Sabic has developed two compounds that incorporate recycled glass fiber diverted from the waste stream of industrial processes.
LNP Elcrin WF006XXPiQ and LNP Elcrin WF0061XPiQ compounds are made of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) reinforced with 30% pre-consumer recycled short glass fiber.
According to the company, the two new materials offer the same mechanical properties and color as its ELCRIN iQ grades that use virgin glass fiber reinforcement.
The short glass fiber contains 100% recycled content according to Underwriters Laboratories’ Recycled Content Validation procedure (UL 2809), following the mass balance approach. Compared to virgin PBT reinforced with virgin glass fiber, the WF006XXPiQ compound contains 67% recycled content and lowers carbon footprint by 29%, while WF0061XPiQ contains 55% recycled content and reduces carbon footprint by 24%, Sabic says.
Sabic’s ELCRIN iQ materials are already made of upcycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from discarded water bottles.
‘We are continually pursuing new avenues to accelerate carbon neutrality for our materials across our portfolio,’ said Luc Govaerts, director at Sabic’s specialties business. ‘This effort includes evaluating each component of our thermoplastic compounds and collaborating with others in the value chain to identify potential replacements that can drive circularity.’
‘These two next-generation materials create new possibilities for customers to advance their carbon neutrality strategy by further increasing the amount of recycled content they use and lowering the carbon emissions of their applications, all while maintaining equivalent properties and processability,’ said Darpan Parikh, global product management leader.
Sabic says that it plans to extend the use of pre-consumer recycled glass fiber to reinforced compounds based on other resins. These new products are available for sampling globally and formulations can be reportedly tailored to end user needs.
This story uses material from Sabic; with editorial changes made by Materials Today.
