Flexible polyurethane foams from recycled PET

Preliminary results are presented of an industry-based collaborative research project which aims to investigate the breaking down of recycled PETP into its chemical building blocks using glycolysis. The main aim is to produce a polyester polyol for the polyurethane industry from recycled PETP and to compare the properties with that of a virgin resin. It is shown that polyols made from recycled PETP foam successfully, although the cell structure is too coarse and the foam resembles a more rigid structure. By blending a virgin polyol with a polyol made from recycled PETP, it is possible to produce flexible foams with physical properties similar to those of the polyol made from virgin raw materials.