Project description
Sustainable polyurethane production through low-cost eco-friendly polyols
Being versatile in nature, polyurethane is used in a wide range of applications from automobile seats to textiles and homes. Every year more than 23 million tonnes of polyurethane are produced from two raw materials coming from oil refining: polyols and isocyanates. Environmental concerns for products obtained from oil refining are supporting the growth of eco-friendly polyols. However, applications are limited to only high-end solutions due to their high price. The EU-funded ECO-POL project aims to commercialise an eco-friendly polyol obtained from renewable raw materials and low-grade PET. The combination of proprietary autocatalytic process with extremely low-cost raw materials will showcase the potential of the green polyol to replace oil-based ones in virtually all applications.
Objective
Polyurethane (PU) is one of the most popular plastic in the world and is everywhere around us, from our car’s seats to the insulating material used in our homes and clothes. Every year more than 23 million tons of PU are produced from two raw materials coming from oil refining: polyols and isocyanates. This is posing relevant concerns to PU manufacturers, especially because their customers are “going green”, avoiding the use of oil-derived product as much as possible. Eco-polyols have long been seen as a solution to these issues, driving a steep growth of the green polyols industry. However, bio polyols are only adequate for specific applications and their price (>2€/kg) make them suitable only for high-end solutions. To capture this huge market opportunity, at PolyLabs we have developed ECO-POL, a novel eco-polyol obtained from renewable raw material and from low grade PET which is otherwise impossible to recycle. The combination of our proprietary autocatalytic process with extremely low cost raw materials allowed us to demonstrate the feasibility of an extremely versatile polyol which can replace oil-based ones in practically all applications. And at the same market price (1.4 – 1.5 €/kg). Through this SME Instrument project we plan to scale up our process and manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of the European PU industry, targeting an initial production of 10,000 – 15,000 tonnes/year which will be replicated in several countries as long as the local market demand grows. We are an innovative chemical company established in close partnership with the scientific Institute of Wood Chemistry of Latvia (IWC) to produce bio-based polyol for the PU industry, and we are already commercialising more than 300 tons/year of our first generation eco-polyols. Through this innovation project we aim to reach customers as, Huntsman, Covestro, Audi, Basf, Dow, Dupont reaching a target of 14,000 tonnes of product sold by 2023, for a turnover exceeding 20 M€.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
1004 RIGA
Latvia
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.