Glycolysis of waste polyurethane integral skin foams from steering wheel

As polyurethane integral skin foams are widely used in the automotive industry, in order to decrease the amount of waste disposal of these foams, chemical recycling is preferred as a useful method to achieve both targets: 1) making the industry more compatible with the environment, and 2) defining an economic progress. In this research it has been tried to reconvert integral skin PUF to raw materials by glycolysis. A mixture of diethylene glycol and diethanol amine was used as a solvent system. The product's specifications were analyzed and an amount of recycled polyol usable in foam formulation was adjusted.