Polyurethane Foam Chemical Recycling Process Study

Polyurethane Foam Chemical Recycling Process Study

Polyurethanes (PU) represent one of the most important groups of plastics, so the increasing quantity of wastes makes their recycling an urgent task. The general purpose of polyurethane chemical recycling is to recover constituent polyol, a valuable raw material. Among the suitable processes, glycolysis, especially in two phases, allows better quality products. Flexible polyurethane foam scrap was chemically decomposed via glycolysis. Optimal reaction conditions for glycolysis were determined. In this work a study of the main reaction parameters has been carried out. The optimal catalyst concentration and the ratio of glycolysis agent (DEG) to the treated PU foam have been studied.