The main goal of DECOAT is to enable circular use of textiles and plastic parts with (multilayer) ‘coatings’, which are typically not recyclable yet. These ‘coatings’ comprise functional and performance coatings and paints as well as adhesion layers. Therefore, novel triggerable smart polymer material systems and the corresponding recycling processes will be developed. The triggerable solutions will be based on smart additives (like microcapsules or microwave triggered additives) for the ‘coating’ formulations that will be activated by a specific trigger (heat, humidity, microwave, chemical). A continuous recycling pilot plant will demonstrate the novel DECOAT principle that allows upgrading existing mechanical recycling by adding tools for sorting by and activation of the trigger. The optimal use of the Creasolv® process for recycling of coated parts will be assessed. The focus is on recycling of the bulk material, but re-use of the coatings materials themselves will also be tackled. Using these recycling processes, circular use of demo cases for outdoor gear, household electronics and automotive parts will be validated. The novel triggerable DECOAT technologies will create new markets for additives, coatings, paints and adhesives fulfilling the recycling need. The concepts will support designers and product developers for making ‘recyclable-by-design’ products. This will create direct business opportunities for the DECOAT partners and serve as examples for promoting DECOAT solutions to the wider stakeholder community. The targeted products (parts) are coated plastic from cars, electrical and electronic equipment and coated textiles which produce annually almost 3.5 million tons waste. DECOAT will lead to a decrease in landfilling of ca. 75% and a reduction in the carbon footprint by at least 30% for these products. By enabling their recycling, DECOAT is expected to generate on medium term a novel market of over 150 million in Europe (or ca 500 jobs).

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Large amounts of infrastructure from the UK civil nuclear programme are to be decommissioned over the next 50+ years. During the decommissioning process it is often desirable to remove surface contamination in order to reduce hazard to workers and simplify further processing operations (e.g. providing man access for cutting and size reduction operations). Wet decontamination procedures are commonly employed for this purpose, which generate large volumes of liquid effluent. Management and disposal of effluent is a limiting factor in deployment of wet decontamination processes. This project looks to develop an existing electrochemical technology, in an innovative way, to manage the effluent at source to permit the use of the most effective decontamination solutions. The use of such reagents will speed up decommissioning and reduce decommissioning costs.