Value added De-Vulcanized Rubber from Nitrile Gloves

Studied revealed that there is no standard method to recover the rubber from nitrile rubber products. In this study de-vulcanization of nitrile rubber gloves has been attempted to recover the rubber from NBR products. De-vulcanization of the nitrile rubber gloves which has a high rubber content has been carried out successfully and is a potential source of NBR. Such devulcanized nitrile rubber (DNBR) can be used for fabricating moulded NBR components on a cost-effective manner. The green route process proposed for the de-vulcanization of NBR gloves is carried out at ambient temperature and is completely free from hazardous chemicals. The process is completely environmentally friendly and hence possible to recycle the huge deposit of nitrile gloves scraps. Experiments revealed that the D-NBR recovered is of good quality and it can replace the virgin NBR either completely or partially. By using DNBR the production cost of NBR based products can be reduced considerably. The study showed that the DNBR produced from this green technology is an excellent material for the production of NBR based moulded products.

Speaker :

Anil Skariah

, Latex Industry Expert, Thailand