Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : Why IV Matters in Scrap PET?

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

Why IV Matters in Scrap PET?

A recent buyer came to us struggling with unpredictable performance in recycled PET. Their flakes and lumps looked fine, but the results in production weren’t.

When we ran testing and analysis, the cause was clear: Intrinsic Viscosity (IV) loss.

Here are the main IV-impacting factors we identified in their feedstock:

🚨      Weather Exposure – Sunlight & rain degrade PET, lowering IV & causing yellowing

🚨     Thermal Degradation – Overheated or burned lumps = major IV drop

🚨     Mixed Sources – Bottles, sheets, and fibers blended together → inconsistent IV

🚨     Contamination & Lamination – Impurities reduce melt quality & IV stability

✅ Quick Check Tip:

Drop test lumps → if they break easily = degradation is high and IV is likely low.

The Lesson - Always check the feedstock!

-     For Bottles Application: Must keep trays out — they lower IV.

-     For Sheets Application: Use bottle-grade PET, avoid fiber-origin PET.

The Outcome:

By helping the customer understanding their feedstock and apply the right sampling checks, we ensured a more consistent IV range, improving bottle-grade rPET quality and reducing processing issues.

👉 Our Role: At Vanden, we don’t just supply material, we provide the testing, analysis, and insight that gives customers certainty.

source : Beril Baykal Yashirmak

#PlasticsTesting #Recycling #Polymers #PET

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : Are Compostable materials really effective in the cold Nordic climate?

 Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

❄️ Are traditional compostable materials really effective in the cold Nordic climate? 🌱

In regions like Sweden, Norway, and Finland, the demand for disposable tableware is still there — from cafés and ski resorts to large-scale events. But in such cold environments, the biodegradation process slows down dramatically.

This means that some “compostable” materials, like PLA or other plant-based plastics, don’t break down as promised unless industrial facilities are available — and those aren’t always widespread in the Nordics.

That’s why many businesses here are turning to natural tableware, like wood and bamboo. These materials are strong, practical, and — even if decomposition takes longer — they don’t leave harmful microplastics behind.

The key lesson: sustainability must be measured in real-world conditions, not just on labels.

What’s your view — should “biodegradable” standards adapt to the local climate, especially in colder regions?

source : Sven Wang

#Sustainability #compostable #Nordics

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : Xenia presents new range of more impact-resistant thermoplastic materials

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

Xenia Materials, global player in engineering and manufacturing reinforced thermoplastic composites, introduces the new ST Upgrade, a technology designed to enhance the impact resistance of its fibre reinforced materials.

Fibre-reinforced thermoplastics are well established for their exceptional balance of mechanical strength, stiffness and reduced weight. However, certain applications are subject to conditions that require performance superior to that offered by standard grades.

The ST Upgrade just launched by Xenia — in which ST stands for Super Tough — delivers a remarkable increase in impact resistance, achieving an average improvement of 60% compared with original formulations and ensuring reliable performance both at room and low temperatures. Simultaneously, it enhances flexibility and elastic behaviour, with elongation at break increased by an average of 40% compared with non-upgraded formulations.

The ST Upgrade can be selected and applied across a defined range of Xenia formulations, including the registered:

Xecarb – #carbonfibre reinforced thermoplastic composites

Xeglass – glass fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites

Xebrid (registered trademark) – thermoplastic composites engineered by combining carbon and glass fibre reinforcement

Xegreen – sustainable thermoplastic composites combining recycled carbon fibre and recycled polymers

The ST Upgrade can be applied to applications that demand advanced performance, from aerospace and motorsport, where lightweight and high-stiffness components are essential, to consumer goods requiring structural reliability, such as ski boots, bindings, mountain boots, hockey skates and shoe soles and plates.

#Xenia’s portfolio already includes carbon- and #glassfibrereinforced materials based on PA6, PA66, PA11, PA12, PA6.12, PA4.10, PA6.10, and PA10.10 upgraded with ST technology for enhanced performance. Thanks to its versatility, the ST Upgrade can be applied to any polymer base and reinforcement processed by Xenia, offering maximum design freedom and delivering tailored solutions for the most demanding applications.

source : Xenia Materials/Jeccomposites

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : BYD's SHIPPING VESSEL

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

BYD has developed a fleet of specialized shipping vessels, including the BYD Explorer No.1 and the BYD Shenzhen, to transport electric vehicles globally. These ships are designed to enhance BYD's logistics and support its international expansion, with a focus on reducing emissions through advanced dual-fuel technology.

Overview of BYD's Shipping Vessel

BYD Shenzhen Specifications:

Type: Roll-on-roll-off (RoRo) ship

Length: 219 meters

Width: 37.7 meters

Draft: 9 meters

Capacity: Up to 9,200 vehicles

Fuel Type: Dual-fuel (marine diesel and LNG)

Battery System: Hybrid 1 MW battery power system for low-emission zones

source : Massimo Galli

BASF, Porsche chemically recycle automotive waste in gasification pilot

In a first for the automotive industry, #BASF, #Porsche, and Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies (BEST) have used gasification to recycle plastic waste from end-of-life vehicles into raw materials for new car components.

The project demonstrated the recyclability of automotive shredder residues a combination #plastics, foams, paints, and films together with biomass. The partners used BEST’s thermochemical #gasification technology to transform Porsche’s automotive waste into syngas and subsequently syncrude. BASF then used the oil to produce polyurethane foam for new steering wheels via a mass balance approach.

“Pilot projects like these allow us to evaluate how we can further develop the circular economy as a sustainability field at Porsche and how we can anchor chemical recycling in our strategy in the long term,” said Robert Kallenberg, head of sustainability at Porsche. “We are testing new recycling technologies with our direct partners in order to increase recyclate quotas, gain access to previously unusable recyclate sources and evaluate new processes for waste streams that are currently being thermally utilised.

The project comes as the #EuropeanUnion is readying to introduce mandatory recycled plastic quotas in new vehicles.

The pilot marks the first time that fossil inputs have been fully replaced by a blend of automotive waste and biomass in a gasification process. BEST, based in Vienna, adapted its gasification technology to handle plastic waste together with biomass. The research firm has experience in converting biomass like wood or straw into chemicals via gasification.

For BASF, the initiative underlines the company’s commitment to a broad recycling portfolio. “We prioritise mechanical recycling and continuously improve its efficiency. At the same time, the type of waste and the degree of sorting determine which technology is best suited. We are convinced that complementary technologies such as chemical recycling, which includes pyrolysis, depolymerisation and gasification, are necessary to further promote the circular economy and reduce the plastic waste that still ends up in landfills or is incinerated today.

The pilot feeds into a broader push by the chemical and automotive sectors to unlock new circular pathways.

This month, the Global Impact Coalition (GIC), of which BASF is a founding member, announced a research collaboration with ETH Zurich and five major chemical companies to study the feasibility and environmental impacts of gasification on complex waste streams. The partnership will examine the technical feasibility and environmental impact of converting complex waste streams directly into chemical feedstocks through gasification.

source : BASF/Sustainable Platics

Borealis’ new compounding line in Belgium offers premium recyclate-based polyolefins

 Borealis is proud to announce that its new compounding line for recyclate-based polyolefins (rPO) is now fully operational in Beringen, Belgium. This milestone marks a significant step forward in helping customers meet their circularity and sustainability targets—without sacrificing performance and reliability.

Using Borealis’ proprietary Borcycle M mechanical recycling technology, the line combines post-consumer and virgin polyolefins into rigid polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) compounds that meet the high standards required for demanding applications in mobility, consumer products, appliances, and energy.

The Beringen facility is not only designed to process a wide range of recyclate flakes, offering exceptional versatility to meet diverse customer needs, but it also serves as a platform for collaboration—enabling customers to co-develop and test new solutions that bring recycled plastics into high-value applications.

“This installation is more than just a technological milestone—it’s a clear commitment to our customers,” says Craig Arnold, Executive Vice President Polyolefins, Base Chemicals and Circular Economy Solutions. “By expanding access to high-quality recyclate-based materials, we’re enabling our partners to accelerate their circular transformation. This approach is fully aligned with our strategic ambition to drive sustainable growth through innovation and collaboration.

The new line complements Borealis’ recent acquisitions of Rialti and Integra Plastics, further strengthening its position as a trusted partner in the transition to a circular economy for plastics.

Samples of products made with recylate based polyolefins will be showcased at our booth during K Show 2025, Düsseldorf, Germany, from 8–15 October - Hall 6, Stand A43

source : Borealis

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : Sensing Technologies for the Optimisation and Improving Manufacturing Fibre-Reinforced Polymeric Structures

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

Review: Sensing Technologies for the Optimisation and Improving

#Manufacturing #Fibre-Reinforced #Polymeric Structures

by Thomas Allsop and Mohammad W. Tahir

J. Compos. Sci. 2025, 9(7), 343; https://lnkd.in/dVfv5iVd

Abstract

Over the last three decades, composite structures have become increasingly more common in everyday life, such as in wind turbines as part of the solution to produce clean energy, and their use in the aerospace industry due to their advantages over conventional materials. Most of these advantages are dependent upon the reliability and quality of the manufacturing process to ensure that there are no defects/faults or imperfections during manufacturing. Thus, it is critical to monitor the enclosed environment of moulds during fabrication in real time. This need has caused many researchers—past and present—to create or apply many sensing technologies to achieve real-time monitoring of the manufacturing processes of composite structures to ensure that the structures can meet their requirements. A consequence of these research activities is the myriad of sensing schemes, (for example, optical, electrical, piezo, and nanomaterial schemes and the use of digital twins) available to consider, and the investigations all of them have both strengths and weaknesses for a given application, with no apparent option having a distinct advantage. This review reveals that the best possible sensing solution depends upon a large set of parameters, the geometry of the composite structure, the required specification, and budget limits, to name a few. Furthermore, challenges remain for researchers trying to find solutions, such as a sensing scheme that can directly detect wrinkles/waviness during the laying-up procedure, real-time detection of the resin flow front throughout the mould, and the monitoring of the resin curing spatially, all at a spatial resolution of ~1 cm with the required sensitivity along with the need to obtain the true interpretation of the real-time data. This review offers signposts through the variety of sensing options, with their advantages and failings, to readers from the composite and sensing community to aid in making an informed decision on the possible sensing approaches to help them meet their composite structure’s desired function and tolerances, and the challenges that remain.

source : Journal of Composites Science