Recovery of polyols from flexible polyurethane foam by “split-phase” glycolysis with new catalysts

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, specially in two phases, allows better quality products. In this study glycolysis reactions of flexible polyurethane foams were conducted in “split-phase” with different catalysts, in order to study their activity. Diethanolamine, titanium n-butoxide as well as octoate salts, which are novel compounds for this application, showed suitable catalytic activity. Reaction kinetics and glycolysis products were investigated. Times to reach complete conversion, chemical properties of the polyol phase and its purity depend on the catalyst employed. The novel catalysts developed have been probed to be a worthy and economic alternative to traditional catalysts.