Towards Next-Generation Sustainable Composites Made of Recycled Rubber, Cenospheres, and Biobinder

Abstract

The utilisation of industrial residual products to develop new value-added materials and reduce their environmental footprint is one of the critical challenges of science and industry. Development of new multifunctional and bio-based composite materials is an excellent opportunity for the effective utilisation of residual industrial products and a right step in the Green Deal's direction as approved by the European Commission. Keeping the various issues in mind, we describe the manufacturing and characterisation of the three-component bio-based composites in this work. The key components are a bio-based binder made of peat, devulcanised crumb rubber (DCR) from used tyres, and part of the fly ash, i.e., the cenosphere (CS). The three-phase composites were prepared in the form of a block to investigate their mechanical properties and density, and in the form of granules for the determination of the sorption of water and oil products. We also investigated the properties’ dependence on the DCR and CS fraction. It was found that the maximum compression strength (in block form) observed for the composition without CS and DCR addition was 79.3 MPa, while the second-highest value of compression strength was 11.2 MPa for the composition with 27.3 wt.% of CS. For compositions with a bio-binder content from 17.4 to 55.8 wt.%, and with DCR contents ranging from 11.0 to 62.0 wt.%, the compressive strength was in the range from 1.1 to 2.0 MPa. Liquid-sorption analysis (water and diesel) showed that the maximum saturation of liquids, in both cases, was set after 35 min and ranged from 1.05 to 1.4 g·g -1 for water, and 0.77 to 1.25 g·g-1 for diesel. It was observed that 90% of the maximum saturation with diesel fuel came after 10 min and for water after 35 min.

Potential of Baltic Region Peat in High Added-value Products and Environmentally Friendly Applications - A Review

“…Small amount of CS added (5 wt%) leads to significant decay of apparent density from 1.20 to 0.85 g•m-3 [135]. An increase of the CDR in the block shaped composites leads to a significant decrease of compression strength, in this study by 97 % [136].…”

Nutrient Analysis of Food Waste from Ships’ Greywater in the Baltic Sea

“…Recently emerged and still rising demand for water purification solutions and materials has resulted in an increased number of studies aiming to develop highly efficient porous filtering products made of more durable and environmentally friendly materials [47,48]. Researchers have paid particular attention to generating porous materials using recycled materials, such as cullet from wasted window glass, old television cathode ray tubes, fluorescent lamps, and bottle glass [49].…”

Promising Methods for Corrosion Protection of Magnesium Alloys in the Case of Mg-Al, Mg-Mn-Ce and Mg-Zn-Zr: A Recent Progress Review

“…The demand for highly durable lightweight materials in the production of wear and corrosion-resistant components for reliable applications in the construction of aircrafts, cars, trains, ships, and military defence equipment has become critically high for market capacity. Researchers working on almost every type of materials are looking for a better combination of properties, e.g., the highest payload/density ratio: polymers and composites [3][4][5], metal matrix composites (iron-based [6][7][8][9]; steel-based [10,11]; Mg-based [12][13][14]); metalceramics [15][16][17][18]; ceramics and composites [19][20][21][22][23][24]; bio-based and hybrid materials [15,25].…”