TAGS: Sustainability and Bioplastics K Show 2022
Covestro has developed innovative technologies to reuse plastics and return them to the value cycle – often in close cooperation with partners.
Mechanical Recycling of Unmixed Plastics
At the K 2022 trade show,
Covestro will present a number of other developments for the unmixed recycling of used plastics. The company’s focus to date has been on proven mechanical recycling, in which the plastic is chemically preserved, and more recent chemical recycling processes, in which the polymer molecules are broken down chemically. Other technologies of such raw material reprocessing – specifically enzymatic and pyrolytic – are under development.
Mechanical recycling is particularly suitable for
polycarbonates. Numerous corresponding products from Covestro are already on the market, including polycarbonate blends for IT applications with up to 75 percent recycled material – besides products based on mass balanced raw materials.
To facilitate recycling, the company is increasingly relying on monomaterial solutions for end products that feature simplified material separation. In addition, new plastic products are designed from the outset to be easier to recycle at the end of their useful life.
Chemical Recycling
Polyurethanes (PU) and other thermoset products usually cannot be mechanically recycled. Chemical processes are the obvious choice here. Covestro has developed an innovative technology for recovering both core raw materials PU mattress foam as part of a research project with partners.
These are polyols and the isocyanate TDI, which are used in the production of mattress foam. The precursor is recovered from the TDI, and both raw materials can be reused for the production of new foam after reprocessing. The results achieved to date are being tested in a pilot plant at the Leverkusen site. Covestro has now introduced the Evocycle
® brand name for the project.
To drive the project forward and close recycling cycles, Covestro is cooperating with partners from the chemical and recycling industries. Together with Interseroh, an ALBA Group company, opportunities are to be developed for the collection and processing of the recyclables so that they can ultimately be supplied to Covestro for chemical recycling.
Covestro is pursuing a similar goal in its cooperation with the French environmental protection organization Eco-mobilier, which specializes in the collection and recycling of old furniture.
Used PU rigid foams, which provided efficient thermal insulation for buildings and refrigeration equipment, should also be able to be broken down into their constituent parts again by means of chemolysis or even pyrolysis.
This is the goal of the CIRCULAR FOAM research project with 22 industrial partners from nine countries, coordinated by Covestro. Over the next four years, experts from science, industry, and society want to develop a comprehensive solution model for the waste management and recycling of such foams.
Source: Covestro
