PolySolve Progress

Expanded Polystyrene and Polycarbonate are two widely used polymers in modern day life, but in a variety of applications - from CD's and DVD's, to packaging and insulation. Indeed, the EPS Group is one of the BPF's most active groups - www.eps.co.uk - combing many of the UK's largest fish box and insulation manufacturers & Blown Bead cavity wall insulation companies.

The BPF is involved in a number of European projects, on a variety of topics, including recycling and process improvement. The PolySolve project is one such project and will develop a new and novel process by which an environmentally friendly and selective solvent is used to dissolve and recycle EPS and PC waste into a high purity product. 

The project partners held a briefing session with BPF EPS Group Members in December 2013, focussing primarily on EPS and EPS Fish box packaging. As the project is now entering its final phases - concluding in November 2014 - a Pilot Plan is being developed at the TWI facilities, with Fraunhofer IVV offering technical expertise and process improvement options. The results for EPS fish box recycling are looking very promising so far, where further trials for EPS Construction waste are still on-going, which is looking to remove flame retardants (such as HBCD) and other such materials.

Interested BPF members will be offered the chance to visit the TWI facilities on Q3/Q4 of 2014, to check on progress and see how they can benefit from the technology.

Trials for PC recycling are little further behind in the project timeline, but will be progressed further during summer 2014.

The PolySolve project is a European 7th Framework Programme Project, Research for SME-Association project, funded under Grant Agreement 283707. The project website is www.polysolve.eu