Polyurethane foams from renewable and sustainable polyols

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is the production of polyurethane foams with polyols from liquefied wood. The objective is to find the best combination of appropriate properties to polyurethane foams with maximum content of polyols from wood liquefaction to decrease the price and make the foam environmentally friendlier. First of all, experimental work began with the optimizing of wood liquefaction reaction. This part was performed with different type of catalysts in order to find the best yield results and the cheapest catalyst at industrial level. Next was carried the extraction of the polyols in order to eliminate the sugar molecules present in liquefied wood, as consequence of the breaking of bonds in cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose through depolymerization. The polyols were characterized with the determination valor OH and acid value and the spectroscopic technique ATR-FTIR. In the second part of this thesis was obtained the foams which presented good results when compared with commercial foams and include polyols from of fossil fuels. The formulation of the foams should be improve, but the results show that is possible the use polyols from liquefied wood for produce industrial foams with lower cost.