Polyurethane Composites Recycling with Styrene-Acrylonitrile and Calcium Carbonate Recovery.

The glycolysis process of flexible polyurethane foams containing styrene-acrylonitrile and calcium carbonate as fillers was explored in detail. The use of DABCO as a catalyst allowed us to reduce the catalyst concentration and the polyurethane-to-glycol mass ratio to 0.1% and 1:1, respectively.

Recycling of Flexible Polyurethane Foam by Split-Phase Alcoholysis: Identification of Additives and Alcoholyzing Agents to Reach Higher Efficiencies.

Split-phase alcoholysis of flexible polyurethane (PU) foam yields an apolar phase containing the recycled polyether polyol, and a lower, polar phase of the alcoholyzing agent and aromatic compounds. However, multiple purification steps are required to render the polyether polyol suitable for synthesis of new flexible PU foams; the unfavorable mass balance limits industrial applications. In this work, 2-pyrrolidone was identified as a performant additive for accelerating the dissolution and depolymerization process.