EFRI E3P: GOALI: Waste Management and Circularity of Crosslinked Polyurethane Foams

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The global market for polyurethanes (PUs), which are primarily available as covalently crosslinked microcellular foams (PUFs), will exceed $50B in 2021 and represents over 10% (65 billion pounds) of total global plastic consumption. A multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional team (that includes ASU, Virginia Tech, Adidas AG, NREL, and ORNL) will address fundamental science and engineering challenges for PUs and PUFs circular sustainability. The team will collectively tackle the following objectives: (1) elucidation of fundamental design principles for engineering catalytic chemical processes in porous polymeric solids such as PUFs, (2) quantitative assessment of sustainability adoption and valorization with concomitant plastic “renewal-of-life” (ROL) predictive tools, and (3) engagement of underrepresented groups in engineering with mechanisms for community partnership that nurture eco- conscious global awareness.A systems-level approach will address depolymerization and valorization while providing engineering tools and metrics for advancing a national circular plastics economy for the elimination of end-of-life PUs and PUFs. Accelerated ideation of solutions and scenarios will be grounded in material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle assessment (LCA), sustainable enterprise models, economic models, social value assessment, and back-casting within the Planetary Boundaries framework. The team hypothesizes that depolymerization in a porous polymeric solid waste stream will be less energy intensive, offering faster kinetics and providing a purifiable waste stream that returns PUs/PUFs to the marketplace. This potential circular transformation requires fundamental understanding of chemical processes in microcellular (porous) solids, leading to the programmable engineering of microcellular structures and metamaterials for enhanced depolymerization kinetics and optimization of mechanical performance. In- situ monitoring will standardize processes from varied PU compositional waste, leading to refined product with platforms for precision foam manufacturing. PUFs offer highly visible societal impact, ranging from foamed mattresses and energy-saving insulation to textiles, footwear, automobile seating, adhesives and coatings, and life-saving biomedical products. Broadening participation activities will include partnership with local waste management systems, and community engagement with local high schools and community colleges with an emphasis on inclusion of indigenous and Hispanic communities. Adidas AG as a project partner will enable a “network-of-networks” approach that will leverage ASU's Sustainability Consortium. Mechanisms will be put in place to nucleate entrepreneurship, co-advise graduate students, provide student mentorship with consortium partners and student internships with industry, and engagement with ASU Biodesign Europe and partner institutions to nurture sustainability principles with global and cultural awareness.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.