What an amazing result from some really ingenious "out of the box" thinking !!
A new use for McDonald's used cooking oil: 3D printing
Professor Andre Simpson had a problem. The University of Toronto's Scarborough campus was paying through the nose for a crucial material for its 3D printer.
The dominant material for light projection printing is liquid plastic, which can cost upward of $500 a liter, according to Simpson.
Simpson closely analyzed the resin and spotted a connection. The molecules making up the commercial plastic resin were similar to fats found in ordinary cooking oil.
"The thought came to us. Could we use cooking oil and turn it into resin for 3D printing?" Simpson said.
In the summer of 2017, the students went to a McDonald's location near the campus in Toronto, Ontario, that had agreed to give them 10 liters of waste oil.
Back in the lab, the oil was filtered to take out chunks of food particles.
Each time the resin was produced it was used to 3D print a butterfly. The breakthrough came in September.
The team successfully printed a high-quality butterfly with details as minute as 100 micrometers in size.
WOW!
And even more good news:
Simpson was equally excited about another benefit of the butterfly the team had created."The butterfly is essentially made from fat, which means it is biodegradable," he said.
To test this, he buried a sample butterfly in soil and found that 20% of it disappeared in a two-week period.
"The concept of sustainability has been underplayed in 3D printing," said Tim Greene, a research director for global research firm IDC who specializes in the 3D printing market. "The melted plastic currently being used as resin is not so great for the environment."
The full story can be found here:
If this is found to be commercially/economically viable, how incredible cool will it be to have another avenue to recycle cooking oil!!
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt