Open Source Waste Plastic Granulator
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Wanted: Students to make a distributed future with solar-powered open-source 3-D printing and recycling. |
Pearce Publications: Energy Conservation • Energy Policy • Industrial Symbiosis • Life Cycle Analysis • Materials Science • Open Source • Photovoltaic Systems • Solar Cells • Sustainable Development • Sustainability Education
Source
- Arvind Ravindran, Sean Scsavnicki, Walker Nelson, Peter Gorecki, Jacob Franz, Shane Oberloier, Theresa K. Meyer, Andrew R. Barnard and Joshua M. Pearce. Open Source Waste Plastic Granulator. Technologies 2019, 7(4), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies7040074 open access
Abstract
In order to accelerate deployment of distributed recycling by providing low-cost feed stocks of granulated post-consumer waste plastic, this study analyzes an open source waste plastic granulator system. It is designed, built, and tested for its ability to convert post-consumer waste, 3D printed products and waste into polymer feedstock for recyclebots of fused particle/granule printers. The technical specifications of the device are quantified in terms of power consumption (380 to 404 W for PET and PLA, respectively) and particle size distribution. The open source device can be fabricated for less than $2000 USD in materials. The experimentally measured power use is only a minor contribution to the overall embodied energy of distributed recycling of waste plastic. The resultant plastic particle size distributions were found to be appropriate for use in both recyclebots and direct material extrusion 3D printers. Simple retrofits are shown to reduce sound levels during operation by 4dB-5dB for the vacuum. These results indicate that the open source waste plastic granulator is an appropriate technology for community, library, maker space, fab lab, or small business–based distributed recycling.
Keywords
Circular economy; Distributed recycling; Energy conservation; Polymer recycling; Sustainable development; distributed manufacturing; life cycle analysis; recycling; recyclebot; 3-D printing; Open source hardware; Open hardware; RepRap; Recycling; Polymers; Plastic; Recyclebot; Waste plastic; Composites; Polymer composites; Extruder; Upcycle; Materials science;additive manufacturing; distributed manufacturing; open-source; waste plastic; extruder; upcycle; granulator; shredder; fab lab; open-source; polymers; recycling; waste plastic; upcycle; circular economy
| This Open Source Appropriate Technology has been designed but not yet tested — use at your own risk. |
| This Open Source Appropriate Technology has been modeled. |
| This Open Source Appropriate Technology has been prototyped. |
| This Open Source Appropriate Technology has been verified by MOST, re:3D |
See Also
| RepRapable Recyclebot and the Wild West of Recycling |
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Recycling Technology
- Recyclebot
- 3-D Printable Polymer Pelletizer Chopper for Fused Granular Fabrication-Based Additive Manufacturing
- Mechanical Properties of Direct Waste Printing of Polylactic Acid with Universal Pellets Extruder: Comparison to Fused Filament Fabrication on Open-Source Desktop Three-Dimensional Printers
- Fused Particle Fabrication 3-D Printing: Recycled Materials’ Optimization and Mechanical Properties
- Mechanical Properties and Applications of Recycled Polycarbonate Particle Material Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing
- Wood Furniture Waste-Based Recycled 3-D Printing Filament
- Solar powered distributed customized manufacturing
- Mechanical Properties of Ultraviolet-Assisted Paste Extrusion and Postextrusion Ultraviolet-Curing of Three-Dimensional Printed Biocomposites
- Open Source Waste Plastic Granulator
- Open-Source Grinding Machine for Compression Screw Manufacturing
Distributed Recycling LCA
- Tightening the loop on the circular economy: Coupled distributed recycling and manufacturing with recyclebot and RepRap 3-D printing
- Technical pathways for distributed recycling of polymer composites for distributed manufacturing: Windshield wiper blades
- Plastic recycling in additive manufacturing: A systematic literature review and opportunities for the circular economy
- Energy Payback Time of a Solar Photovoltaic Powered Waste Plastic Recyclebot System
- Life cycle analysis of distributed recycling of post-consumer high density polyethylene for 3-D printing filament
- Evaluation of Potential Fair Trade Standards for an Ethical 3-D Printing Filament
- Life cycle analysis of distributed polymer recycling
- Distributed recycling of post-consumer plastic waste in rural areas
- Ethical Filament Foundation
- Green Fab Lab Applications of Large-Area Waste Polymer-based Additive Manufacturing
- Systems Analysis for PET and Olefin Polymers in a Circular Economy
- Potential of distributed recycling from hybrid manufacturing of 3-D printing and injection molding of stamp sand and acrylonitrile styrene acrylate waste composite
- Towards Distributed Recycling with Additive Manufacturing of PET Flake Feedstocks
Literature Reviews
- Waste plastic extruder: literature review
- Life cycle analysis of polymer recycling literature review
- Solar powered recyclebot literature review
- Waste plastic extruder: literature review
- Life cycle analysis of polymer recycling literature review
Externals
- Economist article on U. of Washington's HDPE boat, Oprn3dp.me
- https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/52444-ocean-plastic-community-project
- Another possible solution - reusable containers
- Cruz, F., Lanza, S., Boudaoud, H., Hoppe, S., & Camargo, M. Polymer Recycling and Additive Manufacturing in an Open Source context: Optimization of processes and methods.
- Investigating Material Degradation through the Recycling of PLA in Additively Manufactured Parts
- Mohammed, M.I., Das, A., Gomez-Kervin, E., Wilson, D. and Gibson, I., EcoPrinting: Investigating the use of 100% recycled Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) for Additive Manufacturing.
- Kariz, M., Sernek, M., Obućina, M. and Kuzman, M.K., 2017. Effect of wood content in FDM filament on properties of 3D printed parts. Materials Today Communications.
- Kaynak, B., Spoerk, M., Shirole, A., Ziegler, W. and Sapkota, J., 2018. Polypropylene/Cellulose Composites for Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing. Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, p.1800037.
- O. Martikka et al., "Mechanical Properties of 3D-Printed Wood-Plastic Composites", Key Engineering Materials, Vol. 777, pp. 499-507, 2018
- Yang, T.C., 2018. Effect of Extrusion Temperature on the Physico-Mechanical Properties of Unidirectional Wood Fiber-Reinforced Polylactic Acid Composite (WFRPC) Components Using Fused Deposition Modeling. Polymers, 10(9), p.976.
News
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