Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Polystyrene is a versatile polymer that is produced at enormous scale and applied in many consumer productsx000D
including packaging. Nonbiodegradable polymers, like polystyrene, represent an environmental burden;x000D
expanded polystyrene is among the most intractable components in municipal solid. The industry is now tryingx000D
to derive value from waste polymer and end-of life polymer for a feedstock. This drive reduces waste and hasx000D
an economic benefit because the material costs are lower than the costs of the petroleum feedstock. Thermalx000D
cracking and pyrolysis are among the several technologies to recover valuable monomers-the building blocksx000D
of polymers. In these processes, the polymer is heated to temperatures exceeding 400 oC and even beyond 600x000D
oC and the polymer decomposes to styrene (monomer) and hydrocarbons (benzene, for example).x000D
End-of-life polystyrene contains thermal stabilizers, brominated fire retardants, benzoyl peroxide, antimonyx000D
trioxide, among others. Brominated compounds accompany polystyrene consumer products to provide firex000D
proof properties to meet UL or CSA fire resistance requirement. However, many of these compounds are nowx000D
banned. Lavergne Group is a major Canadian company that recycles polymers but they must remove thex000D
banned compounds. Together we will develop technology to scavenge the brominated compounds to meetx000D
federal requirements. Removing these compounds reduces the burden of polystyrene to municipal landfills butx000D
will maintain their supply of feedstock for their customers as they have a viable business operational.x000D
We will first measure the thermal properties of the polystyrene in a thermogravimetric analyser. This data willx000D
identify the temperature range to conduct reactor tests to scavenge the bromine compounds. In the next step, wex000D
will heat the polystyrene in a fluidized bed reactor and monitor the gas product composition. We will alsox000D
condense the gases and analyse the aqueous phase in an HPLC analyser. Our GC-MS analyser will identify thex000D
compounds of the organic phase. The third step will identify absorbents that we can add directly into thex000D
fluidized bed to scavenge the brominated compounds or to add a post-treatment step to capture them.