The technology developed at Fukuoka University is capable of recovering mechanical strength, particularly the toughness of plastic waste
Plastic Waste Touchness Recovery after Revolutionary Technology. (Credit: Green Science Alliance Co., Ltd.)
Green Science Alliance has secured a license contract from Fukuoka University in Japan to further research and develop plastic waste recycling technology developed at the university.
The technology can recover the mechanical strength, particularly in the toughness of plastic waste, in a relatively simple and effective way, said the company.
Green Science Alliance said that the plastic waste recycling technology can be carried out in thermal recycling, material recycling, and chemical recycling processes.
Fukuoka University polymer physics professor Shigeru Yao has been working on plastic waste, especially PE and PP scraps.
According to Yao, plastic waste does not lose its mechanical strength due to the chemical breakdown of polymers, but due to changes in their internal crystal structure.
The mechanical strength of the plastic waste can be recovered by optimising the re-pelletising process.
Shigeru Yao, for the first time, theoretically and experimentally explained that the mechanical strength of plastic waste can be regenerated under certain processing conditions.
Furthermore, he developed a new kind of extruder that can reproduce the advanced plastic recycling technology at a reduced cost.
Green Science Alliance noted that usage of plastic pellets made from plastic waste was limited due to their mechanical weakness.
However, plastic pellets reprocessed using the new technology from Fukuoka University would create new plastic moulding products with enhanced mechanical strength.
Green Science Alliance has also installed a new extruder to carry out the technology in the company.
Furthermore, the company aims to become a large supplier of plastic pellets made from plastic waste, as part of its long-term business plan.
Recently, Green Science Alliance has unveiled biomass biodegradable resin pellet and its moulding products, made using Sargassum waste.
Sargassum is a seaweed found in the Caribbean Sea region and is increasingly growing due to global warming and the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest.