Gaydon, UK – Jaguar Land Rover has teamed up with Dow MobilityScience and seat maker Adient to create prototype car seats incorporating Renuva repolyol. This was made from polyurethane foam taken from used vehicles. The companies believe this is the first time closed-loop seat foam content has been used successfully in automotive production.
Initial lab testing proved the technical feasibility of the recycled-content foam within seats, based on 20% closed loop repolyol content. In the next stage of testing, the aim is to increase this percentage as much as possible.
The recycled foam will be an element of a new “circular seat” that the company estimates will halve the CO2 emissions impact while maintaining high performance. This would eliminate more than 44kg of emitted CO2 per seat, the equivalent of charging almost 3000 smartphones.
JLR is now putting the material through its full production process. It plans to test its use in pre-production vehicles in early 2025.
The project arose from ongoing research and testing at JLR’s Circularity Lab in Gaydon, Warwickshire, where the aim is to reduce waste and improve the recyclability of its vehicles. There, cross-disciplinary teams, including sustainability, engineering, procurement and design, disassemble vehicles and work closely with suppliers and experts in materials. This helps them understand and overcome the barriers to reuse and recycling of the mixed materials within a car.
“Close collaboration with experts from the recycling and materials science industries, with our supply chain partners, and colleagues from design and engineering is key – we need to work as a collective value chain to unlock meaningful change at scale,” said Andrea Debbane, JLR’s chief sustainability officer. “The knowledge and applications found demonstrate that full circularity is feasible, and as a business this is critical to our transition.”
