POLYURETHANE | INNOVATION


recovers PU foam waste from end-of-life vehicles without the need for disassembly. A typical car contains around 28 kg of PU, 10-15 kg of it in seating alone, but conventional recycling has required labour-intensive dismantling. The new process produces a PU waste stream pure enough to feed into depolymerisation and is intended to help automakers and component manufacturers meet the recycled-content requirements emerging under the EU’s revised ELV Regulation. “Collaboration is essential to building a closed- loop supply chain for the automotive industry,” said Esther Quintanilla, Global MobilityScience Market- ing Director at Dow Polyurethanes. Mauro Grotto, President of Gruppo Fiori company Italmetalli, said the partnership would help “restore the value of waste and share that value with the industry”. The automotive recovery process is designed to feed Dow’s existing Renuva portfolio of recycled PU materials. Dow’s activities include a mattress-recy- cling programme converting end-of-life foam into Renuva polyols, which it says can deliver up to a 54% reduction in equivalent CO2 emissions compared with standard polyol production. Dow has also continued to expand ISCC Plus mass balance


certification across its PU manufacturing network to support recycled and bio-based feedstock claims. Industry body Euromoulders has noted that


polyurethanes are the second most-used plastic in cars, and has pointed specifically to the Dow/ Gruppo Fiori collaboration as an example of the “improving sorting technologies” needed to supply clean, chemically-recyclable PU waste streams as the EU’s ELV Regulation approaches implementation. Component-industry association Clepa has


separately lobbied for the Regulation’s definition of


Above: Executives at launch of Covestro partnership with Fraunhofer UMSICHT on development of smart pyrolysis of rigid PU foam waste


SPREAD THE WORD


Let the world know about the good things your company is doing by advertising in


Plastics Recycling World magazine. Request the media pack to find out about our forthcoming


features, global readership, and cost-effective advertisement packages:


CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD


IMAGE: FRAUNHOFER


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32