Insight on how biopolymers recovered from aerobic granular wastewater sludge can reduce the flammability of synthetic polymers

Nam Kyeun Kim*, Richard Lin, Debes Bhattacharyya, Mark C.M. van Loosdrecht, Yuemei Lin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Eco-friendly flame retardants are greatly required to meet the expectations of low-toxicity, environmental compatibility and sustainability. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), the biopolymers recovered from excess granular wastewater sludge, have been successfully incorporated into poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) by a solution casting method. Self-extinguishment of EPS was observed in a vertical burn test. Positive effects of EPS on the reduction of heat release rate and CO emission of EPS/PVA composites were also demonstrated. The presence of various types of phosphates was detected in the EPS and a possible flame-retardant mechanism has been proposed. The investigation of using granular sludge EPS to reduce the flammability of synthetic polymers may open the possibility of converting wastewater sludge into bio phosphorus-based flame retardants.

Original languageEnglish
Article number150434
Number of pages7
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume805
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Keywords

  • Biomaterials
  • Extracellular polymeric substances
  • Flame retardants
  • Phosphorus
  • Wastewater sludge management

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