Leverkusen, Germany – Covestro has announced plans for a pilot plant to recycle Vulkollan thermoplastic polyurethane. It will invest double-digit million euros in the project in Leverkusen to develop technology that will break down end-of-life elastomeric materials into their chemical building blocks. The purified monomers could be reused to make new TPU.
The company said that the technology would allow a mass fraction of more than 90% of end-of-life material from products such as forklift wheels, railway bumpers and automotive vibration control elements and jounce bumpers. It would also reduce the carbon footprint of the material compared to virgin by up to two-thirds. The high yield of the recycling process would enable end-of-life Vulkollan materials to be used to make new jounce bumpers and forklift tyres via a mass balance approach, Covestro said.
“The pilot plant and with it our commitment to proving the feasibility of recycling for elastomers demonstrates our clear commitment for circular solutions and marks an important milestone for our elastomer products”, said Thomas Braig, who heads up the company’s elastomers business.
“With the successful scale-up of this new recycling process we address the demand of our customers for end-of-life solutions and carbon footprint reduction while assuring the high quality of our elastomer products. At the same time, this pilot plant is an invitation for players along the value chain to cooperate on developing a circular setup and the reverse value chain for end-of-life materials.”
