抄録
Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP), which contains mainly Unsaturated Polyester (UP), has been developed as light and tough material. FRP is widely used for bathtubs, boats and automobiles. However, there is no useful recycling method for FRP wastes ; therefore most of them are landfilled. We investigated methods of decomposing UP into low molecular products without corrosion of recyclates. We examined various catalysts under ordinary pressure at 190°C for 4 hours, using various solvents. As a result, we found UP was decomposed and dissolved only alcohols with K3PO4・H2O as a catalyst not corroding glass after the examination of various solvents. Especially, high solubilities like 36% were shown in diethylene glycol monomethyl ether. The glass fiber and filler recovered from FRP waste by the method was tested as reinforcements for FRP. We found that the tensile and flexural strengths of the FRP using 100% recycled glass fiber were reduced to approximately 70% and 50% respectively, compared with the original FRP, while no significant deterioration in the strengths was observed for the FRP containing 100% recycled filler. We recognized that our newly developed method could be available for recycling glass fiber and filler in FRP waste.
