SusPolyurethane 2016: Finding a sustainable way through EU regulations

The need to develop chemicals to meet consumer needs without jeopardising the environment for future generations has been spurring the polyurethane industry for many years, delegates at SusPolyurethane 2016 were told. But what challenges lie ahead?

Sustainability is “all about interpretation”, Angela Austin of Labyrinth Associates told delegates, at Suspolyurethanes 2016 adding that the polyurethane industry has been behaving in an increasingly sustainable way “for quite some time”.

Her views were echoed by Michel Baumgartner, secretary general of EuroPUR, in a paper co-presented by Shpresa Kotaji, who was representing PU-Europe.

Baumgartner claimed that the eco-profile of flexible foam has changed dramatically the  "CO₂ emissions to produce flexible foam have fallen by 24% over the last decade”.

Austin added that, although the PU industry had invented more ecologically sound products, it could take some time for them to be widely adopted. She continued, “In the 1970s, water-based PU dispersions were invented, but it took a further 25 years for them to become widely used.”

But now they have been adopted, they are “making a big contribution to reducing the amount of solvents used, especially in synthetic leather applications in Asia”.

"You can use aliphatic diisocyanates now with green content, which may be made from biomass, of up to 65%. In 1987, the Montreal protocol forced the industry to move away from a number of blowing agents, but before that, Hennecke had been working on recycling propane blowing agents.” Propane is a widely used blowing agent in refrigeration applications. “Now,” Austin said, “we are onto the fourth generation of blowing agents, which are no longer damaging the ozone layer."

Long term innovators

At the same time that Hennecke was exploring recycling propane, Krauss Maffei, was developing long-fibre composites. "It's taken legislation for automotive light weighting to kick-start interested into this area,” said Austin.

Also on the materials side of the equation, Austin explained that in 2005 Hickory Springs in the US made the first flexible foam using soya-based polyols. Today, the majority of US flexible foam “uses some of soya-based polyols or vegetable oils in their flexible foam production. This is partly due to the strength of the US farming industry,” she added.

Innovations in logistics and sales processes have also had a positive environmental impact, Austin said: “Bed in a box may not seem sustainable, but they are delivered by courier and ordered online, cutting out huge amounts of transportation costs,” she said, adding that a million of them have already been sold in the US.

The improved compressibility and recovery of foam has reduced the need for its production to be close to the user. “About 30 years ago, foam makers were approximately 300km from the customers,” Austin explained. “Now, foam can be shipped efficiently for over 1500 km.”

New challenges

The future will bring new challenges, such as the phasing out of third-generation blowing agents, action on VOCs, better use of carbon, and the end-of-life challenge for polyurethane.

This idea was also discussed by Baumgartner and Shpresa Kotaji.

EuroPUR and PU Europe have run a joint working group to study what the circular economy might mean for the EU polyurethane industry.

Baumgartner told the meeting that about 930 kT/year of flexible polyurethane is produced each year, predominantly for the furniture and bedding industries, to replace end-of-life products.

“That is about nine times the volume of the great Pyramid of Giza. Mattress production is about 45m units/year, and about 80% of those contain polyurethane foam.  This will translate to similar figures at the end of life,” he said.

Kotaji added, "In 2007, PU-Europe studied the volume of end-of-life insulation foam generated each year. About 40% goes as waste to energy plants, a little bit is reused, mostly in sandwich panel applications, and very, very little is being recycled,” she said.

Baumgartner also told the meeting, “In 2012 MPA Consultants from Belgium assessed end-of-life mattresses, and concluded that 60% are being landfilled in Europe. This is fairly similar to rigid foam.

“Every year in Europe,” he added, “huge amounts of foam are put under the earth. Waste programs are country, not industry, specific. This is why EU institutions felt things have to change, and [hence] their proposals for the circular economy.”

Europe is at the start of the journey and, it will be a long process, Kotaji said. “Today's proposal takes account of the differences between the different member states, because not all states have the same integrated approach to waste management. It is also more flexible in terms of targets.”

She added: "Landfill will be phased out. This is a given. So 60% of waste materials going to landfill will have to stop. The extended producer responsibility scheme will be reinforced. The gate fees for landfill will increase, because waste management is not seen as the optimum way of dealing with end-of-life waste."

Long journey

Baumgartner told delegates that furniture and mattresses have been specifically named for the first time in European law. “Targets for recycling of 5% by 2030 are by weight,” he said. “There's no need to panic when you see the targets. There is also a realisation that if you want to cut recycle furniture, you have to collect it separately.”

Extended producer responsibility schemes for furniture and mattresses are already underway, notably in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, he said.

Kotaji explained that the legislation contains a proposal around rigid foam in construction waste, and 70% by weight will have to be recovered through recycling. Waste-to-energy is not an option.

"There will be a revision of the waste management framework, to which we as an industry need to pay attention and understand what it means,” she said. “There will also be work on legacy chemicals. There is a need to understand how they can be dealt with in the most efficient way, environmentally and economically."

Baumgartner added that there are also a number of non-regulatory drivers for change. “The first of these is social acceptance,” he said. “If people knew how many tonnes we put under the earth every year, I think that would be highly unacceptable to them.”

He added that there is also pressure for recycled content from public authorities, which buy about 20% of the goods and services in the EU. “The EU is developing criteria for green public procurement,” he said. “This means that public authorities will have to look at the environmental footprint of products when they buy them.”

Hygienic disposal

EuroPUR working groups believe that waste-to-energy will remain part of the solution, Baumgartner said. “It is the preferred solution today.”

Waste-to-energy is a hygienic method of disposal. It can safely deal with the problem of legacy chemicals by removing them from the environment, and polyurethane contains a lot of trapped energy which assists in the efficient running of the power plants.

"Mechanical recycling will also become part of the solution," Baumgartner said. "Legacy chemicals are a hurdle to overcome, and foam reused in this way would be in competition with foam recovered in-process.”

"CO₂ emissions to produce flexible foam have fallen by 24% over the last decade”

Baumgartner.

The industry does not believe recycled polyurethane foam can be used to make consumer products, Baumgartner said. "It can be used for non-consumer applications such as vibration damping, but certainly not in pillows and mattresses."

”There will be money available through the extended producer responsibility schemes consumers will pay an eco-contribution, or tax, when they buy furniture or a mattress," he added. “Some of that money will be made available to pay for, or subsidise, end-of-life solutions.”

Biomass 

Several papers at SusPolyurethane 2016 examined the different options for bio-produced or bio-containing raw materials. Angela Austin of Labyrinth Consultants outlined some of the options.  “Lignin is a good potential starting material for many polyurethane products,” she said. This industrial waste product can be used to make alcohols and many other raw materials that could be used to produce MDI and TDI.

Using bio-succinic acid and other additives, it is possible to make 100% renewable polyols, and Asia is a big market for these products where they are used in using synthetic leathers, she added. However, the production of adipic gases generates nitrous oxides, which are a significant greenhouse gases.

Polyether polyols can be partially or completely replaced by bio-based polyols or carbon dioxide-based polyols, Austin said. She listed a number of agricultural materials, ranging from recycled cooking oil to oil cashew nut shells, which are being used as conventional polyol replacements. Fish oils have been used to make polyols, and the rigid foam made using these has been used in trawlers, where a fishy-smell is not a problem.

Tallow and other animal fats are unlikely to represent a long-term material alternative, because products made from it may be unacceptable to vegetarians and certain religions.

"It's not necessarily fair to compare bio-based products with oil based products, they are unique chemicals," Austin added.

"There have been questions about the intensive cultivation palm oil, and the same questions could be raised with soya. Is it really sustainable? Is it good to use a food product?”

In the US, soya farming has been made more sustainable, she said. This is partly because it is often grown on family-run farms that are passed on from generation to generation, and it is in their interest to keep the soil in good condition and maintain the water table. Newer strains of soya have a higher yield of beans, reducing the amount of land required. “The polyurethane industry uses the by-product from the animal and human feed industries” she said

About 160 MT/year of vegetable oil is produced globally and a further 100 kT/year animal fat, Austin said. “If humans were to stick to our 40 g/day dietary fat, there would be natural fats left over to make polyols,” she said.

Hunger is a real issue, but it's not going to be impacted using these vegetable oils as an industrial chemical."

Only 7% of the soyabean oil produced in the US is used in industrial applications, Austin claimed. As a result of the crushing process to make soyabean protein, about 250,000 tons of soyabean oil is available in the US to be used as food or as an industrial chemical. "You shouldn't worry about using vegetable oils as an industrial chemical,” she concluded.