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Our group has optimised and performed the pyrolysis of PE, PP and PS plastics alongside 2 commonly found waste plastic with good conversion rates and selectivity. The incineration ash and pyrolysis oil generated will be characterised and attempts will be made to functionalise them into specialty chemicals. 

MATERIALS FOR HUMANITY (MH 21)

Catalytic pyrolysis of plastic waste with incineration fly ash into fuels for upcycling

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SEB Conference 2024

SEB’s Annual Conference is celebrated for creating the perfect composition of research, new discoveries and collaborative connections. Be creative and innovative by exchanging ideas and knowledge with masters of biology from all over the world.

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MH 21 is arranged around 6 themes that focus attention on pressing needs that should be addressed to enhance the well-being of communities and provide a forum for presenting breakthrough discoveries.

Spent coffee grounds (SCGs) are often disposed by conventional waste disposal methods which are environmentally unfriendly. As such, we aim to maximize the potential of SCGs for coffee oil and as a filler material for bio-based composites. Approximately 10 % of coffee oil was successfully extracted from the SCGs. Its chemical composition was evaluated and was proven to exhibit radical scavenging activity. Afterwards, the extracted SCGs (ESCGs) were added as fillers into epoxy resin to form ESCG composites. Although the composites displayed lower mechanical properties relative to epoxy, improvements were seen for ESCG composites in comparison to SCG composites. Composites filled with acetone ESCGs demonstrated the most improvement with tensile strength, flexural modulus and flexural strength up to 23.4 MPa, 3.02 GPa and 42.9 MPa respectively. This work suggests an alternative method to repurpose common food waste while moving towards a more sustainable future.

An environmental alternative to composites using waste coffee grounds

1) Traditional Thermosets:
Excellent mechanical strength,
Thermal stability,
Solvent resistance.
2) Vitrimers (recyclable thermosets)
Excellent mechanical strength,
Good recyclability
Self-healing and repairing

Catalyst-Free Epoxy Vitrimer for Recyclable and Self-Healing Solid Polymer Electrolytes

Super-absorbent fabric can provide a durable and comfortable protective microenvironment for the protective clothing users. In this work, we prepared the recirculated super-absorbent and strong water-retaining fabrics by depositing starch-based double network (St-PAA/SA) aerogel on fiber surface via graft-cross-linking copolymerization and freeze-drying strategy, with two biological macromolecules of starch and sodium alginate as raw materials, ammonium persulphate (APS) as the initiator, and N, N-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) as a cross-linking agent. FTIR and XPS provided an evidence for graft copolymerization and cross-linking interaction among St-PAA/SA aerogel. SEM showed that St-PAA/SA aerogel presented typical double network macroporous characteristic, and the pore size distribution was 23~52 μm, which provided space for the absorption and storage of water molecule. Moreover, the strong interactions were excited between St-PAA/SA aerogel and fabric. When the mass ratio of starch to sodium alginate was 7/3, and the molar ratio of APS/MBA/AA was 0.8/0.3/1, the water absorption volume reached 420 g/g, which exceeded that of the super-absorbent fiber (120 g/g). Also, the super-absorbent fabric exhibited strong water storage capacity and excellent characteristics of recirculated water-absorbent and storage. The water absorption and softness of the fabric can be adjusted by controlling the aerogel deposition amount. This work provides a new way for the development of comfortable medical protective fabrics.

Recirculated Super-Absorbent and Strong Water-Retaining Fabric by Depositing Starch-based Double-Network Aerogels on Fiber Surface

Marine degradation polymers seems like a promising substitute to existing plastics issues. Beside the cost issue, the lower thermal stability also cause processing challenges. The CML aims to connect the different stakeholders and find the next generation of plastics materials.

Development of Marine Biodegradation Testing Capability and Materials

Pressure-driven membrane processes are widely-applied techniques in the field of water and wastewater treatment. Currently, polymeric membranes are of dominance in this market for their low fabrication cost, high scalability and high separation factor. On the other hand, ceramic membranes have been receiving global attention in this field as well, attributed to their apparent advantages including easy surface functionalization, high intrinsic permeability, high thermal and chemical stability and excellent mechanical strength, although the main hindrance for wide acceptance of ceramic membranes is their higher fabrication cost compared to that of polymeric membrane. However, the ceramic membrane offers novel applications, for instance, to impart a reactive functionality via introducing nanocatalysts onto/into the ceramic membrane, such that the membrane can work as a hybrid filtration and catalytic reactor. The present work interpreted the advantages of ceramic membranes over their counterparts of polymeric membranes, showed specific work to demonstrate excellent performance of ceramic membrane and gave the perspectives on ceramic membranes, which as key players to replace polymeric membranes in the water-treatment field.

Potential replacement of polymeric membranes with ceramic membranes for water and wastewater treatment

Electrospinning of Whey Protein Isolate Nanofibers as Plastics Substitution

The objective is to reduce the usage of plastic single-use masks through1) wearing and optimizing normalcotton masks, 2) replacing plastic with degradable and (or) natural materials, 3) developing sterilizablematerials and self-sterilization methods.

Reduce the usage of plastic masks

Green and eco-friendly geopolymers with high thermal/acid resistance represent potential replacement material for epoxies. However, the intrinsic brittleness hinders widespread applications of this material. We fabricated a new type of geopolymer composites by impregnated with interface engineered 3D skeleton resembling the lotus root structure. Highly porous melamine foam was selected as the 3D skeleton and its interior surface was coated with elastomeric PDMS-polyurea block copolymer. Under loading, the interfacial elastomer could deform and absorb large amount of energy concurrently with crack deflection of melamine foam and delamination of interfaces, thus the toughness was substantially improved as results indicated a transition of fracture behavior from brittle failure mode to a more ductile one. With as low as 2.5 wt. % elastomer, the fracture toughness and work of fracture were increased by 258% and 654%, respectively.

Biomimetic Geopolymer Composites as A Promising Thermoset Material

We reported the convenient synthesis of carbon dots by one-step hydrothermal method using plastic waste as the precursor. The prepared carbon dots exhibit good water dispersibility, excellent pH stabilities and resistance to photobleaching. Transmission Electron Microscope image indicates that the size of the synthesized carbon dot is 3 nm-10 nm. The effect of produced carbon dots on plant growth was investigated with mung bean as plant model. Plant growth results indicated that carbon dots produced from plastic waste is effective in promoting plant growth in terms of shoot length, wet mass and dry mass, which implied the potential of plastic waste in sustainable agriculture.

Carbon Dots from plastic waste and their potential application in sustainable agriculture

The use of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites as high performance replacement for traditional metal alloy-based structures have been ongoing over the past decade. Although some of these CFRP products are reaching their end-of-life, there is still a lack of CFRP waste management and recycling strategies. The main issues plaguing the commercialisation of large scale CFRP recycling includes capital intensive equipment, energy intensive processes and downgraded recyclate with reduced commercial value. We present our technical approach which addresses the abovementioned difficulties.

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