Investigation of recycled polyol produced from semi-rigid polyurethane foam outsourced from the automotive industry

Abstract

Polyurethane, as a versatile polymer prepared by the polyaddition of isocyanates and hydroxyl group containing compounds, is widely used in the automotive industry and with an upcoming change of European legislation becomes recycling increasingly important as an alternative to landfilling or incineration. Glycolysis is one of the chemical degradation processes used to transform polyurethane waste using simple glycols as the degradation agents into a raw material. Single phase glycolysis was used to produce recycled polyol from polyurethane semi-rigid foam dedicated for headliner production. This paper is focused on comparison of obtained recycled polyol with the original fossil-based polyol with effect on hydroxyl number and viscosity. Infrared spectroscopy was carried out for identification of organic compounds. The result shows increased hydroxyl number and viscosity of recycled polyol versus original polyol. Reactivity of mixture containing recycled polyol was slower, but foam appearance was comparable to foam produced from original polyol. The research was supported by the BASF company.