Covestro Leads R&D Project for Recycling PU Foam
German engineering plastics producer Covestro is heading up a four-year EU-funded innovation project with 22 partners from nine countries to help erase the industry’s recycling deficits and close the material cycle for rigid polyurethane foam used in refrigerators and building insulation.
The Circular Foam project receiving funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 R&D innovation pot is aimed at reducing waste by around 1 million t/y and CO2 emissions by 2.9 million m t annually while saving €150 million in incineration costs yearly from 2040 onward.
Covestro, the former Bayer Material Science, is the only industrial partner in the scheme. Other participants include Germany’s RWTH Aachen University and its CAT Catalytic Center, along with ETH Zurich, BioBTX and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Developing innovative chemical recycling processes is key to achieving the targets, Covestro CEO Markus Steilemann said. The ultimate goal, he added, is to find circular solutions for as many types of plastic as possible, with chemical recycling of rigid polyurethane foam an important link in the chain.
In the EU-sponsored project, the partners will investigate two potential recycling paths for PU rigid foam, chemolysis and smart pyrolysis, and try to derive polyols and amines as raw materials for the production of renewable PU rigid foams in as high a quality as possible.
Covestro has already developed a chemical recycling process for flexible foams from mattresses, which it implemented at a pilot PU foam recycling plant at its Leverkusen site. The German plastics producer is planning to spend €1 billion on circular technology projects over the next decade.
Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist
