Chemically recycled PU foam waste as new building blocks for new polymer development via Michael addition reaction (RecPUR)

Today, following the goals defined by the European Green Deal and the goals of the Latvian Bioeconomy Strategy, it is essential to replace petrochemical raw materials with renewable and recyclable raw materials, thus reducing CO2 emissions. The RecPUR project will use polyurethane foam waste, which causes huge ecological problems, and the local resource tall oil, which is a renewable raw material of wood origin, obtained in the pulp production process. The RecPUR project proposes the idea of depolymerization of polyurethane foam waste using polyols from tall oil or epoxidized tall oil fatty acids. Two types of monomers will be synthesized from depolymerized polyurethane foam: Michael donor - monomer containing acetoacetate groups, and Michael acceptor - monomer containing acrylic acid groups. Sequentially, the resulting donor and acceptor monomers will form a polymer through a Michael addition mechanism. The resulting polymer will contain urethane groups, but no isocyanate will be used in the synthesis process. The final activity of RecPUR is the foaming of Michael polymer using the new generation foaming agents, thus obtaining a thermal insulation material that would be competitive in terms of properties with the conventional polyurethane foams. The physico-mechanical and thermal properties of polymers will be studied. The developed processes and technologies will have great potential for commercialization.