Recycling of Waste Rubber by Devulcanization Process

Environmental protection requires constant improvement of quality and the environmental management system in accordance with the international standards and laws in order to reduce human impact on the environment and responsibly manage natural resources. Environmentally acceptable recycling of waste tires and other rubber products is one of the biggest ecological challenges today. Landfilling or dumping of tires causes serious long-term pollution. The lack of alternatives for tire recycling increases their disposal in landfills. Recycling is currently the most effective way to improve the sustainability of the environment. The purpose of this work was to determine the optimal composition of the rubber blend to be used for rubber track crossings production, and to examine the ratio of individual components, i.e., milled recycled tires, and milled and devulcanized tires in order to determine which option is more environmentally friendly and financially viable. In the first series of samples, recycled rubber powder (milled recycled tires) was mixed with a polymer blend of natural rubber and styrene-butadiene rubber, while the second series was milled and the devulcanized tires mixed with natural rubber and styrene-butadiene rubber. Rheological and mechanical properties of all the samples were measured according to appropriate standards. The results showed that an increase in the ratio of rubber powder increased the values of minimal rotation resistance and proportionally reduced the maximum rotation resistance. Minor deviations in the values of the vulcanization rate indicated that various ratios of added rubber powder had no significant effect on the rate of vulcanization of individual samples. The results of the viscosity measurement indicated a proportional increase in the values of initial rotation resistance with the increase in the ratio of added rubber dust compared to the samples prepared with milled and devulcanized rubber, whereby a proportional decrease in value was apparent. From the results of mechanical properties, observed was a reduction in tensile strength and elongation at break values for both series of tested samples. The same behaviour was also observed for the tear strength values. With the addition of different filler ratios, the hardness value for both series of prepared samples had reduced, while the values of the rebound elasticity differed slightly. Significant reduction in hardness value was evident for the samples prepared with the milled and devulcanized rubber powder, which could be attributed to the use of a softener during devulcanization of the material. It can be concluded that NR/SBR polymer blends can be mixed with various recycled rubber materials whereby the devulcanization process enables better mechanical and rheological properties, thus, used rubber tires can be effectively removed from the environment.