The process focuses on Vulkollan, a high-performance polyurethane elastomer used in applications such as forklift rollers, railroad buffers, automotive impact buffers, and vibration-damping components. With the new pilot plant, Covestro is scaling up the chemical recycling process—previously developed in the laboratory—to a larger technical scale.
In this process, selected used Vulkollan materials are broken down into purified chemical building blocks that can be reused. Under defined process and feedstock conditions, more than 90 percent of the selected material—by mass—can be recycled. The CO₂ footprint of the recovered material can be reduced by up to two-thirds compared to fossil-based virgin material.
Recycling Expands Circular Economy Options for Engineering Elastomers
For surface technology, the process is particularly interesting with regard to technical elastomer applications and the circular economy for polymeric functional materials. The pilot plant makes it possible to examine different streams of end-of-life materials and to further develop the recycling process for potential industrial-scale production. The project is receiving funding in the double-digit millions of euros.
“This pilot plant is an important step on our path to commercialization,” says Dr. Thomas Braig, head of the Elastomers business unit at Covestro. The plant makes it possible to demonstrate technical feasibility under conditions closer to real-world applications and to systematically further develop the process.
Elastomer Recycling Becomes Part of the Value Chain
Appropriate material cycles are also to be established for future industrial applications. To this end, Covestro is seeking collaboration along the value chain to recover suitable end-of-life elastomer materials after their useful life and reuse them as a source of raw materials.
This shifts the focus more strongly not only to the production and use of technical elastomers but also to their management at the end of their service life.