This award is for support of a cooperative project by Dr. Laurand Lewandoski, President of Lewandoski Consulting Group in Colorado Springs, and Dr. Abbas A. Yehia, of the National Research Center in Cairo, Egypt. The two scientists plan to examine and test novel ideas to recycle rubber waste. They plan to convert scrap rubber into powder; convert the powder into thermoplastic material; apply surface modification techniques by creating functional groups on the surface of the powder to be used as ion exchange resin; and by testing the properties of the produced material, for use as a component of road pavement. Scope: The US scientist is an experienced researcher in the polymers and rubber industry, and also in environmental research. The Egyptian scientist is a senior researcher in the Chemical Industries Research Division of the NRC, and has experience in chemical processing and testing. Also to be involved in the project is MARSO CHEMICALS, a chemical company in Egypt that has the facility and capability to carry out work not easily possible in the NRC. This proposal meets INT objective of supporting US-foreign collaboration in areas of mutual benefit. The project was generated as a result of a workshop on environmentally clean technologies that was organized, in 1996, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Egyptian Government. EPA was involved in the evaluation of the project and in recommending its support. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, administered by the US Department of State, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out cooperative activities.
