1. 1 Flax Fiber as Reinforcement in Recycled Tire Rubber and Thermoplastics Composite Jimmy Fung and Satya Panigrahi Agricultural & Bioresource Engineering Dept. University of Saskatchewan CSBE/SCGAB 2008 Annual Conference Vancouver, British Columbia July 13 - 16, 2008 Paper No. CSBE08-191

2. 2 Outline  Introduction  Objectives  Materials  Experimental Method  Results & Discussions  Conclusion

3. 3 Introduction  Natural fibers have been used as the reinforcement in plastic industry  Advantages with natural fiber: lower density, lower processing temperature, non-abrasive nature, renewable and relatively cheaper in cost  Scrap rubber: non-degradable, e.g. wasted carpet rubber underlay, industrial wasted rubber and wasted tires  Serious solid waste disposal and hazard environmental problem

4. 4 Introduction (con’t)  Developing new and innovative materials utilizing agricultural residue and recycled polymer  Reduction of CO 2  Add crop’s economic value  Recycling

5. 5 Objectives  Investigate a viable biocomposite material from the flax fiber/shive, recycled tire rubber and thermoplastics  Develop the extrusion and compression molding process on this composite material

6. 6 Materials Saskatchewan-grown oilseed flax fiber  Contains 80% fiber, 20% shives  Without any treatment  Thermal degradation temperature:  Cellulose: 300ºC  Hemicellulose: 220 to 280ºC  Lignin: 280 to 300ºC Oilseed Flax Field Retted Flax Bale Decorticated Flax Fiber

7. 7 Materials (con’t) Recycled ground tire rubber (GTR)  Size about 0.4 mm, density 1226 kg/m 3 Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE)  Melting temperature is at 127 o C; and crystallization temperature is 112.7 o C Lubricant  Improve the process smoothness

8. 8 Experimental Method

9. 9 Composite Preparation  Flax fiber – size used through 2 mm screen  Mix the materials in different composition ratio  Blend the mixture with mixer

10. 10 Processing Procedure Extrusion  Single-screw extruder  Cross-linked rubber can be broken under high shear stress and high temperature  Fiber mixed into the polymer  Max temperature used: 200°C Compression Molding  Heated press into 20 cm x 20 cm square shape sample  Heating temperature: 150°C Extruder Heated press

11. 11 Material & Properties Tests  Tearing test : ASTM D624-00  Tensile test : ASTM D412-98a  Water absorption test: ASTM D570-98  Durometer hardness test : ASTM D2240-02b Type C tearing test specimen Dumbbell tensile test specimens Instron testing machine

12. 12 Results & Discussions Tearing test results of the biocomposites

13. 13 Results & Discussions (con’t) Tensile test results (in yield stress) of the biocomposites

14. 14 Results & Discussions (con’t) Tensile test results (in Young’s modulus) of the biocomposites

15. 15 Results & Discussions (con’t) Water Absorption test results of the biocomposites

16. 16 Results & Discussions (con’t) Hardness test results of the biocomposites

17. 17 Conclusion  Composite can be done through the extrusion and compression molding processes  Flax fiber has been successfully demonstrated as the reinforcement in the biocomposite  Tensile yield strength and stiffness of GTR - LLDPE composite are improved with adding flax fiber content  Higher LLDPE content exhibited higher tensile strength, better stiffness, improved tear strength, less water absorption and harder

18. 18 Acknowledgements  Saskatchewan Agriculture Research Chair Program in Engineering.  NSERC  Biofibre Industries Ltd.  SaskBet Inc  Department of Agriculture and Bioresource Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan

19. 19 References  Fukumori, K. and M. Matsushita. 2003. Material Recycling Technology of Crosslinked Rubber Waste – Review. R&D Review of Toyota CRDL. Vol. 38 No. 1. Science Links Japan. Available at: http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/journal/R/ G0820B/ 2003.php (Accessed 29 September 2007)  Mohanty, A.K., M. Misra and L.T. Drzal. 2001. Surface modifications of natural fibers and performance of the resulting biocomposites: An overview. Composite Interfaces. Vol. 8: 313-343.  Saheb, N.D. and J.P. Jog. 1999. Natural fiber polymer composites: A review. In Advance in Polymer Technology. Vol. 18, No. 4, 351-363.  Van de Velde, K. and P. Kiekens. 2002. Thermal degradation of flax: the determination of kinetic parameters with thermogravimetric analysis. Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Vol. 3: 2634-2643.

20. 20 Thank You Questions?