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Category: Innovation Bonds

Steel Gas Waste Gets a New Life as Polyurethane

A European consortium is exploring how flue gas from the steel industry can be used to create plastics in a more efficient and sustainable way. This new use for what has heretofore been a waste product of steel manufacturing will also reduce the need for crude oil in the plastics production process. The final polyurethane material can be used to make insulation and coatings.

Using a mixture of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide released during the steel production process, polyols that will later be used in the production of polyurethane materials can be created. Scientists have estimated that this will reduce the carbon footprint of this polyol production by 20 to 60 percent.