Fri, 08 December, 2023
In what has been a busy period for the consortium partners, the Sol-Rec2 project has enjoyed a run of high-visibility appearances over the last few weeks, being disseminated at a number of notable European events, dedicated to finding technological solutions to some of the most pressing environmental issues.
First up was the Ecomondo: Green Technology Expo in Rimini, Italy, running from 7 – 10 November 2023 and attended this year by over 10,000+ delegates representing industries including water management, waste disposal, agriculture, textiles and transportation. An exhibition stand was dedicated to disseminating Sol-Rec2, and manned by project consortium representatives Adamantini Loukodimou, Research Associate of MatIC, University of Leicester, George Theodosopoulos, Senior Project Manager of TWI and Pascal Négré of IPM2, whose company is the Project Coordinator. Adamantini also gave a presentation as part of the conference, detailing what the consortium is aiming to achieve as the team develops, and subsequently implements, new ‘green’ solvents than can improve the sorting, separation and recycling of pharmaceutical blister packs and laminate consumer packaging made up of multi-layer polymers and aluminium.
The second event at which Sol-Rec2 had a showcase was the 2nd International Seminar on Plastics Recycling (PLASREC), in Valencia, Spain, 15 – 16 November 2023, organised by Sol-Rec2 consortium partner AIMPLAS Technological Institute of Plastics. Adamantini and George represented the project again, with George also giving a presentation during the Seminar’s technical sessions, and were additionally being joined by TWI’s Christopher Lovell, Polymer Scientist and Engineer, and Kranthi Maniam, Senior Project Leader, Surface Corrosion and Interface Engineering. The 2-day Seminar provided a further platform for demonstrating how Sol-Rec2 is developing a toolbox of novel, ‘green’ solvent systems that can de-laminate multi-layer packaging material and selectively dissolve target polymers, thereby reducing the demand for virgin raw materials through efficient separation and recovery of high purity PE, PP and PVC polymers and aluminium.
Sol-Rec2’s final appearance during this current round of dissemination was at the 14th Hellenic Polymer Society International Conference which took place in Thessaloniki, Greece over 22 – 25 November 2023. On this occasion, George gave a talk on Physico-Chemical Recycling Techniques for End-of-Life (EoL) Plastics Up-cycling and Laminate Package Recycling, and Adamantini presented the project's latest findings with a poster titled Sustainable Waste Management: Enhancing Recycling of Multi-Material, Multi-Layer Waste by Using 'Green' Solvents.
Speaking of the project’s presence across the three events, Adamantini said “The recent Sol-Rec2 activities provided a wealth of opportunities to disseminate and explain the disruptive technologies being created within the project.” Explaining further that, “The process of research, development and innovation is one of collaboration, based on complementary skills and experience, and knowledge sharing, therefore we were thrilled to be able to present Sol-Rec2 and its achievements to an audience of industry and technological associates and researchers.”
Sol-Rec2 is being spearheaded by European-wide partners: IMP2 LIMITED and Solvionic (France), AIMPLAS Technological Institute of Plastics (Spain), Mikrolin Hungary Kft. (Hungary), Plastigram Industries A.S. (the Czech Republic), FiliGrade Sustainable Watermarks (the Netherlands), and TWI Ltd and the University of Leicester, and is funded under Grant Agreement no.101003532 as part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme.
Visit the Sol-Rec2 website to find out more about this ground breaking project.
Photograph top shows the Sol-Rec2 stand at Ecomondo 2023 with, left to right: Adamantini Loukodimou, MatIC (University of Leicester), George Theodosopoulos, TWI and Pascal Négré, IPM2