Recent examples of study on Recycling of Thermosetting Resins

Abstract

Thermosetting resins have been supposed not to be recycled because of their insoluble and infusible properties, and most of them have been disposed by burning or reclamation. But now this becomes a big problem due to environmental pollution by burning, cost of reclamation, or difficulty of obtaining places for reclaimation. Then recently, various recycling technologies for thermosetting resins have been developed. They are broadly divided into three categories as follows : (i) material recycling; reusing as fillers, additives, or extenders, (ii) chemical recycling; reusing as monomers or oligomers by pyrolysis, or as charcoal by sintering, (iii) energy recycling; reusing as combustion energy. This report introduces recent examples on the recycling of thermosetting resins, such as phenolics, polyurethanes, and unsaturated polyesters.