ReMo
Butts recovery
Categories: Polluting emissions | Anthropogenic impacts | In progress | Montelibretti | National | Technology transfer
Keywords: technology | impacts | pollution | Environmental pollution | Pollution Prevention | waste | sustainability
Financing: ERDF Fund – Por Calabria ERDF ESF 2014-2020 – Action 1.1.5
Period: 01/10/21 - 30/09/23
Total budget CNR IIA: ---
Total project budget: ---
Scientific Responsible: Valerio Paolini
Abstract of the project
This project focuses on the improvement of a recently developed process aimed at degrading cigarette butts and recycling their components, in particular cellulose acetate, present
in the filters of cigarette butts, which can be purified and then used as a material to create new plastic products, such as technical clothing, upholstery, films, objects,
eyeglass frames and much more.
Project financed through POR Calabria FESR ESF 2014/2020 of the Calabria Region with the contribution of community resources from the ERDF, the Italian State and the Calabria Region
The subjects who worked on the innovative procedure are AzzeroCO2, an SME, and the CNR-IIA, an OdR, thanks to the Rinasce project co-financed by the Lazio region. These two partners intend to improve the process started with Rinasce to take it to a larger scale with improved yields and to have a semi-automated process that can be used on an industrial level. The request from users, such as municipalities and waste collection companies, have shown great interest in the possible reuse of cigarette butts. It is on this assumption that this project proposal is based and from which it starts, with the intention of processing about 20.000 cigarette butts, equal to the daily production of about 2.000 average smokers (10 kg of incoming material); according to the WHO, about 25% of the Italian population smokes, so it can be assumed that the plant can be exploited daily by municipalities with a population of about 10.000 inhabitants, weekly by larger municipalities or aggregations of municipalities. The catchment area that may be affected by the result of the project is therefore evident ReMo, whereas there are currently no commercial cigarette butts processing plants in Italy; in fact, remember that this waste, even when it is collected separately, is not recycled but sent to landfill, with a double burden for the environment and the economy, taking into account that cigarette butts are among the most widespread waste from the areas urban beaches (about 22 - 36% of all those normally visible) and are not biodegradable.
The subjects who worked on the innovative process are AzzeroCO2, an SME, and the CNR-IIA, an OdR, thanks to the Rinasce project co-financed by the Lazio region. These two partners intend to improve the process started with Rinasce to take it to a larger scale with improved yields and to have a semi-automated process that can be used on an industrial level. The request from users, such as municipalities and waste collection companies, have shown great interest in the possible reuse of cigarette butts. It is on this assumption that this project proposal is based and from which it starts, with the intention of processing about 20.000 cigarette butts, equal to the daily production of about 2.000 average smokers (10 kg of incoming material); according to the WHO about 25% of the Italian population smokes, so it can be assumed that the plant can be exploited daily by municipalities with a population of about 10.000 inhabitants, weekly by larger municipalities or aggregations of municipalities.
It is therefore clear the catchment area that can be affected by the result of the project ReMo, Whereas there are currently no commercial cigarette butts processing plants in Italy; in fact, we remind you that this waste, even when it is collected separately, is not recycled but sent to landfill, with a double burden for the environment and the economy, taking into account that cigarette butts are among the most common waste from urban areas to beaches (about 22 - 36% of all those normally visible) 2 and are not biodegradable.
Various methods are known in the state of the art for the separation and reuse of the components of cigarette filters, and the scientific community has mainly focused on the recovery of cellulose acetate and paper. The techniques known in the art can be classified into two main types. The first type involves washing the solid cellulose acetate with water or other solvents that solubilize only the impurities. The disadvantage of this type is linked to the high costs for the initial steps of shredding and separation of the cellulose acetate from the paper and from ash and tobacco residues. The second type involves the solubilization of cellulose acetate with a solvent, leaving the paper and ash and tobacco residues, which are insoluble, as easily removable solids. Subsequently, the cellulose acetate is recovered by precipitation with an anti-solvent. In this case, many impurities, such as tar, co-precipitate with cellulose acetate and for this reason the cigarette filters must be preliminarily cleaned with a series of pretreatments.
Pre-treatments require the use of acids, oxidants and other reactants that alter the properties of cellulose acetate. In particular, the percentage of acetylation is modified following the hydrolysis of the ester bond. Consequently, the possible applications of the material obtained are partially compromised as its chemical-physical properties are changed. The prototype already built in laboratory scale with the Rinasce project belongs to the second category and has the following advantages: it does not need to eliminate tobacco and ash residues before solubilization; it does not require pre-treatments to clean the tar filters; it allows to obtain cellulose acetate without altering the percentage of acetylation, It allows to precipitate the cellulose acetate without tar, it allows to recover the solvent quickly and economically, it does not require the use of solvents dangerous for the operator or toxic for the environment because it uses water as an anti-solvent.
The subjects who worked on the innovative process are AzzeroCO2, an SME, and the CNR-IIA, an OdR, thanks to the Rinasce project co-financed by the Lazio region. These two partners intend to improve the process started with Rinasce to take it to a larger scale with improved yields and to have a semi-automated process that can be used on an industrial level. The request from users, such as municipalities and waste collection companies, have shown great interest in the possible reuse of cigarette butts. It is on this assumption that this project proposal is based and from which it starts, with the intention of processing about 20.000 cigarette butts, equal to the daily production of about 2.000 average smokers (10 kg of incoming material); according to the WHO about 25% of the Italian population smokes, so it can be assumed that the plant can be exploited daily by municipalities with a population of about 10.000 inhabitants, weekly by larger municipalities or aggregations of municipalities.
It is therefore clear the catchment area that can be affected by the result of the project ReMo, Whereas there are currently no commercial cigarette butts processing plants in Italy; in fact, we remind you that this waste, even when it is collected separately, is not recycled but sent to landfill, with a double burden for the environment and the economy, taking into account that cigarette butts are among the most common waste from urban areas to beaches (about 22 - 36% of all those normally visible) 2 and are not biodegradable.
Various methods are known in the state of the art for the separation and reuse of the components of cigarette filters, and the scientific community has mainly focused on the recovery of cellulose acetate and paper. The techniques known in the art can be classified into two main types. The first type involves washing the solid cellulose acetate with water or other solvents that solubilize only the impurities. The disadvantage of this type is linked to the high costs for the initial steps of shredding and separation of the cellulose acetate from the paper and from ash and tobacco residues. The second type involves the solubilization of cellulose acetate with a solvent, leaving the paper and ash and tobacco residues, which are insoluble, as easily removable solids. Subsequently, the cellulose acetate is recovered by precipitation with an anti-solvent. In this case, many impurities, such as tar, co-precipitate with cellulose acetate and for this reason the cigarette filters must be preliminarily cleaned with a series of pretreatments.
Pre-treatments require the use of acids, oxidants and other reactants that alter the properties of cellulose acetate. In particular, the percentage of acetylation is modified following the hydrolysis of the ester bond. Consequently, the possible applications of the material obtained are partially compromised as its chemical-physical properties are changed. The prototype already built in laboratory scale with the Rinasce project belongs to the second category and has the following advantages: it does not need to eliminate tobacco and ash residues before solubilization; it does not require pre-treatments to clean the tar filters; it allows to obtain cellulose acetate without altering the percentage of acetylation, It allows to precipitate the cellulose acetate without tar, it allows to recover the solvent quickly and economically, it does not require the use of solvents dangerous for the operator or toxic for the environment because it uses water as an anti-solvent.
The project ReMo intends to continue the development on the basis of what has already been validated at the laboratory level to perform an optimization of the process parameters with the aim of maximizing both the efficiency of
recovery of cellulose acetate and its level of purification, and a scale-up with consequent design of a new prototype and automation of the process with a view to use in real scenarios.
In particular, during the course of the project, a "Design of Experiment" type programming will be used to evaluate the impact of the main process parameters, such as the amount of solvent to be added as a function of the mass of cigarette butts to be purified. in a given batch, the stirring speed during solubilization, the temperature to be maintained during the boiling of the solvent and during the precipitation of the cellulose acetate; to a complete modeling of process flows with a view to optimizing them and dimensioning the prototype during the scale-up; to the design and automation of the new prototype, capable of handling an input substrate flow at least 10 times higher than that managed at a laboratory scale. It is emphasized that there are no automated prototypes of this scale commercially available and that the process is innovative: the patent protects the innovative idea and thanks to the project ReMo, it will be possible to solve the problems of the plant lay-out and implement procedural improvements. Following these operations and the construction and optimization of the new prototype, assessments will also be carried out on the environmental impact and on the possible economic capitalization of the project. An LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) analysis is planned to evaluate the impact of the entire prototype, considering both the environmental costs for the construction of the plant and especially those related to its use, such as the reagents used or energy costs, to be compared. with the positive impact given by the virtuous disposal of cigarette butts and the recovery of a secondary raw material that can therefore reduce the load on the ecosystem linked to the transformation of virgin cellulose into cellulose acetate for industrial use.
The development of a value chain linked to the recovery of cigarette butts is taken into consideration, with a view to using the prototype (and its possible commercializations and further scale-ups) to drive the establishment of a supply chain that starts from the separate collection of cigarette butts , with immediate benefits for citizens, municipalities and the environment, such as reduction of the obstruction of manholes, greater street cleaning, less impact on animal organisms, and that reaches the recovery of cellulose acetate as a raw material second and to the eventual controlled disposal of the other potentially harmful butts components.
recovery of cellulose acetate and its level of purification, and a scale-up with consequent design of a new prototype and automation of the process with a view to use in real scenarios.
In particular, during the course of the project, a "Design of Experiment" type programming will be used to evaluate the impact of the main process parameters, such as the amount of solvent to be added as a function of the mass of cigarette butts to be purified. in a given batch, the stirring speed during solubilization, the temperature to be maintained during the boiling of the solvent and during the precipitation of the cellulose acetate; to a complete modeling of process flows with a view to optimizing them and dimensioning the prototype during the scale-up; to the design and automation of the new prototype, capable of handling an input substrate flow at least 10 times higher than that managed at a laboratory scale. It is emphasized that there are no automated prototypes of this scale commercially available and that the process is innovative: the patent protects the innovative idea and thanks to the project ReMo, it will be possible to solve the problems of the plant lay-out and implement procedural improvements. Following these operations and the construction and optimization of the new prototype, assessments will also be carried out on the environmental impact and on the possible economic capitalization of the project. An LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) analysis is planned to evaluate the impact of the entire prototype, considering both the environmental costs for the construction of the plant and especially those related to its use, such as the reagents used or energy costs, to be compared. with the positive impact given by the virtuous disposal of cigarette butts and the recovery of a secondary raw material that can therefore reduce the load on the ecosystem linked to the transformation of virgin cellulose into cellulose acetate for industrial use.
The development of a value chain linked to the recovery of cigarette butts is taken into consideration, with a view to using the prototype (and its possible commercializations and further scale-ups) to drive the establishment of a supply chain that starts from the separate collection of cigarette butts , with immediate benefits for citizens, municipalities and the environment, such as reduction of the obstruction of manholes, greater street cleaning, less impact on animal organisms, and that reaches the recovery of cellulose acetate as a raw material second and to the eventual controlled disposal of the other potentially harmful butts components.
• CNR-IIA - www.iia.cnr.it
• AzzeroCO2 srl
• AzzeroCO2 srl
Valerio Paolini
Francesco Petracchini
Hector Guerrero
Silvia Moscow
Matthias Perilli
Simone berti
Valentina Cozza