Research on technology for manufacturing recycling polyol from polyurethane foam waste via glycolysis

Abstract

Faced with the increasing demand on polyurethane (PU) foam as an insulation material, the need to treat or recycle foam waste reasonably without the environmental problem becomes necessary and urgent. Among them glycolysis has been commercialized but has not yet been implemented in Vietnam, even at lab scale. In this paper, technology for producing recycling polyol from rigid PU foam waste via glycolysis will be studied; it is made through the investigation and selection of suitable glycol agents, catalysts and other factors. Through analysis and evaluation of the obtained results, ethylene glycol (EG) and NaOH catalyst with 100% & 2% (% mass compared to foam waste) were found suitable, and efficient glycolysis performed at 198 °C for 2 h.