Green and recyclable polyurethanes without isocyanate
Polyurethanes (PUs) are valuable plastic materials used in a variety of consumer products ranging from shoes we wear to the foams in our mattresses and in a huge number of industrial applications.
IVAs 100-lista 2023
Category: Circular economy, Green & blue industries
Lärosäte: Lunds universitet
Responsible Researcher: SANG-HYUN PYO, RAJNI HATTI KAUL
The global market for PU was valued at over USD 45 billion in 2020. The main drawback is however that they are made using hazardous isocyanate, which entails strict safety procedures during their manufacture and risk of leakage during their use.
Elevated levels of such chemicals in humans are a cause of several serious ailments such as depression, breast and prostate cancer, asthma, obesity, etc. The other problem is that the current PUs are non-recyclable.
We have developed an alternative patented route for producing non-isocyanate thermoplastic polyurethanes that are biobased and recyclable, and hence suited for circular economy.