Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Clifford C Duff

Robert J Salloum

A method if provided for continuously hydrolyzing urethane foam in a vertically oriented hydrolysis reactor. In a preferred practice, a bed of foam particles is formed in the reactor. Superheated steam is flowed continuously upward through the bed at a temperature and rate such that only the foam particles then adjacent the bottom of the reactor are hydrolyzed and the bulk of the bed is not fluidized. Unreacted steam heats the unhydrolyzed foam. Liquid hydrolysis products are drained as they are formed to prevent hydrolysis-impeding liquid saturation of unhydrolyzed particles.

Method for reclaiming polyurethane foam

Scrap polyurethane foam particles are intermittently fed into a high pressure hydrolysis reactor for recycling by means of a novel feed apparatus mounted on the reactor. The particles are air carried through a controlled inlet valve into the housing of the feed apparatus. The housing is lined with an open ended cylindrical perforated sleeve that retains a charge of particles but permits the air to be exhausted from the housing. An outlet valve is opened and a piston, reciprocative in the sleeve, pushes the particles through the housing outlet into the high pressure reactor. The piston is retracted, the outlet valve closed, and the cycle repeated.

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Warren, MI, United States of America

Clifford C Duff