Rampf has developed a method to create custom polymer aerogels that upcycle waste polyurethane. This method converts mixed polyurethane-based production waste into ultra-light environmentally friendly materials that can be used in applications such as thermal insulation, lightweight fillers, rheology additives, and more.
First, unsorted polyurethane waste is subjected to a glycolysis process to obtain recycled polyols. It is used to synthesize polyurethane-based gels and then supercritically dry the wet gels to form aerogels.
The initial attempt was to use Raku with Rampf
Scrap on Tool modeling board. They subsequently found that this method works equally well with other forms of polymers and may prove to be a practical way to deal with complex plastic waste.
Gerd Sebastian, director of new business development at Rampf and technical leader of the project
Beyerlein said they found that the technical properties of aerogels are highly dependent on the physical microstructure, but the purity of the raw materials is less important.
“The aerogels we synthesized from mixed production scraps from different batches have a well-defined and tunable mesoporous microstructure with thermal conductivities that are very low among comparable high-performance insulation materials,” he said.
“Transferring this newly developed approach to other polymers, as well as bio-based precursors, could significantly accelerate the development of the overall circular economy. We believe it has the potential to pave the way for a new generation of sustainable, value-added polymers that can efficiently Minimize plastic waste in our ecosystem.”
Michael, CEO of Rampf Group
Rampf added that this project demonstrates that the company is a pioneer in chemical recycling. He said: “We have been developing and optimizing the treatment of sorted production waste for more than 20 years and now we have found a revolutionary solution that could mean that unsorted residues will no longer be incinerated or thrown into landfill. Buried.”
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