5-7 OCTOBERISFR2011

145

TOLEDO (SPAIN)

NEW TRENDS IN POLYURETHANE WASTES RECYCLING USING GREENSOLVENTS UNDER MICROWAVE IRRADIATION
Mir Mohammad Alavi Nigjeh
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, IKIU, Qazvin Irane-mail: alavim2006@yahoo.com

Abstract
The recycling of polyurethane, has always posed unique challenges due to its wide variety of applications from industry tobio-based materials namely, artificial organs. Mechanical regrinding was the oldest method in polyurethane wastes recycling
and the use of the regrind wastes as filler in the new formulations. Chemical recycling of polyurethanes by hydrolysis,aminolysis, and glycolysis, is for the most part considered economically uncompetitive compared to formulating with virgin
raw materials. This communication covers conventional heating and microwave assisted polyurethane wastes recycling
using green solvents namely, glycerin and/ or sorbitol in the presence of basic catalysts. The aim of this work is the polyol
recovery in high yields and high purities in comparisons with other technical works. In the meantime, the using of green
destroying agents protects the environment during recycling and omits the formation of hazardous products. The reaction
mechanism as well as the reaction parameters will be study in detail.

1. Introduction
The recycling of polyurethane, has always posed uniquechallenges due to its wide variety of applications fromindustry to bio-based materials namely, artificial organs.
Mechanical regrinding was the oldest method inpolyurethane wastes recycling and the use of the regrind
wastes as filler in the new formulations. Chemical
recycling of polyurethanes by hydrolysis, aminolysis, andglycolysis, is for the most part considered economically
uncompetitive compared to formulating with virgin raw
materials. This communication covers conventional
heating and microwave assisted polyurethane wastes
recycling using green solvents namely, glycerin and/ orsorbitol in the presence of basic catalysts.
The aim of this work is the polyol recovery in high yields
and high purities in comparisons with other technicalworks. In the meantime, the using of green destroying

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agents protects the environment during recycling andomits the formation of hazardous products. The reaction
mechanism as well as the reaction parameters will be
study in detail.

2. Results and Discussion
The recycling process has been investigated by using
MW as an energy source and data compared byconventional heating method.
Two “split phases” were separated and identified using
spectroscopy methods. Results showed the efficiency of
the reactions when MW irradiation is applied as heatingsource. The reaction times were decreased and therecovered polyol had high purity in comparison withconventional heating method. In figure 1 the recycling
process using glycerin is shown.

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3. Conclusions

References

Polyols from PUFs wastes were recycled successfullyusing MW as an energy source and the chemical
structure and physical properties namely, viscosity,density and etc. was comparable with virgin one polyol.
Our results revealed the efficiency of the method inpolyol recycling in eco-friendly, mild and green
conditions.

[1] M. M. Alavi Nikje; A. Bagheri Garmarudi;
Regeneration of Polyol by Pentaerythritol-assisted
Glycolysis of Flexible Polyurethane Foam Wastes, Iran.
Polym. J., 19, 2010, 287-292.
[2] M. M. Alavi Nikje; and F. Mohammadi, PolyurethaneFoam Wastes Recycling under Microwave Irradiation,
Polymer-Plastics Technology and Engineering, 49, 2010,
818-821.

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