Determination of antioxidants in polyolefins using total dissolution methodology followed by RPLC

Challenges and opportunities of solvent-based additive extraction methods for plastic recycling

Additives are ubiquitously used in plastics to improve their functionality. However, they are not always desirable in their 'second life' and are a major bottleneck for chemical recycling. Although research on extraction techniques for efficient removal of additives is increasing, it resembles much like uncharted territory due to the broad variety of additives, plastics and removal techniques. Today solvent-based additive extraction techniques, solid-liquid extraction and dissolution-precipitation, are considered to be the most promising techniques to remove additives. This review focuses on the assessment of these techniques by making a link between literature and physicochemical principles such as diffusion and Hansen solubility theory. From a technical point of view, dissolution-precipitation is preferred to remove a broad spectrum of additives because diffusion limitations affect the solid-liquid extraction recoveries. Novel techniques such as accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) are promising for finding the balance between these two processes. Because of limited studies on the economic and environmental feasibility of extraction methods, this review also includes a basic economic and environmental assessment of two extreme cases for the extraction of additives. According to this assessment, the feasibility of additives removal depends strongly on the type of additive and plastic and also on the extraction conditions. In the best-case scenario at least 70% of solvent recovery is required to extract plasticizers from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) via dissolution-precipitation with tetrahydrofuran (THF), while solid-liquid extraction of phenolic antioxidants and a fatty acid amide slip agents from polypropylene (PP) with dichloromethane (DCM) can be economically viable even without intensive solvent recovery.

Strategy for selecting disposable bags for cell culture media applications based on a root-cause investigation

The use of disposable bags for cell culture media storage has grown significantly in the past decade. Some of the key advantages of using disposable bags relative to non-disposable containers include increased product throughput, decreased cleaning validation costs, reduced risk of cross contamination and lower facility costs. As the scope of use of disposable bags for cell culture applications increases, problematic bags and scenarios should be identified and addressed to continue improving disposables technologies and meet the biotech industry's needs. In this article, we examine a cell culture application wherein media stored in disposable bags is warmed at 37°C before use for cell culture operations. A problematic bag film was identified through a prospective and retrospective cell culture investigation. The investigation provided information on the scope and variation of the issue with respect to different Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines, cell culture media, and application-specific parameters. It also led to the development of application-specific test methods and enabled a strategy for disposable bag film testing. The strategy was implemented for qualifying an alternative bag film for use in our processes. In this test strategy, multiple lots of 13 bag film types, encompassing eight vendors were evaluated using a three round, cell culture-based test strategy. The test strategy resulted in the determination of four viable bag film options based on the technical data. The results of this evaluation were used to conclude that a volatile or air-quenched compound, likely generated by gamma irradiation of the problematic bag film, negatively impacted cell culture performance.

Determination of polyolefin additives by reversed-phase liquid chromatography

This article examines the contribution of liquid chromatography to the study of polyolefin additives commonly used to obtain improved environmental resistance (antioxidants, ultraviolet light stabilizers, antistatics, and so on) and appearance enhancements (e.g. colorants). Several reversed-phase liquid chromatographic methods are summarized, and a detailed description of different detectors is provided. In addition, ways of applying these methods to analyse food contact materials and plastic toys are emphasized. Finally, the potential use of these methods is addressed which complies with European health safety regulations.