Search

Plastic waste is a major concern for marine environment care, and many researchers and projects face the problem from different points of view. The European CircularSeas project aims to encourage the development of greener maritime industries through the combination of principles of Circular Economy, plastic recycling and 3D printing. However, while 3D printing has shown its benefits for conventional industry environments, the first issue discussed in this paper is whether 3D printing technology can also bring benefits to the maritime-port sector, where parts manufacturing, new prototyping trends and even product customization have not traditionally been major business issues. A secondary issue is how 3D printing and this specific user scenario could accommodate recycled plastic in a Circular Economy strategy in a feasible way. In an attempt to address both of these issues, the paper reviews some particularities of 3D printing open technologies and proposes a new integrated and user-oriented 3D printing framework, independent of hardware and adaptable to non-standard recycled plastic raw material from marine waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a bid to help address the environmental footprints associated with products and services, life cycle assessment (LCA) applications have become increasingly popular throughout the years. This review summarizes some important methodological developments in recent years, such as the advent of dynamic LCA, as well as highlighting recent LCA applications in the context of plastics/recycling with a focus on their methodological choices. Furthermore, this review aims to offer a set of possible research lines to improve the gap between LCA and decision-making (policy). It was found that the majority of reviewed papers are mostly conservative in their methodological practice, employing mostly static analyses and making little use of other methods. In order to bridge the gap between LCA and policy, it is suggested to broaden system boundaries through the integration of dynamic modelling methods, incorporating interactions between fore- and background systems, and including behavioral components where relevant. In addition, advanced sampling routines to further explore and assess the policy space are recommended. This is of paramount importance when dealing with recycling processes as the molecules/polymers constituting the output of those processes have to be benchmarked in terms of costs and, crucially, their sustainability character against virgin ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the variability of Fused deposition modelling (FDM) technology and the possibilities of its use in the design and implementation of a prototype atypical device. The assumptions of the behaviour of individual components and subsystems of the design result from an extensive application of the finite element method and motion analysis of subsystems and various parts of the structure. The use of this method to such an extent accelerated the design process and its implementation. The proposal itself reflects the current state of this technology and its focus is on improving sustainable development. As is generally known, great efforts are currently being made to reduce plastic waste volume and its environmental burden. The proposed concept is modified to replace the final treatment of the top layers of the models, called "ironing" by non-planar layering of material. At the same time, it points out the advantages of this method in reducing energy requirements and the time required to produce models. The conclusion is a conceptual design of a printhead for a proposed prototype, designed to use recycled FDM, intending to streamline the possibility of recycling with little serial and piece production. This process thus closes the circle of opportunities published by us, which in the future can contribute to the optimisation of this technology towards increasing the efficiency of resource use, reduction of energy demands and environmental burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preparation process and the final properties of new thermoplastic lead‐free medium voltage (MV) insulation compounds based on the thermoplastic vulcanized (TPV) technology are reported and discussed at molecular level. The TPV MV insulation compounds were prepared starting from a peroxide curable lead free MV insulation, which is the actual market benchmark. For this reason, they were extensively investigated in comparison to the standard lead free MV insulation. The results of the dynamic vulcanization process were evaluated and related to the formulation. Now in the present paper we are reporting a detailed analysis of the molecular changes induced by the vulcanization reaction with reference to the different polymers and low molecular weight additives present in the starting mixture. The results are analyzed with reference to the used polyolefins structure with the aim to provide insights helping to relate the formulation at molecular level to the behavior of the final complex materials thus offering an useful tool to a priori design of TPVs with the desired ultimate properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photochromic behavior of polypeptides derived when spirobenzopyran units are attached to the side chains of poly(L-lysine) is reported. These spiropyran-modified poly(Lys) do not yield photoresponse effects in hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFP). However, the addition of triethylamine to the solution causes the coil -> helix transition. This may be explained by the assumption that conformation in pure HFP is determined by Lys side chains protonated by the acid solvent. Addition of triethylamine eliminates protons from the Lys side chains.