NCO-Cycle - closing the loop for isocyanate use in polyurethanes.

Polyurethane (PUR) as a thermohardening polymer is difficult to recycle - two current techniques are mechanical recycling (cutting and rebonding) and up to a certain limit also chemical recycling, in which the polyol component is recovered through hydrolysis, alcoholysis or glycolysis. The isocyanate component, however, reacts to amines, for which the current state of the art is to incinerate them. In this project, an alternative route is researched to generate isocyanates from this remaining fraction, without use of toxic or environmentally unfriendly reagents, to close the material loop regarding the use of polyurethanes in a sustainable manner.

Keywords:POLYURETHANE, PROCESS, RECYCLING, CIRCULAR MATERIALS

Disciplines:Macromolecular and materials chemistry not elsewhere classified, Chemical process design, Recycling