Description du projet
Une production durable de polyuréthane grâce à des polyols écologiques et économiques
De nature polyvalente, le polyuréthane est utilisé dans une vaste gamme d’applications allant des sièges d’automobile aux textiles, en passant par les habitations. Chaque année, plus de 23 millions de tonnes de polyuréthane sont produites à partir de deux matières premières issues du raffinage du pétrole: les polyols et les isocyanates. Les préoccupations environnementales concernant les produits issus du raffinage du pétrole favorisent la montée en puissance des polyols écologiques. Leurs applications restent toutefois limitées aux solutions haut de gamme en raison de leur coût élevé. Le projet ECO-POL, financé par l’UE, cherche à commercialiser un polyol écologique obtenu à partir de matières premières renouvelables et de PET de qualité inférieure. L’association entre un procédé autocatalytique breveté et des matières premières extrêmement peu coûteuses permettra de démontrer que ce polyol écologique est capable de remplacer les polyols issus du pétrole dans quasiment toutes les applications.
Objectif
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€.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinateur
1004 RIGA
Lettonie
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.