Oil absorbing material and processes of recycling absorbent articles to produce the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9457339-B2
Application number	US-201314043963-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 2, 2013
Priority date	Dec 22, 2010
Publication date	Oct 4, 2016
Grant date	Oct 4, 2016

Abstract

An oil absorbing material is generally provided. The oil absorbing material can includes sorbent particles having an average aspect ratio of about 5 to about 500 and a mean average particle diameter of about 10 μm to about 1 millimeter. The oil absorbing material comprises polypropylene, polyethylene, inorganic filler particles, and absorbent core material. In one embodiment, the sorbent particles can have an average specific surface area of about 0.25 to about 5.0 m 2 /g and can have a bulk density that is about 0.01 g/cm 3 to about 0.8 g/cm 3 . Processes of making the oil absorbing material are also provided via a solid-state shear pulverization recycling process transforming absorbent article waste into the oil absorbing material. The process can include pulverizing the absorbent article waste to form sorbent particles while cooling the absorbent article waste in an amount sufficient to maintain the absorbent article waste in a solid state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An oil absorbing material comprising sorbent particles, wherein the sorbent particles have an average aspect ratio of about 5 to about 500, an average particle diameter of about 100 μm to about 800 μm and an average specific surface area of about 0.25 to about 5.0 m 2 /g;
wherein the sorbent particles comprise a thermoplastic polyolefin material, inorganic filler particles, and absorbent core material;
wherein the oil absorbing material exhibits an oil absorbency of about 3 grams of oil per gram oil absorbing material to about 15 grams oil per gram of oil absorbing material.

2. The oil absorbing material as in claim 1 , wherein the average particle diameter is about 100 μm to about 500 μm.

3. The oil absorbing material as in claim 1 , wherein the aspect ratio is about 10 to about 400.

4. The oil absorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the sorbent particles have an average specific surface area of about 0.3 to about 2.0 m 2 /g.

5. The oil absorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the sorbent particles have a bulk density that is about 0.01 g/cm 3 to about 0.8 g/cm 3 .

6. The oil absorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the sorbent particles have a bulk density that is about 0.05 to about 0.5 g/cm 3 .

7. The oil absorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the thermoplastic polyolefin material comprises polypropylene and polyethylene.

8. The oil absorbing material as in claim 1 , wherein the absorbent core material comprises cellulosic material and superabsorbent material.

9. The oil absorbing material as in claim 1 , wherein the sorbent particles comprise about 20% to about 45% by weight thermoplastic polyolefin material, about 1% to about 5% by weight inorganic filler particles, and about 25% to about 65% by weight absorbent core material.

10. The oil absorbing material as in claim 9 , wherein the sorbent particles comprise about 20% to about 35% by weight polypropylene, about 3% to about 8% by weight polyethylene, about 1% to about 5% by weight inorganic filler particles, and about 25% to about 65% by weight absorbent core material.

11. The oil absorbing material as in claim 9 , wherein the absorbent core material comprises cellulosic material and superabsorbent material such that sorbent particles comprise about 15% to about 35% by weight of the super absorbent material and about 10% to about 30% by weight cellulosic material.

12. The oil absorbing material as in claim 1 , wherein the sorbent particles comprise about 45% to about 85% by weight thermoplastic polyolefin material, about 1% to about 10% by weight of an inorganic filler material, and about 1% to about 25% of absorbent core material.

13. The oil absorbing material as in claim 12 , wherein the sorbent particles comprise about 40% to about 70% by weight polypropylene, about 5% to about 15% by weight polyethylene, about 1% to about 10% by weight of an inorganic filler material, and about 1% to about 25% of absorbent core material.

14. The oil absorbing material as in claim 12 , wherein the absorbent core material comprises cellulosic material and superabsorbent material such that the sorbent particles comprise about 1% to about 17% by weight of the super absorbent material and about 0.5% to about 10% by weight cellulosic material.

15. The oil absorbing material of claim 1 , wherein the inorganic filler particles comprise CaCO 3 .

Assignees

• Kimberly Clark Co

Inventors

• Topolkaraev Vasily A
• Mceneany Ryan J
• Scholl Neil T
• Eby Tom

Classifications

• B01J20/261 Primary

  obtained by reactions only involving carbon to carbon unsaturated bonds (macromolecular compounds obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds per se C08F) · CPC title

• B01J20/28059

  being less than 100 m2/g · CPC title

• C02F2101/32

  Hydrocarbons, e.g. oil · CPC title

• B01J2220/68

  Superabsorbents · CPC title

• B01J20/3007

  Moulding, shaping or extruding · CPC title