The Editorial #2
A few words with...
What is the relationship between the university and companies?
Prof.M.M.: The Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Padua has been working with companies for many years, and we are focused on applied research. Finding synergies between university and companies is extremely important, especially in the sharing of each other’s skills and technicalities: the university makes its expertise available to meet the needs of the companies that commission us to study and solve specific issues, obviously the topic of plastics is central to the research group I am in charge of, ‘Polymer Engineering’.
It used to be that the product was at the centre of everything, and the most important example is the preservation of food, which is protected with packaging consisting of multiple layers of different materials. This methodology is no longer viable; now, in addition to the product, the end-of-life of each individual component must also be considered, and each component must be recycled in accordance with new legal regulations. That is, the manufacturer will have to design the packaging in such a way that at the end of its life cycle (which is very short for packaging) the material can be disassembled and above all recycled.
Since the world of packaging is changing very fast, for the reasons just mentioned, the collaboration with various companies shows that it is difficult to follow these changes, especially from the point of view of material knowledge: many operators do not have adequate preparation to follow these changes. Hence the collaboration with our Industrial Engineering department, in the desire to guide companies in the development of more suitable materials and processes and in the identification of elaborate solutions to meet the new demands.
With LAPRIMA PLASTICS, the collaboration relationship started about four years ago, moreover, Engineer Filippo Dall’Amico was one of our students. The first collaborative project started with the funding of a PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, the main theme of which was the physical-mechanical and chemical recycling of engineering plastics.
«The world is moving towards circularity, the new philosophy leads to the recovery of used artefacts, to be recycled and to reuse materials’».
What benefits does the University receive by collaborating with companies?
Prof.M.M.: Thanks to these collaborations with companies, we manage to fund scholarships, research grants and even PhDs for young graduates, and we also very often manage to buy materials and instruments for our research laboratories. Moreover, this, together with teaching and research, is one of the objectives of the university, or what goes by the name of third mission: the set of activities with which the universities interact directly with society and their territory of reference, both through actions of economic valorisation of knowledge and more generally through activities and events of a cultural nature. It is a mutual exchange. Personally, I learn a lot from these collaborations: working with companies allows me to bring know-how but also to expand my knowledge, especially practical knowledge, and then to be able to transfer the experience to my students. Of course, all this involves a lot of commitment and dedication. The benefit is shared, it is self-sustaining, community and territory are directly involved.
A number of research and development projects financed by the Veneto Region have been launched along these lines, and UniSMART – Fondazione Università degli Studi di Padova was also established, which tends to foster these exchanges, bringing together teachers, students and researchers with the business world and public and private stakeholders. Precisely in order to prepare specialised figures in this sector, also from a legislative point of view, our university has responded to this particular need, activating from next year a Master’s degree in English, on the theme of the circular economy applied to all materials: Sustainable Science and Technology for Circular Economy.
To seriously and adequately address this issue requires the cooperation of everyone, from the beginning to the end of the entire supply chain. It is the entire supply chain that must cooperate, from raw material producers to end recyclers. It has to be said, however, that a key role is played by the raw material producers with the development of new materials and the designers who have to think about how the products will be recycled at the end of their life cycle. The concept of ‘design for recycling’ must become part of the habitual practice of designers as one of the key objectives.
«Right now there is a lot of attention towards the recycling landscape, there is specific legislation that requires companies to adopt legislative standards».
Let's talk about circular economy...
Prof.M.M.: The circular economy is an established European statement, in the next twenty to thirty years we will only move in this direction, we will no longer return to a linear economy. The concept is: whoever thinks of a new artefact must already foresee how to recycle it, it is called ‘design for recycling’. This is why many companies are working on single-material products that are easier to recycle than the current multi-layer materials that are difficult if not impossible to recycle. Another important aspect is that it will be compulsory to introduce more and more regenerated material in new productions; it is not easy, but we are working in this direction.
Hence the collaboration with our Industrial Engineering department, in the desire to guide companies in the development of more suitable materials and processes and in the identification of elaborate solutions to meet the new demands. With LAPRIMA PLASTICS, the collaboration relationship started about four years ago, moreover, Engineer Filippo Dall’Amico was one of our students. The first collaborative project started with the funding of a PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, the main theme of which was the physical-mechanical and chemical recycling of engineering plastics.
Plastic equals sustainability?
Prof.M.M.: Plastic would be in production terms one of the most environmentally sustainable materials, but unfortunately still only a very small part is recycled, according to the latest estimates of PLASTICS EUROPE, at European level about 32.5% is recycled, 42.6% is used for waste-to-energy (energy recovery) and about 25% deposited in landfills. In northern Europe, where landfills have been abolished for years, they mainly use waste-to-energy plants, thus recovering only part of the energy spent to produce the plastics, but this is not the best answer, in fact I believe it is the least valuable form of recovery. In Italy, a large portion of plastic waste still ends up in landfills, more than 30% as a national average, although there are big differences between regions.
Another aspect to consider is that as much as one can recycle, the problem arises at the next step: there must be an equivalent market demand for regenerated material. In order to be placed on the market, the product must have sufficient physical and mechanical properties and an adequate cost. However much it is recycled, a slice will still be destined for disposal.
«The total transition to a circular economy is a very slow and complex process, requiring efforts and resources from all actors in the supply chain. Plastic is one of many materials to be considered, in addition to all the others».
Recycling plastics: mechanical or chemical?
Prof.M.M: It is becoming increasingly evident that physical-mechanical recycling has limitations as it does not allow all materials to be recycled and is not always economical. This is why several projects have recently been launched by major multinationals that focus more on chemical rather than mechanical recycling. There are certain polymers such as PS (polystyrene) and PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate, better known as Plexiglas) which, thanks to their particular degradation mechanism, tend to depolymerise, forming high yields of monomer. This, after separation and purification, can be polymerised again to obtain new products as from virgin monomers. These two polymers are well suited for chemical recycling. Pyrolysis – a process of thermochemical decomposition of materials, achieved by the application of heat and in the complete absence of oxygen – is also making a comeback, to produce liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fractions.
The gasification conducted in a controlled oxygen atmosphere to produce so-called synthesis gases also appears to be very interesting. Synthesis gases (a mixture of CO and hydrogen) are the basis for the preparation of many important chemicals.In the past, these types of processes have been studied extensively, but the problem was mainly in the high cost of separation and purification of the products, which in fact required considerable economic resources as we are talking about large plants that work continuously and always need large waste streams to be treated.
The latter problem could be solved since Europe and beyond used to send much of its waste first to China and then to other countries such as Thailand, Malaysia etc.
Now that this is no longer possible (China) or at any rate more difficult, the amount of waste to be disposed of is much higher and therefore chemical recycling could also become necessary and a viable alternative.