Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-14-2025
Department
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Abstract
The solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation (STRAP) process separates and recovers the constituent resins in multilayer plastic packaging films by selective polymer dissolution. In this work, the cause of coloring in the STRAP-recycled polyethylene (PE) resins from postindustrial printed films was identified as decomposed diarylide pigments. Two different approaches are needed to completely remove the dissolved colorants during the STRAP process including (i) adding an activated carbon (AC) adsorbent to the solvent after polymer dissolution and (ii) proper mechanical filtration of the polymer-solvent cake to remove as much solvent from the cake as possible. Colorless recycled PE can be produced by a combination of the proposed approaches (choosing the proper solvent, adding an AC adsorbent, and doing proper mechanical filtration) with minimal accumulation of colorants in the recycled STRAP solvents. This study demonstrated that high-quality STRAP low-density PE can be obtained from printed plastic films, enhancing the potential circularity of these packaging materials.
Publication Title
Science Advances
Recommended Citation
Yan, T.,
Granger, C.,
Sánchez-Rivera, K.,
Zhou, P.,
Grey, S.,
Long, F.,
Bar Ziv, E.,
&
et. al.
(2025).
Pigment removal from reverse-printed laminated flexible films by solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation.
Science Advances,
11(11).
http://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt5841
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p2/1526
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publisher's Statement
Publisher's version of record: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt5841
Copyright © 2025 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).