ECO-DESIGN FOR END-OF-LIFE PHASE OF FLAME RETARDANT TEXTILES

Production, consumption, and disposal of textile products have substantial adverse impacts on the environment, especially textiles with flame retardant (FR) finishes. Unfortunately, information on the exposure of FR from textile products to environmental pathways is scarce. Research works on FR textiles have been mostly focused on ways to provide environmentally friendly synthesis and production phases of FR textile products. However, the end-of-life phase of the FR textiles seems neglected and needs great attention when the product’s life cycle is concerned. The end-of-life phase of FR textile products is considered as a hurdle in current sustainable disposals (landfill and incineration), though today, technologies for solid waste management are ever-improving. Indeed, landfill and energy valorization through incineration are considered as suitable pathways for textile wastes, including technical textile wastes. However, the end-of-life of FR textile products creates issues, such as in landfilling, there is a huge chance of FR species or substance leaching to the environment. Similarly, FR species decrease energy yield in the incineration process due to incomplete combustion and emits toxic fumes. It is essential to find different ways to assess the most optimum methods or eco-designs for the disposal of textile products by energy valorization through gasification. Therefore an eco-design was proposed with optimized disposals for the FR textiles. Eco-design comprises the degradation and elimination of a permanent/durable FR substance from the textiles, especially cellulosic textiles prior to their disposals. Thermal valorization was achieved by gasification instead of incineration, to explore the ability of FRs to gasify after the degradation and elimination of the FR species. Durable FR species, for instance, n-methylol dimethyl phosphonopropionamide (MDPA) is one of the most effective organophosphorus FRs for cellulosic fabrics, used in combination with trimethylol melamine (TMM) to obtain durable and improved FR properties. The degradation and elimination of an organophosphorus FR (MDPA) on cellulosic fabric, was studied using an advanced oxidation process (AOP) based on Fenton’s reaction. The effect of varying concentrations of Fenton’s reagents (H2O2 and Fe2+ in aqueous medium) on the degradation of the MDPA was studied. The degradation of MDPA in aqueous media was monitored by measuring chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the reaction mixture over time. The mechanical properties of the cellulosic fabric after Fenton’s reaction were unaltered in both warp and weft directions. The flammability test and thermogravimetric results (TGA, DTG and PCFC) confirmed the degradation of MDPA FR from the fabric. FR species being degraded and eliminated from the cotton textiles, energy valorization by gasification was carried out for increased energetic yield due to better combustion and potential syngas composition outcomes during the gasification. The gasification results supported the eco-design by showing increased combustion properties of the FR textiles after the degradation and elimination of the FR species. For the sustainability validation of the proposed eco-design, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to analyze the environmental impacts of eco-design for the end-of-life phase of FR textile products. LCA is one of the prominent assessment methods to perform the general assessment of products or services. The thermogravimetric and pyrolysis combustion results confirm that there is a higher heat release after Fenton’s reaction degradation. The heat release rate of the FR cotton textiles increased by 51% after the degradation of the FR species, and this makes the degraded FR cotton interesting for energy valorization. The energy valorization by gasification results supported the eco-design by showing increased combustion properties of the FR textiles after the degradation and elimination of the FR species. Lastly, the LCA results showed reduced impact values in most of the impact categories studied, especially in global warming potential (GWP), air acidification (AA) and in other prominent categories in favor of degradation and elimination of FR species from the textiles and being gasified

Waste management of flame retardant textiles: an alternate end‐of‐life design for flame retardant textile products

The current understanding of flame retardant textile products disposed to solid waste management to be used as landfills or incineration poses ecological issues, for instance leaching of chemicals in landfills and decreased energy yield at incineration process. Incineration of textile products is thought to be an effective approach to cope with leaching of chemicals into land and water. However, apart from decreased energy yield, emission of toxic gasses from incineration of flame retardants is less talked about. It is essential to discover alternate end-of-life approaches for flame retardant textiles. Degradation or removal of flame retardant product from the textile product before ending to landfill or incinerators could be an eco-approach. This study demonstrates in-situ degradation of durable flame retardant product from the cotton fabric by advanced oxidation reaction (Fenton’s reaction). A significant increase in energy yield at the end was observed. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

A case study of life cycle inventory of cotton curtain

Cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment is used to estimate the potential environmental impacts, from the manufacturing to disposal of any product, process or activity. One of the main difficulties concerned with Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) is the lack of LCI data from developing or emerging countries. Production phase of textile is delocalized to these countries, and this fact has to be taken into account in the frame of a Global Production-Consumption chain. In this study, production location country is Pakistan and consumption takes place in France. Another scope is the textile product selection: cotton curtains were selected as a product to focus on diverse prospective in the production-consumption chain. Lastly, the assessment of environmental impacts consists in tracking all the inputs (including energy, water, etc.…) and the outputs of each step of the production-consumption chain. For example, major atmospheric pollutants such as CO2, SO2, NOx, and other particulates, are quantified

Global Consumption of Flame Retardants and Related Environmental Concerns: A Study on Possible Mechanical Recycling of Flame Retardant Textiles

Flame retardants (FRs) have been around us for decades to increase the chances of survival against fire or flame by limiting its propagation. The FR textiles, irrespective of their atmospheric presence are used in baby clothing, pushchairs, car seats, etc. The overall FR market in Asia, Europe, and the United States in 2007 was around 1.8 million metric tonnes. It is estimated that the worldwide consumption of FRs will reach 2.8 million tonnes in 2018. Unfortunately, a sustainable approach for textile waste, especially in the case of FR textiles, is absent. Incineration and landfill of FR textiles are hindered by various toxic outcomes. To address the need for sustainable methods of discarding FR textiles, the mechanical recycling of cotton curtains was evaluated

Spouted-Bed Gasification of Flame Retardant Textiles as a Potential Non-Conventional Biomass

Renewable energy from thermal valorization plays a key part in today's energy from natural cellulosic textiles that are resourceful biomass and safe from toxicity at high temperature treatments. The situation is opposite, when technical textiles are treated with synthetic chemical finishes adding functionality as anti-bacterial, water repellent or flame retardant, etc. Incineration of flame retardant textile results in possible unfavorable gases, toxic fumes and contaminated ash. Other thermal valorization techniques like gasification would assist in avoiding the formation of additional toxic hazards. Herein, gasification of flame retardant textile is carried out the likelihood to get quality gas composition. For comparative analysis, flame retardant textiles, after their flame retardant ability being revoked, are also gasified. The output gas components suggested that gasification can be a useful thermal valorization approach for flame retardant textiles and relevantly improved gas composition was seen in textiles with their flame retardant substrate/species being removed

LMPP effects on morphology, crystallization, thermal and mechanical properties of iPP/LMPP blend Fibres

The thermal properties and morphological characterisation of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) homopolymer and its blends with low molecular low modulus polypropylene (LMPP) were studied. Firstly blends were prepared with variant LMPP contents, and their properties were characterised using SEM, DSC, XRD, and DMA. Later the mechanical properties of iPP/LMPP blend fibres were investigated. SEM results showed that the iPP/LMPP blends produced smoother surfaces when the LMPP content was increased, as well as the miscibility. All the Tg values with different LMPP percentages were in-between pure iPP and LMPP. The XRD results indicated the LMPP percentage decreased along with the degree of crystallinity of the iPP/LMPP blends (5% to 15%), which increased and then decreased as compared to pure iPP. The elongation at break increased when the LMPP content increased, with the maximum elongation at break of the LMPP 25% blend reaching 12.95%, which showed great stretch-ability, whereas the elastic modulus of iPP/LMPP blends decreased.W pracy badano właściwości termiczne i morfologię homopolimeru izotaktycznego polipropylenu (iPP) i jego mieszanek z polipropylenem o małej masie cząsteczkowej (LMPP). Zastosowano następujące proporcje mieszania iPP/LMPP (wt/wt): 95/5, 90/10, 85/15, 80/20 i 75/25, zdefiniowano je odpowiedni: 5%, 10%, 15 %, 20% i 25%. Właściwości włokien mieszanych iPP/LMPP porównano do właściwości czystego PP i LMPP. Włókna mieszane zbadano za pomocą SEM, DSC, XRD i DMA. Następnie zbadano mechaniczne właściwości włókien iPP/LMPP. Wyniki SEM wykazały, że wraz ze zwiększeniem zawartości LMPP powierzchnia włókien charakteryzowała się większą gładkością. Wszystkie wartości Tg włókien mieszanych były pośrednie pomiędzy czystym iPP i LMPP. Stwierdzono, że wydłużenie przy zerwaniu zwiększyło się wraz ze wzrostem zawartości LMPP, przy maksymalnym wydłużeniu przy zerwaniu 12,95%, dla włókien z zawartością 25% LMPP, co wskazywało na dużą rozciągliwość, podczas gdy moduł sprężystości wzdłużnej włókien iPP / LMPP zmniejszył się

Etiology of stroke in young pakistani adults; results of a single center study

The aim of this study was to determine the demographic profile and incidence of young stroke at a tertiary care setup in Islamabad, Pakistan. Materials and Methods: This single centre, cross sectional study was conducted by recruiting 119 patients of either gender, ≥ 12and ≤ 45 years of age with stroke and receiving care at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad. Results: Total number of young strokes was 119 out of a total of 322 strokes i-e-, 36.9 %; 1/3rd strokes were in ≤ 45 years of age. Ischemic arterial strokes were 47% (56 out of 119) while venous ischemic strokes were 11.7 % (14 out of 119) and almost all in females (13 out of 14; 92.8 %).Infective causes of central nervous system were identified in24.3 % (29 out of 119). 49 patients (41.1 %) had hemorrhagic strokes. Major individual risk factors for stroke included hypertension identified in 35 (29.4 %)followed by diabetes mellitus in 8 (6.7 %) patients. Amongst infectious causes, CNS tuberculosis was the major infection associated with young stroke i-e-, 89.6 % (26 out of 29). Conclusion: Nearly 1/3rd of strokes in our population are in young.While risk factors in general for stroke stand true for young stroke as well namely hypertension and diabetes, CNS infections are a major cause of young stroke in Pakistan; particularly CNS TB. While majority of strokes in elderly are ischemic, strokes in young comparatively are almost equally divided between ischemia and hemorrhage i-e-, 1.4:1. 1/5th of these ischemic strokes are due to cerebral venous thrombosis. National level guidelines should therefore adopt different strategies for primary and secondary prevention, laboratory work up and imaging, and treatment of stroke in young