ABSTRACT
The Dow Chemical Company, 2301 N Brazosport Blvd., Freeport, TX, 77541
awsanders@dow.com
Abstract As part of the effort to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, The Dow Chemical Company has been developing a seed oil based polyol to be used as a replacement to conventional petrochemical based polyether polyols in the production of flexible polyurethane foam. The general process for making natural oil polyols consists of four steps. In the first step, a vegetable oil (triglyceride) is transesterified with methanol, liberating glycerin, and forming fatty acid methyl esters or FAMEs. In the second step the FAMEs are hydroformylated giving a complex mixture of FAMEs that contain 0-3 formyl groups per chain. In the third step, the aldehydes and the remaining unsaturates are hydrogenated to yield a mixture of FAMEs that contain 0-3 hydroxymethyl groups. Finally, the poly(hydroxymethyl)fatty esters are transesterified onto a suitable initiator to produce the natural oil polyol. Introduction The preparation of polyester polyols from seed oils for the production of a variety of polyurethane products has been previously reported (1,2). The development of process and product technology that is sufficiently robust to compensate for inherent variability in products derived from natural resources is key to successful implementation. Product variability is primarily due to genetic variety in feedstocks and seasonal inconsistency, such as regional rainfall totals or pests and disease. Process technology that may be applied to a wide variety of potential feedstocks would be highly desirable.
