Abstract: An extruded composite adapted for use as a building material includes a core having a base polymer and a natural fiber in a substantially homogeneous mixture and an ionomer capstock. To improve adherence of the ionomer to a base polymer, the ionomer can be mixed with a similar or substantially similar base polymer prior to coextrusion with the core. Additionally, various additives may be mixed with the capstock material to improve visual aesthetics of the product and performance of the building material, especially over time.

Abstract: A method of forming an asphalt mixture can include mixing a bio-asphalt and a bitumen source material different from the bio-asphalt. The bio-asphalt can be formed by mixing a bio-source material with a liquid catalyst. Particles can be added to the asphalt mixture. In an embodiment, the bitumen source material can have a softening point of at least approximately 93° C. and a penetration distance no greater than approximately 25 dmm. In another embodiment, the roofing-grade asphalt mixture can have a softening point of at least approximately 104° C., a penetration distance no greater than approximately 12 dmm, a viscosity of at least approximately 3000 cps at a temperature of 204° C., or any combination thereof. The asphalt mixture can be applied to a base material to form a roofing product. The asphalt mixture can be applied as a pavement product.

Abstract: A process and system for recovering at least one polyamide from one or more composite materials is provided. The process comprises dissolving the at least one polyamide present in the one or more composite materials in a solvent. The process further comprises separating at least one undissolved polymer from the solution by filtration. Furthermore, the process comprises evaporating part of the solvent from the solution containing the at least one polyamide. Also, the process comprises neutralizing, using an alkali, the solvent remaining with the at least one polyamide. In addition, the process comprises washing, filtering and drying the mixture comprising the at least one polyamide to obtain polyamide.

Abstract: Processes for recovering natural rubber from an aqueous natural rubber latex that contains extractables and one or more additives and that is essentially free of lignocellulosic plant material are described. Natural rubber in the latex is separated from the water. Preferably, the amount of non-rubber extractables in the natural rubber is reduced by one or more extraction steps yielding a dried natural rubber.

Abstract: A thermoset cross-linked elastomer material, such as scrap tire rubber, is devulcanized by subjecting the material to a mechanical mixing process in the presence of 0.5 to 2% by wt. of an organic catalyst having a thiol terminus.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods of making shapeable composites in the form of finely divided materials or articles and the materials and articles produced by the methods, the methods comprising forming mixtures by (i) treating an aqueous thermoplastic acrylic or vinyl polymer to increase the particle size thereof to a weight average particle size of 1 ?m or more, and, optionally, dewatering to form a crumb mixture; and (ii) combining a thermoplastic acrylic or vinyl polymer with one or more waste rubber vulcanizate having a sieve particle size ranging from 10 to 600 ?m in the amount of from 15 to 95 wt. %, based on the total weight of polymer and rubber to form a crumb slurry, such that (ii) can take place before, during, after (i) but before any dewatering, or after any dewatering; and (iii) thermoplastic processing the mixture. Thermoplastic processing can directly form articles, like sheets or films. The shapeable composites have excellent adhesion to other materials.

Abstract: This invention proposes a method for thermal regeneration of waste rubber; add rough powder particle of waste rubber/environmental softener/powder material with weight ratio ranging among 100/8˜150/20˜1500 into mixing heater; first carry out oxygen-free heating and then divert into mixing cooler to cool below 100° C.; the discharge material is product; or set aside some or all powder material and then slowly add into mixing heater or/and add the same when the hot material has been diverted into mixing cooler; when the mixture has been cooled below 100° C., the discharged material is product; after initial mixing of the prepared material, directly divert the same into screw extruder and heat and get into mixing section; when the mixture has been cooled below 100° C.

Abstract: A surfacing composition made of recycled paint, which requires no priming, has a non-reflective “flat” appearance, and is partially composed of dried paint. The composition provides a useful application for used or excess household paint, which would otherwise require special methods of disposal and potentially create future toxic cleanup problems. The composition is made of granular dried paint and a water-based sealer, which can be spread on a surface to repair imperfections. The surface can then be finished, and no priming is required. Due to the composition's flat appearance, the patch does not display any characteristic sheen where the repair has been made. The composition provides a simple means of recycling paint, and provides a simple and inexpensive means of repairing imperfections in walls and other surfaces while saving the step of priming the patch before painting or repainting.

Abstract: A method for producing thermoplastic elastomer is disclosed and comprises the step of: blending a mixture including particles of vulcanized rubber material and a molten thermoplastic material such that the rubber material is subjected to mechanical shearing forces and the surfaces of the rubber particles undergo homolytic bond scission to form chains of free radicals which cross-link with the thermoplastic material. Apparatus for carrying out the method, elastomers produced by the method and articles produced from the elastomers are also disclosed.

Abstract: Processes for recovering natural rubber from an aqueous natural rubber latex that contains extractables and one or more additives and that is essentially free of lignocellulosic plant material are described. Natural rubber in the latex is separated from the water. Preferably, the amount of non-rubber extractables in the natural rubber is reduced by one or more extraction steps yielding a dried natural rubber.

Abstract: A pulverized thermoplastic resin product such as a pulverized thermoplastic product containing a black pigment, a mixture of a pulverized thermoplastic product containing a colored pigment and a pulverized thermoplastic product containing a colored pigment, or a pulverized thermoplastic product containing two or more different colored pigments can be converted into colored reclaimed resin particles by a method comprising the steps of mixing the pulverized resin product with a white pigment and a black pigment, melting the resulting mixture, and converting the molten mixture into solid particles. The colored reclaimed resin products can be utilized in various field.

Abstract: An immiscible polymer blend including a first polymer component including a paint polymer phase and a second polymer component immiscible with the first polymer component and selected from polyolefins and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). A method of recycling paint by blending a first polymer component including a paint polymer phase with a second polymer component immiscible with the first polymer component and selected from polyolefins and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is also presented.

Abstract: The invention relates to an enhanced process for the recycling of expanded polystyrene. Said process essentially comprises the reduction in volume of expanded polystyrene by means of dissolution in a solvent, separation of the insoluble components, selective precipitation of the polystyrene with an anti-solvent, separation, drying and extrusion of the precipitated polystyrene, recovery by distillation and recycling of the solvent. The process is characterized in that the anti-solvent is a butanol selected form n-butanol, iso-butanol or sec-butanol and the solvent is dimethyl carbonate, alone or in a mixture containing up to 25% by weight of butanol.

Abstract: [Problems] To produce a resin composition from a waste plastic material composed of a major portion of a thermoplastic resin and a small amount of incompatible solid foreign material. [Means for solving problems] A reclaimed resin composition which is produced by mixing a pulverized waste plastic material containing a major portion of a thermoplastic resin and a small amount of a non-thermoplastic solid foreign material with a light-shielding component and a light-shielding filler to give a mixture and melting the mixture under heating, and a sheet made from which shows a relationship between a lightness and a light transmittance satisfying the following condition: (A×B)?4000 wherein A means a lightness of a sheet of 3 mm thick having been made of the reclaimed resin composition, and B means a total light transmittance (%) of a sheet of 50 ?m thick having been made of the resin composition.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for decomposing a plastic so as to recycle useful substances therefrom as raw materials for a similar plastic. In particular, the present invention provides a method for decomposing a plastic, comprising the step of treating a thermosetting resin comprising a polyester and its crosslinking moiety, with subcritical water of a temperature lower than the thermal decomposition temperature of the thermosetting resin. According to the present invention, the thermosetting resin can be decomposed into a polyhydric alcohol, a polybasic acid and a compound comprising an acid residue derived from the polyester and a residue derived from the crosslinking moiety, without causing a random decomposition of the thermosetting resin.

Abstract: Recycled resin is produced by a method including a dismantling/recovery step of dismantling products containing resin moldings and recovering the resin moldings, a removal step of removing unwanted matter including metal components from the resin moldings, a sorting step of discriminating the materials of the resin moldings, and a crushing step of crushing the resin moldings. The method further includes, prior to the crushing step, detecting the metal components, and, after the crushing step, separating out and thus removing metal remaining in crushed material.

Abstract: A method produces polar-modified rubber and olefin thermoplastic waste by grafting during a grinding process, for treatment, usable as compatibility agents in various plastic blends and composites, without the disadvantages of known functionalized recycled plastics, particularly the mechanical characteristics that are insufficient for their use. The waste is simultaneously ground and graft-modified in a temperature range between 40° C. and 140° C., in one method step. Scrap parts of vulcanized elastomer or olefin thermoplastic are comminuted to a particle size diameter of approximately 4 and 8 mm. The waste should be sorted by type, if possible. The shredded material is mixed with at least one organic peroxide and an ?,?-ethylene compound possessing at least one unsaturated polar group. The mixture is simultaneously ground and grafted at a specified dwell time and temperature range to a particle size diameter <1 mm. Residual components and byproducts are removed via nitrogen flushing.

Abstract: Vulcanized rubber is devulcanized by contacting the vulcanized rubber with a terpentine liquid in a reaction mixture in the absence of an alkali metal.

Abstract: The present invention relates to elastomeric compositions and methods including compositions and methods involving the use of aromatic alcohols. The present invention further relates to elastomeric compositions that can include ground reclaimed elastomeric particles. Compositions of the present invention are usable in numerous elastomeric applications including interior and exterior vehicle parts, roofing, asphalt, and any other applications that employ an elastomer as an ingredient thereof, particularly those utilizing rubber or a similar elastomer. The present invention further is directed to asphalt compositions and their methods of manufacture and use.

Abstract: The invention relates to articles of manufacture, such as for example, tires and industrial products, which have at least one component comprised of a rubber composition which contains particles of pre-sulfur vulcanized rubber (e.g. ground recycled rubber) and impure tetrathiodipropionic acid, namely a blend comprised primarily of tetrathiodipropionic acid and trithiodipropionic acids of a weight ratio thereof in a range of about 80/20 to about 30/70. Said blend is referred to herein as an S4/S3 blend. The S4/S3 blend may be introduced directly to a rubber composition or may be provided as particles of a composite of said S4/S3 and a particulate support therefor for a purpose of aiding the dispersion of the S4 and S3 within the elastomer host. Representative of such support, or carrier, may be, for example, silica, particularly amorphous precipitated silica, carbon black, clay, starch, calcium carbonate, calcium silicate, titanium dioxide and the like, wherein carbon black is preferred.

Abstract: A method for producing a polypropylene blend from a plastic packaging materials containing high molecular weight polypropylene, other high molecular weight polymers such as polyethylene, low molecular weight polymers and other contaminants. The method includes extraction, solid-liquid separation and liquid-liquid phase separation using various organic solvents. The polypropylene blend has a purity of 95% and has favorable melt flow characteristics, while retaining satisfactory mechanical properties.

Abstract: Mechanical/chemical method and composition for de-vulcanization of rubber maintains the macromolecules, renders sulfur passive for later re-vulcanization, is cost effective, environmentally friendly and produces high quality de-vulcanized rubber to replace virgin rubber. Waste rubber is shredded, crushed and metal-removed. Modifying composition is added as the particles of shredded waste rubber are poured between two rollers that further crush the particles. The modifying composition is a mixture of (1) a proton donor that selectively breaks the sulfur bonds and renders the sulfur passive, (2) a metal oxide and (3) an organic acid that build new bonds between macromolecules for later re-vulcanization, (4) an inhibitor that prevents re-attachment of sulfur radicals with each other before the proton donor attaches itself to the sulfur and (5) a friction agent that prevents sliding of the waste rubber between the rollers. The particles are subjected to at least ten sets of rollers.

Abstract: Mechanical/chemical method and composition for de-vulcanization of rubber maintains the macromolecules, renders sulfur passive for later re-vulcanization, is cost effective, environmentally friendly and produces high quality de-vulcanized rubber to replace virgin rubber. Waste rubber is shredded, crushed and metal-removed. Modifying composition is added as the particles of shredded waste rubber are poured between two rollers that further crush the particles. The modifying composition is a mixture of (1) a proton donor that selectively breaks the sulfur bonds and renders the sulfur passive, (2) a metal oxide and (3) an organic acid that build new bonds between macromolecules for later re-vulcanization, (4) an inhibitor that prevents re-attachment of sulfur radicals with each other before the proton donor attaches itself to the sulfur and (5) a friction agent that prevents sliding of the waste rubber between the rollers. The particles are subjected to at least ten sets of rollers.

Abstract: The present invention is a recipe and method for combining Gilsonite and other asphaltites with curative elastomers that are powder granular form and which are added to asphalt. Second recipe and method is disclosed to create a dry liquid concentrate comprised of cured elastomers in combination with tall oil or other fatty acids and may also include Gilsonite to be added to asphalt.

Abstract: A mixer and method of using the mixer is disclosed in which a closed chambered vessel capable of both holding pressure and vacuum is charged with a mixture of elastomer and materials taken from the group of tall oil, fatty acids and residues of tall oil production. The charge mixture is heated under pressure without excessive friction heat. After the heating cycle, the mixer atmosphere is evacuated under vacuum, and then the mix is discharged.