Smart Textiles Article authors: Thomas Griggs, Jubair Ahmed, Hamta Majd, Mohan Edirisinghe, Biqiong Chen Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d4ma00289j Abstract for paper: Self-healing bio-based polymers are an emerging class of materials with promise in both limiting the use of non-renewable monomers in polymer production and increasing the life span of materials through the healing of damage that would otherwise cause the material to fail. This study reports a novel biobased thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with triple self-healing action, showing excellent stretchability and self-healing behaviour. The effect of hard segment percentage on the mechanical, thermal, and hydroscopic properties was investigated. The optimised TPU exhibits an elongation at break of 1871%, an ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 0.36 MPa and a Shore A hardness of 40. The self-healing efficiencies for elongation at break and UTS reach above 90% after only three hours under ambient conditions due to triple action. The TPU shows skin-mimicking mechanical properties, and hydrophobicity, and acts as a stretchable, self-healing substrate for printing conductive circuits, making it a promising candidate for use in stretchable conductors, wearable devices and electronic skin. This bio-based self-healing polymer also shows high processibility into uniformly sized fibres, allowing use in smart elastic textiles. Information about dataset can be discovered in zip file. It contains CSV files and a readme file. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Not currently known |
| URL | https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/datasets/83fdb865-0ead-4c8b-81d2-59265a8810f3 |
| Description | A Kuar gave a talk at the GRIPS@MRE2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A kuar gave a talk on "Recycling of crosslinked NR compounds" at GRIPS@MRE2024. This talk sparked questions and discussion, which disseminated our research findings and hopefully will lead to new collaborations and generate new impact in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/events/materials-research-exchange/ |
| Description | B Chen gave a talk at an IOM3 Elastomer Group Industry & Academia Networking Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | B Chen gave a talk on "Biobased self-healing elastomers and their nanocomposites for engineering applications" at the IOM3 Elastomer Group Industry & Academia Networking event in March 2024. The talk spared questions and discussion during the networking sessions, which should facilitate new collaborations and generate further impact of our research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.iom3.org/events-awards/ems-event-calendar/elastomer-group-industry-academia-networking-e... |
| Description | B Chen gave an invited talk at the Polymer Process Engineering PPE'24 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | B Chen gave an invited talk on Biobased self-healing elastomers and their nanocomposites at Polymer Process Engineering PPE'24 in Bradford. The attended involved academic researchers and postgraduate students from the UK, Europe and China, as well as engineers from industry/business and plastics associations. The talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards, which broadened our network and will hopefully lead to new collaborations and further impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.polyeng.com/PPE24/ |
| Description | Chen gave an invited talk at Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging event at CAFRE |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This event was organised by KTN for networking between academics and industries, aiming to develop innovation solutions for smart sustainable packaging. Chen gave an invited talk on Smart Sustainable Polymers and Polymer Nanocomposites for Packaging Products at the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Conference Talk by Anureet Kaur at IOM3EG/MPG June 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Dr Anureet Kaur presented preliminary finding from EPSRC project at the IOM3 Elastomer Group / Manchester Polymer Group Conference in June 2023. The talk was called "Optimisation of sulphur curing formulation to enable recyclability for natural rubber" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Conference Talk by Anureet Kaur at International Elastomer Conferene October 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Dr Anureet Kaur presented the methodology she had developed for evaluating the dynamic covalent crosslinks at the International Elastomer Conference in Cleveland, USA in October 2023.. The title was called "Recyclable elastomers with dynamic covalent bonds: how to characterize a reversible cross-linked network" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Conference Talk by Anureet Kaur at RubberCon 2024, Edinburgh |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Anureer Kaur presented a poster and poster pitch to the entire conference audience of 300+ delegates at RubberCon 2023 in Edinburgh. The title was "development of a reversible cross-linking system for natural rubber to enable recyclability" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | K Manna gave a talk at the International Rubber Conference 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | K Manna gave a talk on "Sustainable Biocomposites derived from Biobased TPU Reinforced with Nano-Biochar" at the International Rubber Conference 2024 in Turkey. This talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards, which disseminated our research findings and hopefully will lead to new collaborations and generate new impact in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | S Yoon gave a talk at an IOM3 Elastomer Group Industry & Academia Networking Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Yoon gave a talk at "Biodegradable stimuli-responsive elastomers and their nanocomposites for healthcare applications" at the IOM3 Elastomer Group Industry & Academia Networking Event in March 2024. The talk sparked questions and discussion during the networking sessions, which hopefully will attract new collaborations and generate further impact of our research findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.iom3.org/events-awards/ems-event-calendar/elastomer-group-industry-academia-networking-e... |
| Description | S Yoon gave a talk at the MPG and Elastomer Group Joint Seminar - Elastomers in Manufacturing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Yoon gave a talk on "Sustainable elastomers with end-of-life strategies: controlled degradation or recyclability" at the MPG and Elastomer Group Joint Seminar - Elastomers in Manufacturing. This talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards, which disseminated our research findings and hopefully will lead to new collaborations and generate new impact in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.iom3.org/group/manchester-polymer-group-mpg/meeting.html?id=382C1967-6554-469C-BE9DE74D4... |
| Description | S Yoon gave a talk at the Plastics and Rubbers on the Net Zero Carbon Timeline Conference in Manchester |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Sungkwon gave a talk on "Biorenewable polyether-based synthetic elastomers with non-eutectic acid-base organocatalysts" at the Plastics and Rubbers on the Net Zero Carbon Timeline Conference in Manchester, an event co-organised by the IOM3 elastomer group. This talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards, which disseminated our research findings and hopefully will lead to new collaborations and generate new impact in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.iom3.org/events-awards/ems-event-calendar/plastics-rubbers-on-the-net-zero-carbon-timeli... |
| Description | S Yoon presented at the 8th International Conference on Multifunctional, Hybrid and Nanomaterials |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | S Yoon presented a poster and poster pitch to the conference audience at the 8th International Conference on Multifunctional, Hybrid and Nanomaterials in France. The title was "Bio-based thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers with versatile properties and processability". This sparked questions and discussion afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://www.elsevier.com/en-gb/events/conferences/all/international-conference-on-multifunctional-hy... |
| Description | T Griggs gave a talk at Tire Technology Expo 2025 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Griggs gave a talk on "Optimisation of Reversible Sulphur Crosslinked Natural Rubber Elastomers for Recycling" at Tiretech 2025 in Germany. This talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards, which disseminated our research findings and hopefully will lead to new collaborations and generate new impact in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | T Griggs gave a talk at the International Rubber Conference 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Griggs gave a talk on "Optimisation of Reversible Sulphur Crosslinked Natural Rubber Elastomers for Recycling" at the International Rubber Conference 2024 in Turkey. This talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards, which disseminated our research findings and hopefully will lead to new collaborations and generate new impact in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | T Griggs gave a talk at the MPG and Elastomer Group Joint Seminar - Elastomers in Manufacturing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Griggs gave a talk on "Recycling of cross-linked rubber networks" at the MPG and Elastomer Group Joint Seminar - Elastomers in Manufacturing. This talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards, which disseminated our research findings and hopefully will lead to new collaborations and generate new impact in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.iom3.org/group/manchester-polymer-group-mpg/meeting.html?id=382C1967-6554-469C-BE9DE74D4... |