Infichem aims to double production of recycled polyols to 900 tonnes a year Report by Liz White, editor
Chrysler Group is using recycled polyols made by a ground breaking process based on polyurethane foam scrap. Developed by Infichem Polymers lie these recycled materials are used in the seat foam for Chrysler's 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
The move is the culmination of a programme that started ten years ago (box below), when Chrysler developed some concept cars and put a lot of recycled materials into them, said Jerry Winslow, Infichem Polymers' vice-president of sales & marketing.
"Chrysler ... is the first automobile maker in the world in production using this process and to have launched it commercially," he said.
This use gained the car maker an Environmental category award from the SPE (Society of Plastics Engineers) for 2010, Winslow pointed out, Ibrahim Sendijarevic, ceo of Infichem, based in Sterling Heights, Michigan, pointed out that the company is not doing what other companies have done: taking production waste and using glycolysis to reprocess it.
"Our process is not just glycolysis. We also use a propoxylation step which enables us to make a product that is more consistent and adjust the properties of the polyol to meet the demands of specific PU applications."
Infichem's goal is twofold, Sendijarevic said: to establish a recycling process for foamers, and also to produce a polyol which is widely available to the PU industry.
"We built a demonstration size production plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan," said Sendijarevic. Here scrap foam is transferred from a hopper into a reactor for glycolysis under atmospheric conditions. "An identical reactor ... is where we do propoxylation," he added.
Infichem put this facility together to demonstrate scale-up of the process and provide materials for evaluation and for initial production purposes, Sendijarevic said.
Now Infichem ships the polyols to Chrysler seat maker Magna Interior Systems, at its new Highland Park, Michigan, seat facility. Once the seat foam is made, Magna assembles the pads into seat frames, adds covers, and dispatches the finished seats to Chrysler's Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan.
Chrysler to extend use of recycled polyols
"Magna specifies very tightly what Infichem Polymers supplies," Sendijarevic said. Also, "we do inspect and qualify incoming materials, all of the different types of scrap materials they produce at their moulding facility."
Sendijarevic pointed out that the polyol Infichem developed with Magna has to meet the Chrysler seat standard - MSDC649.
And the two companies have established "characterisation of the polyol product we supply back to them," he added.
Chrysler now plans to extend its use of recycled polyols, according to Rod Eaton, Chrysler's manager for Jeep Grand Cherokee Interiors. "We are not only looking right now in the very short term at expanding the percentage we use in the Grand Cherokee," he said.
"We also plan to use it in other Cherokee models, and there are investigations under way to expand it to other vehicle lines as well," Eaton continued, noting that currently the recycled content is at 5 percent of the total seat weight and at 8-10 percent of the foam polyol.
"For seat cushions we feel we can probably go up to 10 percent safely and for the headrests to 20 percent safely," Eaton added.
Former Chrysler employee John Reynolds, now a consultant to Infichem as well as materials development manager at Unique Fabricating, of Auburn Hills, Michigan, said his company is "also investigating [use of recycled polyols] in fabrications and working on additional parts such as seals and gaskets and sound deadeners," as well as additional parts.
Rod Eaton agreed that headliners and other parts would be good to investigate, "as well as structural foams in the body, which would be a great application, because there we could use 100-percent recycled polyol.”
Winslow also mentioned carpet foam, noting that” a lot of applications are under investigation.”
Chrysler is also committed to using polyols from old seat pads, Eaton agreed. “As Dr Sendijarevic says, it’s meeting the specifications that we are aiming for and that’s between Magna and Infichem. So where it comes from doesn’t really matter. It’s all performance based.
Eaton was unable to discuss future Chrysler projects in detail, saying that decisions are made model by model.
But he said tha at Chrysler, “we’re very excited about the programme.”
Eaton and others spoke to UTI in a 23 Sept telephone interview, while Sendijarevic and Winslow further discussed the project 12 Oct at the CPI/UTECH event in Houston, Texas.
Asked if Infichem is working with other seat and carmakers on recycled polyols, Winslow said confidentiality stops the company disclosing specifics. But “we are aggressively pursuing the industry, both automotive and non-automotive,” he concluded.
Soya polyols also used at Chrysler
Infichem supplies the polyols to MS Chemical Technologies, part of Magna Seating. “We do the formulating for all the seat foam at Magna,” said Steve Erikson MS Chemicals director of manufacturing.
"In the case of Chrysler, its new seating specification is quite stringent, and we had to do some development work to meet that request," he said. Erikson sees the advantage "of being able to formulate our own chemistry is that it allows us to meet each OEM's specification exactly."
The formulation expert said, "We have formulations that use soya natural oil polyols as well," at a level of 8-10 percent, noting that some of its formulations do not use recycled materials because of the specifications.
Magna is currently only using soya polyols for pouring seat foam, although Erikson said, "We do have some formulations for headrests seats - the Chrysler 300 seats have 5 percent soya polyol, by weight, followed by the Charger and the Challenger models, John Reynolds said.
Winslow commented that Chrysler was a leader in using soya polyols in seat foam - even before Ford Motor Co. did.
Asked if recycled polyols will be replacing soya polyols, Eaton said they could easily be used side by side - "whatever is best for the environment. The big thing about this [recycled polyols] programme is that, while we could use soya polyols as a supplement to petrochemically based polyols, it still doesn't cure the disease of the foam ending up in landfill," he pointed out.
And the $64 000 question: 'Can you recycle foam made from recycled polyols?' did not disturb Sendijarevic. "Magna has supplied us with seat pads based on our polyols, and we showed we could use those pads, made from our polyols in our process," he said. "So we can close the loop."
In a later interview, he said that Infichem can also recycle foam made using soya polyols.
Sendijarevic said Infichem will be able to use most of Magna's scrap foam in this product line. "But eventually I anticipate that their scrap rate won't be enough to meet all of the demand say from Chrysler or other manufacturers," he said.
"So we may supplement it with other sources of scrap foam which could include the post-consumer foam from ELVs," Sendijarevic said, agreeing that Infichem can also use scrap foam from furniture making in its process.
And, "In future we're also going to be using some rigid scrap material in our process as well," Sendijarevic commented.
PROPOXYLATION A VITAL STEP
Infichem's lnfigreen polyols have a light yellowish colour, with a recycled content of above 60 % said Ibrahim Sendijarevic in a presentation at the CPI conference.
Sendijarevic said glycolysis is a very well-known process which uses glycols in transesterification to break the urethane bond and release the original polyol. Transesterification breaks down the 3D matrix into shorter chains functionalised with hydroxyl groups.
For Infichem, it is the propoxylation step that makes the difference in allowing control of molecular weight (MWt) and viscosity.
Propoxylation starts with a certain length of polyol initiator, adding propylene oxide (PO) links onto it. Infichem uses this process to adjust the length of the polyol chain: short is better for rigid foam and longer for other PU uses, said Sendijarevic.
Propoxylation will also reduce the viscosity of the polyol initiator, making it more suitable for various uses, and narrowing the MWt distribution.
POST-CONSUMER SCRAP FOAM
European car dismantlers have developed a process for removing pads from the seats of end of-life vehicles (ELVs) prior to shredding, so "Infichem can take these foam pads and use them in our process," Sendijarevic said.
Infichem is also working with a US dismantling company to implement the same process, so that in future "we will be able to use seat foam from used cars models from Chrysler, GM, Ford and other US carmakers," he added.
ELV projects have revealed that used seat foam is relatively clean and very uniform - although there is a filtration step to remove any solid contamination, Winslow said.
INFICHEM’S GRADES
Infichem is currently making three polyols - lnfigreen 320,410 and 420,the latter specifically for spray foam, with good compatibility with all types of blowing agents used, said Sendijarevic.
The 410 grade is for conventional rigid foam applications (water-blown), while 320 is for flexible foams and polyisocyanurate foams.
Each type is offered with enhanced or moderate reactivity Sendijarvic said, adding that Infichem can tune the hydroxyl number and reactivity of the polyols.
INFICHEM PLANS TO EXPAND
Infichem plans to expand within 12 months, doubling annual capacity to 2 million lb (900 tonnes) . It will then add in stages gradually to take capacity to 20-30 million lb, Sendijarevic said.
Infichem will simply add individual reactors, slightly larger than its current one, and may then dedicate reactors to specific polyols, Winslow said.
But the company may make 100 million lb eventually as well as going beyond North America to Latin America and Europe, Winslow pointed out.
Sendijarevic said the level of recycled polyol used in any formulation will depend on the use. "Automotive seating foam will not use 100 percent of our polyols, but if you are making filter foam or rigid foam you can use 100 percent of our polyols."
Also, Sendijarevic said, "formulators very rarely use a single polyol, they use mixes of two or three."
Hence, "our polyol competes well with, say, sucrose-based polyether polyols,which are used in almost all rigid applications," Sendijarevic said. That means they will be able to substitute a large proportion of those polyols available on the market.
As use of rebond foam for carpet backing declines, more scrap process foam is available, especially in Europe, Winslow said.
And Infichem is also developing polyols based on rigid foam from post-industrial scrap currently sent to landfill - an expensive route which wastes valuable materials, Sendijarevic said.
Plenty of companies in roofing or foam boardstock produce substantial amounts of scrap rigid foam, he noted. "Since this material is currently low cost to us, we can develop recycling to make a specific line of polyols," Sendijarevic said.
The polyols would also be available on the market if there is excess from the process.
"Really the reason recycling did not take off ten or 15 years ago was that the economics did not pan out," said Sendijarevic. "The big driver has to be economics now, unless the government mandates recycling in some way. So the process must be economically viable, that's the hard bottom line."
Infichem's polyols are priced slightly below new ones, Sendijarevic said. So the drive is not just the 'green' marketing aspect. it is also the potential cost savings, he said.
"We realise people will have to invest some time and money to develop formulations using our polyols, so it's nice to have long-term cost savings as the driver," he added.
And Infichem is also developing polyols based on rigid foam from post-industrial scrap currently sent to landfill - an expensive route which wastes valuable materials, Sendijarevic said.
Plenty of companies in roofing or foam boardstock produce substantial amounts of scrap rigid foam, he noted. "Since this material is currently low cost to us, we can develop recycling to make a specific line of polyols," Sendijarevic said.
The polyols would also be available on the market if there is excess from the process.
"Really the reason recycling did not take off ten or 15 years ago was that the economics did not pan out," said Sendijarevic. "The big driver has to be economics now, unless the government mandates recycling in some way. So the process must be economically viable, that's the hard bottom line."
Infichem's polyols are priced slightly below new ones, Sendijarevic said. So the drive is not just the 'green' marketing aspect, it is also the potential cost savings, he said.
"We realise people will have to invest some time and money to develop formulations using our polyols, so it's nice to have long-term cost savings as the driver," he added.
