Toyota Tsusho Chemiplas, Sanyo Chemical Industries and Evonik Industries announced that they had launched a joint initiative on 13 October aimed at manufacturing and using recycled polyols through chemical recycling technology for polyurethane foam.
Toyota Tsusho Chemiplas will oversee the collection network and logistics functions, and will be responsible for establishing the overall scheme and promoting the business. The companies aim to improve processes involving low-purity feedstock, high impurity levels and high temperatures over extended periods by combining Evonik's chemical recycling technology with Sanyo Chemical's polyol design and process technology.
Specifically, waste polyurethane foam and manufacturing offcuts will be collected, and the polyols will be regenerated using Evonik's technology. The plan is to reuse the resulting high-purity polyols as recycled raw materials, with the aim of realizing a circular society.
Polyurethane foam is used in automobile seats, furniture and other products, and CO2 emissions and the burden of landfill disposal have become issues when it is discarded. Conventional material recycling through grinding and remolding has not adequately enabled the material to be recycled as a high-value-added raw material.