Covestro Partners on Closed Loop for PU Mattresses
Covestro and Recticel, a Belgian company specializing in insulation and semi-finished foam products, were able to demonstrate that the two main raw materials originally used in flexible polyurethane PU foam from mattresses can be recovered by chemical means to a high level of quality and purity. For the first time, a flexible foam sample has now been produced from fully recycled polyol and toluene diisocyanate (TDI), respectively. Both raw materials were obtained in Covestro’s pilot plant in Leverkusen, Germany.
"With this we have fully achieved the goal of developing a technology to chemically recycle these products and convert polyurethane into a high-quality recycled material," said Bart Haelterman, R&D director at Recticel. "For the first time in history, polyurethane is truly fitting into a circular economy." The findings are a result of the Europe-wide research project "PUReSmart," an EU funded project investing six million euros over a four-year period.