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| RE.Print

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| Problem Statement

Europe stands second as the world pulp and paper producer.
This paper and pulp sector is resource intensive and produces 11 million tonnes of waste yearly. It has been found that 25-40% of municipal solid waste generated each year worldwide is paper-related.
Recycling rates have climbed substantially in recent years. Nevertheless, 30% of paper ends up in landfills every year.
And The research is set within Barcelona’s municipal waste management policies, which were adopted in 2020 as a way to encourage waste minimization.

| Scientific interest

The biomass produced by mills enables the synthesis of components like lignin, cellulose, etc. that can be transformed into high-value-added products, as opposed to the waste paper ending up in landfills.

Upcycling of waste paper helps in taking the approach towards the circular economy

And all of this could be done by Additive manufacturing as it will offer more design freedom to achieve this material system and fastens the process.

| State of the art

| Research Question

The paper waste collection and recycling centres in barcelona context are mapped here.
After sourcing the waste paper, It is shredded, soaked and grinded to further use the paper mache for the material system
The byproducts produced during synthesis of paper is valuable too because of its properties. Cellulose and lignin are  2 such abundant byproducts which are abundant polymers in nature.
They both are lightweight, biodegradable.
Where as cellulose is a good insulator and lignin shows some properties of hydrophobicity and helps in strength.

In order to make the material homogenous, binders and natural ingredients are necessary which help in enhancing the material mix. The material mix was tried out with different binders of Sodium Alginate, Xanthan gum and corn starch.
The other additives include Chitosan which is an abundant material too which hydrophobic property and helps in strength
And CaCl2 helps in setting faster.
 keeping the  maximum ratios of paper(44%) and cellulose(36%), with chitin and flour and calcium chloride, the material mix was tried with the 3 binders.
After the base recipe with xanthan gum worked well, lignin was tried to test hydrophobicity and strength
The mix was tried with different ratios of 10%, 30%, and 50% lignin and was observed until dry.
The material extrusion was smooth with all 3 mixes.
The strength of the last two samples was pretty much the same. 
Therefore further tests were carried out with 30% lignin

wing test was to check strength water resistance and fire resistance. the mix was tested with posidonia, A seagrass around mediterranean coast known for its hydrophobic and fire resistant properties.
The fibres were powdered to be extrudable and tested.
The consistency was fairly extrudable although posidonia hampering the nozzle sometimes
The sample showed good strength after drying. 
The fibres held well with the material mix
All 3 mixes worked well with all set criterias. 
 base recipe being the most suitable one for extrusion with less obstructions
Lignin mix has to be studied further to understand hydrophobicity after completely dry
Posidonia mix was a little hard to extrude due to obstruction offered by powdered posidonia that were stuck at nozzle.
All the 3 samples were immersed in water for a day.
Until 12 hours the samples were intact with wet layer on the outside and brittle inside.

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| RE.Print is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed in the Master in Advanced Architecture 02 - 2022-2023 by the student(s) during the course MAA02 22/23 Thesis Cluster with Areti Markopoulou, Nikol Kirova, Marcos Cruz, Ricardo Mayor, Nicolay Boyadjiev, Marco Poletto, Oana Taut, Oriol Carrasco, Gabriele Jureviciute, Claudia Pasquero and David Andres Leon.