Effective ways of recycling rubber waste have long been sought. The main problem in recycling rubber is its cross-linked structure, formed during vulcanisation. In order to be able to recycle the rubber waste into a valuable rubber product, it was necessary, first of all, to bring the cross-linked rubber structure to the condition before vulcanisation. For a long time, vulcanisation seemed to be an irreversible process. Therefore, many used rubber products or production waste were disposed of in various ways (e.g. incineration) and thus valuable rubber raw materials were irretrievably lost.
Research on rubber recycling has been conducted for many years. Many methods have been developed, which for various reasons did not consolidate their position in the industry - whether due to the low quality of the obtained secondary raw material, or because of high energy consumption, harmfulness to the environment or because of the low efficiency and economic inefficiency of the process. For example, as a result of autoclave heating of crumbled oil soaked rubber waste regenerate, which is used as a filler rather than a valuable secondary raw material.
MARIS has developed devulcanisation technology that has been successfully used on an industrial scale for several years. Devulcanisation in MARIS technology is a thermomechanical process that consists in eliminating bonds formed during vulcanisation. This yields valuable secondary raw material, suitable for reprocessing. It is a solution that enables efficient use of rubber waste, lowering own costs and reducing the consumption of new raw materials
Devulcanisation is a process of selective disintegration of S-S and C-S bonds, leaving C-C bonds intact in the polymer chain. The devulcanisation process should not be confused with the regeneration process. Regeneration also involves the partial disintegration of C-C bonds, as a result of which the properties of the polymer matrix decrease, molecular weight decreases and mechanical properties are lost.
