Producing polyols

Natural materials such as sugar, glycerin and sorbitol have been used for many years now in the production of polyols – one of the two basic components in polyurethanes alongside isocyanates.

However, developers are currently working on a growing number of natural oil polyols (NOPs). They believe that these polyols, which contain a higher proportion of renewable raw materials, will continue to grow in importance as they are regarded as more sustainable than conventional materials based on fossil fuels.

For its part, Bayer MaterialScience has recently developed a new production process that is designed to produce NOPs for use in rigid polyurethane foams for insulating buildings, refrigerators and pipelines. The new process uses an ingenious method to merge two different chemical reactions in a single step.

'By combining the processes of alkoxylation and transesterification, we can produce polyols with a high content of vegetable oil components and yet deliver the same range of properties and the structural diversity of conventional polyols,' explained Dr Klaus Lorenz, a senior scientist at Bayer MaterialScience.