Rafinat Yarullin, director general of OAO Tatnentekhiminvest-Holding
Directions for innovations in the polymers manufacturing industry of the Republic of Tatarstan

Tatarstan, the leading Russian region in petrochemicals, keeps surprising the industry with its numerous polymer projects – both in the polymer manufacturing and polymer conversion sectors.

Together with new facilities for base polymer production and capacity expansions in the plastics conversion sector, the republic has been developing science projects. A growing number of innovations have been implemented in the republic. Gaps are numerous though, which opens immense prospects for the development of the plastic conversion industry.

Petr Malina, deputy director, Science, of ZAO Bioenergetik
Plan of establishing a manufacture of newly designed polymer valves. Investment project

?The most significant number of ruptures and leakages occur near check valves during transportation of liquid products. For example, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico would be impossible if the hydraulic pressure on the check valve of the system had been several times lower.

Setting a valve at an angle of 45° to the pipe instead of 90° and other engineering solutions could reduce the pressure, make hydraulic impact impossible and allow opening and closing valves without a hydraulic rotation booster. Such a solution allows the substitution metal with polymers in those valve designs that excluded such replacement thus far.

Our new check valves possess such advantages as resistance to corrosive environment and low cost in comparison with metal analogs. They are protected by over 10 invention patents. The technical characteristics of the valve and its competitiveness against foreign analogs have been confirmed by tests conducted by NPP Mashtest (Korolev, Moscow region), Tyazhprom-Armature (Aleksin, Tula region), Hydromash Plant (Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo region) and Neftepromremont (Strezhevoi, Tomsk region).

The Russian Congress of Plastic Converters scheduled for this November will present the feasibility study of this project to potential investors describing the amount of investments needed, market size, equipment capacity, project payback period. If implemented, the project will prolong the service life of check valves used at numerous residential and industrial objects, including chemical facilities. The goal of the project is to gradually replace the old valves of currently operating pipeline systems and install the new valves on newly built plastic pipelines.

Eugeny Antipov, professor, deputy director of the Topchiev Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis.

Cable wastes and modifying additives. Review of new recycling technologies

A team of Russian scientists have developed a cable waste recycling technology which will allow sorting tonnes of wastes of the cable industry and used cables into valuable nonferrous metals and initial polymers. A business plan concerning commercial equipment manufacture and a system of cable wastes conversion will be presented to partners and investors at the Congress of Plastics Converters.

Yuri Radyushkin, director for projects at ZAO Ecros-Engineering.
Monitoring and control: how to capture pollution and save money

Any manufacture emitting potentially hazardous substances needs a control system. Control systems, as well as production operations, have become subject to full automation.

To provide reproducibility and precision of results, samples, until recently, have been prepared only manually. The process usually took several days and heavily depended on human factor. To resolve this problem, Fluid Management Systems (USA) developed an automated sample preparation system. Its advantages are obvious: in one stage, it automatically performs full preparation of a sample without the presence or assistance of a lab technician, thus providing a precise and reproducible analysis without the cross-pollution of extracts and at minimal harmful influence on personnel. In those locations that do not require permanent monitoring, mobile posts for area inspection can be organised.

This system can be particularly useful for regional administrations of the Russian Federation to organise ecological control over industrial enterprises, or for companies that prepare samples and have to monitor emissions in accordance with the current legislation.

Vera Myasoedova, professor, chief scientist, Institute of Chemical Physics of the RAS. Wood-polymer and other fibrillar nanocomposites for pressure molding and extrusion applications

Pulp is the most widespread organic polymer on the Earth. Russia possesses 25% of the global reserves of lignocellulose feedstock in the form of forest and annual plants’ wood. Articles made of ecologically pure wood-polymer fibrillar composites are known to have a superior performance.

The report will dwell on how chemical nature, composition and structural features of wood-polymer and other fibrillar composites containing different modifiers affect the material processability using compression and extrusion. Benefits of applying thermoplastic polymer binders based on renewable feedstock in such composites will also be analysed.

Victor Avdeev, head of the Chemical Technology and New Materials Division of MSU, director of the Institute of New Hydrocarbon Materials and Technologies.
Polymer composites and products for engineering, fire protection, sealing and other industrial applications

The application of polymer composites whose unique properties allow making customized structures is spreading in various industries, including aerospace, alternative energy, shipbuilding, manufacture of goods for sports and leisure, as well as construction, infrastructure, and chemical engineering.

Carbon-carbon composite materials form a separate direction both in scientific researches and industrial applications. Their development expands applications of these materials and opens new markets for them, including high temperature seals, frictional materials, heat insulation, etc.