Always a step ahead in recycling

A key player in the industry, RAMPF Ecosystems (www.rampf-ecosystems.de) has been operating
the world’s first industrially usable plant for manufacturing polyols from PU flexible foam waste since April 2012. High-quality raw materials can thus be recycled for the foam manufacturing industry using the acidolysis process developed by RAMPF chemists.

A polyurethane and PET recycling specialist, RAMPF Ecosystems GmbH & Co. KG, based in Pirmasens, has been part of the RAMPF Group since 2003. Through its work, the Group is tackling the current challenges posed by dwindling resources. Ecosystems views polyurethane production residues and post-consumer PET from packaging not as waste but as valuable sources of raw materials. Special chemical methods are used to process these materials into polyols. Known as Recypols or Petols, these materials flow back into the polyurethane production chain. RAMPF Ecosystems has strengthened its commitment to system formulation in order to market the polyols produced from the core business more effectively. These high-quality products are used in a wide variety of industries.

The loss of valuable raw materials and high disposal costs resulting from waste materials in production processes are now a thing of the past. Thanks to innovative chemical processes such as the acidolysis process developed by RAMPF specialists in 1999, it has even been possible since April 2012 to recover polyols industrially from flexible slabstock foams and flexible moulded foams.

Since the start of 2012, RAMPF Ecosystems in Pirmasens has been recycling large quantities from renowned Memmingen-based  slabstock  foam manufacturer Metzeler Schaum.

Using the new process and innovative plant technology, RAMPF is expanding the potential of chemical recycling. The world’s first usable industrial plant was designed and completed as part of a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to develop industrial-scale acidolysis for flexible slabstock foams.

Skills networks are the recipe for success for groundbreaking innovations. That is why RAMPF  Ecosystems in Pirmasens, Metzeler Schaum in Memmingen, and Keil Anlagenbau  in Hunteburg  have worked closely with Fraunhofer ICT in Pfinztal. The result is a high-tech plant that offers a capacity of around 3,500 metric tonnes per year.

These types of plants can also be used on a decentralised basis to recycle raw materials directly at and by foam manufacturing companies. In these cases, RAMPF Ecosystems provides the chemical know-how and coordinates the plant engineering. Slabstock foam producers can therefore ensure cost-effective, sustainable production locally that helps deliver active environmental protection.

Who invented it?

The acidolysis process was researched intensively in 1994-97 in collaboration with Aalen University and developed further by RAMPF Ecosystems in the years that followed.

The initial positive findings from a joint research project on recycling TDI and MDI moulded foams were published in 1999. Applying the process to recycling flexible slabstock foams and processing secondary polyols on a technical service centre scale represented a further milestone and this was unveiled at UTECH 2009. In addition to further development of process engineering aspects, the process and plant technology for the acidolysis process was also optimised and implemented with technical innovations. RAMPF succeeded in scaling up tAir Jordans