Polyurethane (PU) foams are comparatively ubiquitous in right now’s world, utilized in all varieties of cushioning, from automobile seats to mattresses. Used for almost a century, the fabric has been notoriously difficult to recycle due largely to its advanced chemical construction. And with thousands and thousands of mattresses being thrown out yearly, every with 15 to twenty kg of PU foam in them, there may be lots of waste to deal with. Luckily, there have been quite a lot of efforts in recent times to facilitate PU foam recycling. At Covestro, as an illustration, a crew developed a chemical recycling course of for PU foam from used mattresses again in 2021. Elsewhere, analysis groups are additionally devising revolutionary strategies for lowering this stream of waste.
On the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, for instance, a crew of scientists has developed SaLSO, a patented know-how able to turning PU foam waste into 3D printing feedstock. The crew, led by Professor Suryasarathi Bose and Professor Subodh Kumar, has discovered a method to selectively separate chemical bonds in PU foams, which successfully breaks down the hard-to-recycle materials into varied chemical parts, which may then be used within the make-up of recent 3D printing supplies.
Chemical recycling is an rising area that gives an alternative choice to extra standard mechanical recycling processes (which contain cleansing, melting and reprocessing plastic supplies). Within the chemical recycling course of, polymers are damaged down into their unique monomer constructing blocks, which may then be polymerized into new supplies. Chemical recycling processes have the best potential for lowering waste streams related to difficult-to-recycling plastics, resembling PU foams. In contrast to mechanical recycling, chemical recycling additionally ends in the manufacturing of virgin-quality supplies, which because the British Plastics Federation says “allows the manufacturing of meals grade plastics from post-consumer waste.”
The SaLSO course of developed at IISc is appropriate with totally different hardnesses of PU foam and is as much as 98% efficient. In line with the researchers, the patented know-how can be used to interrupt down and remodel different plastics, like epoxy, unsaturated polyesters and polyolefins, into uncooked supplies for 3D printing.
“This can be a main leap in plastic waste administration,” Professor Bose mentioned within the Deccan Herald. “We’ve developed a sustainable answer to upcycle supplies that have been beforehand thought-about unrecyclable and patented a know-how to transform long-unrecyclable PU foams and different difficult plastics into worthwhile 3D printing supplies, breaking a serious barrier in plastic waste administration.” Professor Bose additionally just lately performed a task within the growth of a sustainable hydrogel that may degrade microplastics utilizing UV mild, which may have an effect in eradicating microplastic air pollution from water.
