Leverkusen, Germany- Covestro has announced its intention to build a pilot plant dedicated to recycling Vulkollan thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The company is set to invest a double-digit million-euro sum in the facility at its Leverkusen site. The plant will focus on developing technology to break down end-of-life elastomeric materials into their chemical building blocks, which can then be purified and reused to manufacture new TPU products.
The recycling process is expected to achieve a mass fraction recovery rate of over 90% for materials from products like forklift wheels, railway bumpers, and automotive components such as vibration control elements and jounce bumpers. Covestro claims the process could reduce the carbon footprint of recycled TPU by up to two-thirds compared to virgin material. The high yield of this technology would allow end-of-life Vulkollan materials to be recycled into new forklift tires and jounce bumpers using a mass balance approach.
“This pilot plant reflects our strong commitment to advancing circular solutions and represents a significant milestone for our elastomer products,” said Thomas Braig, head of Covestro's elastomers business.
“With the successful scale-up of this recycling process, we aim to meet our customers’ demands for end-of-life solutions and carbon footprint reduction, all while maintaining the high quality of our elastomer products. This initiative also serves as an invitation for value chain partners to collaborate in establishing a circular setup and reverse logistics for end-of-life materials,” Braig added.
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