Glycolysis of advanced polyurethanes composites containing thermoregulating microcapsules

Rigid PU foams are properly recycled by a single-phase glycolysis process employing crude glycerol as transesterification agent. A high pure recovered polyol (71% of purity) was obtained using a mass ratio of PU scraps to crude glycerol of 1 to 1, a reaction temperature of 190 degrees C and stannous octoate as catalyst in a 1.3 wt% concentration. PU foam composites containing thermoregulating microcapsules constituted by a paraffin core (Rubitherm (R) RT27) and a polymer shell material (LDPE and EVA) were glycolyzed, allowing to recover the microcapsules components and the polyol separately. This way, both components of the composite are recovered and can be reused in the manufacturing of new products; demonstrating for first time the viability of the chemical recycling of this kind of composites. Besides, the developed process was successfully applied for foams containing different proportions between the hard and soft segments, demonstrating its robustness. Finally, the recovered polyols were successfully employed to replace a raw rigid polyether polyol in the synthesis of new rigid PU foams. The most important physical and mechanical properties (density, maximum compressive strength and Young modulus) were maintained constant for the incorporation up to a 25 wt% of recovered polyol coming from conventional rigid PU foam scraps and up to a 37.5 wt% with the recovered polyol from rigid PU foam containing thermoregulating microcapsules. Regarding the effective thermal conductivity, it remained constant, even with 100 wt% of recovered polyol from PU scraps with thermoregulating microcapsules.