Purcom plans 1,200-tonne recycled polyol plant in Brazil

The plant will initially process rigid polyurethane foam recovered from end-of-life refrigerators. Purcom intends to return the resulting polyol to polyurethane production, creating a closed-loop route for material that is normally treated as waste.

The company expects to increase the plant’s recycling capacity tenfold by 2028. It is also developing routes for recovering flexible polyurethane foam from discarded mattresses and automotive seating.

Chief executive officer and founder Giuseppe Santanchè announced the investment during the PU do Futuro Summit at the Aya Hub in São Paulo.
Purcom said the chemical process itself represents only one part of the project. During the past ten years, it has developed a reverse-logistics network connecting waste cooperatives, recyclers, transport operators, waste-management companies and industrial users.

This network forms part of the recently introduced Purcom Ecos platform, which organizes the collection, sorting, recycling and reuse of polyurethane waste. A digital system called Econexão records the movement of material through the network and provides traceability documentation.

Purcom said refrigerator insulation is currently the most technically advanced of its three recycling routes. Rigid foam must be separated from the appliance’s metal and plastic components while any residual blowing agent is handled appropriately.

The company has previously demonstrated the chemical recycling of refrigerator foam with Electrolux. In that project, the waste foam was broken down by glycolysis and converted into a recycled polyol before being incorporated into a formulated polyol system. An industrial trial used the resulting material to insulate new refrigerators.

Purcom’s mattress route combines collection, dismantling and separation of the foam from textiles, timber, metal and other components. Its automotive route is intended to recover molded seat foam that would otherwise remain in automotive shredder residue and be sent for energy recovery.

Founded in 2002, Purcom is headquartered in Barueri, São Paulo state, and describes itself as Latin America’s largest independent polyurethane systems house.

Photo: an AI-generated image prompted by PU-Magazine

Purcom (in Brazilian Portugeuse)