Rapra looks at devulcanisation in €1.3 million project

Shropshire, UK - Rapra Technology, a member of the US-based independent testing, consulting and contract research organisation, The Smithers Group, is leading a UK consortium of six companies who will carry out research into the devulcanisation of scrap tyre rubber.

The project, which will last for two years, is funded by the UK government through its Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) within its Design and Manufacture of Sustainable Products programme. Projects within this programme are designed to develop eco friendly and sustainable processes that will benefit SME's based in the UK. More than £420 000 (€637 000) of direct financial assistance will be provided by the DTI, with the project partners contributing another £420k between them.

Work has started on establishing the optimum reaction conditions in an autoclave system needed to achieve a high quality, devulcanised rubber product. The main R&D effort will then involve the successful transfer of this technology to an extruder based system to enable a continuous process to be set up. The devulcanised product will then be evaluated as a material for the manufacture of a variety of rubber products.

In addition to Rapra, the consortium partners are PJH Partnership, Martins Rubber Company, BD Technical Polymer, J Allcocks and Sons, and Charles Lawrence International. These companies bring a high degree of synergy to the project, having expertise in the recycling of rubber and the production of rubber crumb, supercritical fluid technology, and the compounding and moulding of rubber products.

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