Recipient Organization
AGRO-PLASTICS, INC.
619 EAST 8TH STREET, SUITE D
LAWRENCE,KS 66044
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Small farmers are continually being hurt in the U.S. with low income and lack of jobs and opportunities to keep their youth in rural america. In addition, the U.S. only recycles 5.6f its plastic. Agro-Plastics has successfully developed and is commercializing a process that uses agricultural fibers as fillers in virgin plastic. The Agro-Plastic manufacturing plants are designed for small communities, providing employment and non-farm revenues. The company is modifiying its existing process for use with waste plastic. This will create additional income streams for rural areas, while reducing currently high waste disposal costs. This project will yield the following benefits: new cash crop for the producers by selling wheat straw; recycling option for the community's plastic; high paying plastic's manufacturing jobs; and an increased tax base. A fifty-five percent improvement in physical properties of the plastic were found. We successfully manufactured 50% fiber/50%
co-mingled plastic composites using all fractions of the waste plastic stream including the PET fraction. The community profiles found that people would welcome a plastics recycling facility in their county and know people who would be willing to work at the plant. The data also show that development of such a plant may encourage the repatriation of people who have left the community due to a lack of jobs.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this Phase II SBIR is to commercialize the process to use wheat straw fibers as a means to improve the characteristics of commingled plastic. The Phase I research proved the feasibility of using wheat straw as a filler for commingled plastic. However, in order to commercialize the process, hurdles still need to be overcome in order to have a In order to reach this goal the following objectives have been developed: Improve the mechanical properties of the commingled plastic so it can be automatically fed into the twin-screw extruder. Optimize the chemical additives to improve the binding of the commingled plastic with each other and with the agricultural fillers. Determine methods, such as low-temperature compounding, which can be used in the extruder to both ensure good melt of the plastics but reduce fiber degradation. Look at the long-term weatherability of the plastics to determine their outdoor applications. Work with manufacturers to test the product
and incorporate their comments back into the research plan.
Project Methods
There will be seven major tasks to accomplishing the objectives above. The first is to improve feeding of the commingled plastic (CMP) fluff into the extruder. The second task will be to investigate different screw designs for twin-screw extrusion to determine if the different polymer phases can be melt-blended into a more uniform polymer matrix. In addition, a special technique (Patent # 6,270,883 B1) for cellulose composite compounding called "Low Temperature Compounding" will be investigated for compounding wheat straw with CMP pellets. The third task will be to optimize the chemicals added to the fiber/CMP blend. The research team is very conscious of the costs of specialty additives and the cost savings associated with optimizing the composite systems during commercial manufacturing (a 1% reduction can result in saving of over $100,000 per year). From mechanical property evaluations, such as, tensile strength, a cost analysis versus properties graph will be
developed. One major issue that needs to be addressed is the amount of degradation the agro-plastics will undergo when placed in an outdoor environment. If the plastics are used outdoors, they will be exposed to ultraviolet radiation (UV), moisture from rain, snow and humidity, freezing and thawing and fungal attacks. An extensive testing program will be carried out to epose the agro-plastics to accelerated environmental tests. After the tests, the material will be inspected visually and then undergo mechanical property tests to determine any degradation. The fifth task will use the economic pro-formas developed in Phase I of this research, cost models will be developed for each process. These will than be compared to properties of each agro-plastic composite and market acceptance. Based on these models, a determination will be made about which processing options are viable to recommend for a 15 ton per day manufacturing facility. Wheat straw/CMP composites will be sent to molding
manufacturers for industrial trial runs. Technical specification sheets, extrusion, and injection molding parameters will be included with the composite pellets. The comments from the plastic manufacturers will be used to insure that the final product meets manufacturers needs. A final engineering design will be constructed for building a 15 ton per day composite manufacturing facility. All of the major and ancillary equipment will be specified and bid to provide detailed cost estimates for the commercial production facility. The major design of the plant is the plastic material handling system. From the final engineering design and economic cost data for the pilot plastic processing equipment, horsepower requirements will be estimated to determine electricity usage. Production facility costs for gas, water, and sewer usage will also be determined. All of this data will be used in the final economic models for the commercial production facility and the production of wheat straw/CMP
composite products.