Evonik is now another step closer to commercializing its chemical recycling technology for polyurethane (PU).
The Germany-based specialty chemicals maker has teamed up with Remondis, one of the world’s largest recycling companies, to secure a supply of end-of-life mattress foam.
In Europe alone, approximately 40 million mattresses are discarded every year, of which only about 17% are recycled, while 50% are landfilled and 33% are incinerated. To help solve this problem, Evonik has developed a new hydrolysis process that completely recycles the polyols contained in polyurethane foam. The company claims the quality of the recycled content is comparable to polyols made from mineral oil. The technology is a depolymerization technology that uses water to break down the chemical bonds in the polyurethane into the original polyol raw material.
The process is currently being tested at a pilot plant in Hanau, Germany, and will be tested next at a larger demonstration plant. Vita Group, a UK-based supplier of flexible polyurethane foam products, has already trialled polyols recovered from Evonik’s hydrolysis processes in several of its flexible polyurethane foam applications, following the announcement of a partnership with Evonik in November 2021. According to research results to date, Evonik’s process significantly reduces the CO2 footprint compared to using fossil-based raw materials to produce mattresses. The demonstration plant aims to show that this also applies to larger-scale production.
Remondis will provide Evonik with stable, high-quality end-of-life polyurethane foam, allowing it to expand recycling volumes. Patrick, head of global circular economy projects at Evonik
Dr. Glöckner said: “By cooperating with Remondis, we can develop from the current linear value chain to a circular value chain. A true circularity only exists in a complete value chain, which is why we are actively expanding our cooperation.”
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