They develop a more sustainable tire recycling system that obtains materials for construction

VALENCIA, 15 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society, through the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI), finances the development of a new treatment for tire recycling that "is not only more sustainable than current processes, rather, it allows obtaining higher quality rubber for use in the construction sector, transport infrastructure, sports facilities or playgrounds, among others".

Promoted by the Technological Institute of Plastics (Aimplas), the 'Recicautxu' project aims to "give a second life to out-of-use covers, avoiding their storage in landfills, which are a source of insects and rodents and increase the risk of fire" .

The initiative has the backing of the Valencian Innovation Agency, which has contributed 150,000 euros within the framework of the last call in competitive competition, which is financed jointly with the European Union through the Regional Development Fund (Feder), details the Ministry of Innovation in a statement.

Currently, there are different treatment systems for this waste, but all of them have deficiencies from the perspective of sustainability, which has led to exploring alternatives in which shredded rubber is mixed with other plastics in order to reuse them as materials. secondary in new industrial products.

These technologies, however, have a wide margin for improvement, since the properties of the materials obtained to date do not reach the necessary quality standards.

Precisely, Aimplas, in collaboration with the Transport Engineering and Infrastructure Department of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), intends to develop a new generation of compounds with improved elastic and impact resistance properties for use in construction elements, transport infrastructures, transport, inside buildings, sports facilities, playgrounds or signage and road safety systems.

According to the person in charge of this project at Aimplas, Vicent Martínez, currently "applications for rubber waste are very limited, which makes it necessary to broaden the range of transformation processes for this recycled material, as well as to seek new products of higher value. added. In this project we are seeking to improve the recovery of this waste through innovative processes that will allow new, more sustainable materials to be obtained within a circular economy."

To improve the properties of this waste, Aimplas has developed a technology that reverses the tire vulcanization process, which is a treatment that rubber is subjected to to increase its hardness and resistance. The advantage of this new process is that it can be extended to other types of plastic materials such as polyurethane foams, cross-linked polyethylene pipes and cable coatings, thus expanding the possibilities of recovery and recycling of this type of waste.

In this way, 'Recicautxu' plans to value the research that Aimplas has been developing over the last few years in this field and, for this, it will have the Railway Engineering research group, attached to the Department of Engineering and Infrastructures of the Transport of the UPV, on which the validation of the elements produced with recycled materials will fall. The objective, therefore, is to subject these products to tests of rigidity against loads, fatigue tests and vibration damping, among others.

"Every year 160,000 tons of used tires are collected in Spain, the management of which at the end of their useful life can generate a great impact on the environment. Thanks to innovation, it is possible to obtain new products with a high value from waste added, reducing the use of natural resources, offering alternatives to primary materials and benefiting from savings in costs and energy consumption", specified the Minister of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society, Josefina Bueno.

For his part, the Executive Vice President of AVI, Andrés García Reche, highlighted the importance of supporting knowledge and technology transfer processes so that the results of research that present potential applications in the productive fabric end up being effectively implemented in our companies and give them a differential value.

The project is also aligned with the Smart Specialization Strategy of the Valencian Community, which places among its priorities in the habitat axis the development of advanced materials, products and processes, with low environmental impact, with new value-added applications, in a sustainable and eco-efficient way.

Likewise, the initiative led by Aimplas connects with the challenges and solutions identified by the strategic innovation committees in Circular Economy and Sustainable Habitat, which advocate the development of tertiary recycling systems to optimize waste recovery and implement more sustainable construction materials. .