Covestro and Fraunhofer UMSICHT signed a contract to build a pilot plant that uses "smart pyrolysis" to chemically recycle hard-to-recycle rigid polyurethane foam waste into high-purity recycled aniline (around 99% purity) for MDI production. The pilot is designed for 2 kilotonnes per year, roughly the insulation in 200,000 refrigerators, with operation targeted for mid-2028. Covestro says the resulting MDI can carry up to a 40% improved carbon footprint versus conventional MDI.
Rigid polyurethane foam (the insulation in refrigerators, freezers, cold-room panels and building elements) has historically been one of the hardest polyurethanes to recycle, because its cross-linked, thermoset structure does not melt and reprocess like a thermoplastic. Most end-of-life rigid foam has gone to energy recovery or landfill. A route that breaks the foam back down into a clean chemical building block is therefore a meaningful step toward circularity for exactly the segment that mattered least to earlier recycling efforts.
The chemistry is the notable part: smart pyrolysis targets recovery of aniline at around 99% purity. Aniline is a precursor on the path to MDI, so recovering it at high purity allows the recycled stream to feed back into isocyanate production rather than being downgraded into a lower-value material. Covestro frames the up-to-40% carbon-footprint improvement of the resulting MDI as the headline sustainability benefit.
This is a pilot, not commercial scale (2 kilotonnes per year and a mid-2028 operating target), so the immediate effect on supply is negligible. Its significance is directional: it signals that recycled-content MDI for rigid-foam applications is moving from laboratory concept toward demonstrated process, which is the kind of development insulation and cold-chain customers with sustainability targets will be watching.