Achieving circularity for the vehicle life cycle is a much-heard goal in the automotive industry today. Looking at the various phases of design – manufacturing - maintenance – end of life, is there an area in which Huntsman is particularly focused?
Used in vehicles produced by some of the world’s best-known car brands, Huntsman’s polyurethane solutions can help support the sector’s sustainability ambitions, without compromising performance. Our MDI-based polyurethane solutions support lightweighting and can deliver enhanced comfort and durability in seating, interior trim, acoustic insulation, and composite panel applications. As part of our work, we are focusing on integrating feedstocks from post-consumer plastic and bio-circular waste streams, as well as bio-based products into the creation of our polyurethane systems. These inputs provide alternatives to petrochemicals that can help reduce the carbon footprint of end products. Looking at end-of-life scenarios for automotive materials, we are also working collaboratively across the industry to optimise design for recyclability and routes to dismantling and recovering materials so that we can implement our chemistry expertise and ultimately help to enable the circularity of polyurethane foams.
How important is a chain approach in achieving circularity within the automotive industry?
Everyone, from moulders and assemblers to automakers and scrap yards and recyclers, must align to identify the most economic solutions for full circularity. While Huntsman is working towards developing and supplying materials that can be readily recycled back into high-quality automotive parts, the ability to identify and recover those materials from vehicles at end-of-life is limited across the industry today. Another challenge is that even though new materials and assembly processes implemented today can help make new vehicles more recyclable, those vehicles may not come back in significant numbers for fifteen or more years. A forward-looking, long-term approach is therefore required.
What is the role of materials in achieving circularity in the automotive industry and how can Huntsman’s materials impact the environmental footprint of today’s vehicles? For example, are Huntsman’s materials suitable for circular design – designing vehicles for dismantlement at the end of life?
As well as helping vehicle manufacturers work towards their lightweighting objectives – to help improve range efficiency and reduce use emissions – polyurethane-based systems can help to support customers’ circularity ambitions. For example, more value can be created from advanced chemical recycling of polyurethane foams than is realized by many recycling options for foams available today. Huntsman Polyurethanes was among the first to pioneer polyurethanes’ chemical recycling technology developments back in the 1990s (when the division was part of ICI). Today, we continue to optimise our expertise in advanced chemical recycling and are working towards formulating with recycled materials. We are also developing mechanically recyclable foam that may be used to replace multiple components after their first life cycle. Introducing more mono-material solutions, which have the potential to be 100% recycled back into automotive parts, will help to support recycling and waste objectives in the industry, and we are working closely with industry leaders to bring these technologies to market.
What about the use of recycled materials in new vehicles – can they meet the strict standards that apply? In that context, is the use of 25% recycled content - as proposed by the European Commission - in a new vehicle feasible?
We have solutions in the market today that can include up to 20% bio-renewable and post-consumer recycled material, which can, in turn, help reduce the carbon footprint of polyurethane foam by up to 25%. These solutions meet multiple OEM specifications and have been rigorously tested. We are continuing to work with our automotive customers to make improvements to these technologies. As a team, we are also closely engaged in industry discussions to ensure that future legislation is defined in a way that takes into account all the benefits of recycled content and does not exclude bio-based feedstocks. This includes non-food-chain competitive materials that can be recovered from food production or other processes, which may prove more economical and reduce the carbon footprint of products more than post-consumer plastic alternatives. As a provider of solutions that can be made via the segregated-stream introduction of bio-renewable and recycled materials, we would also like to see new standards introduced to endorse mass-balance attribution. This would help further accelerate the adoption of higher levels of alternatives to fossil-based feedstocks in manufacturing.
What do you see as the most important obstacles to achieving a more circular plastics economy within the automotive industry? How can these be overcome?
Close cooperation between all players across the value chain will be a critical requirement to enable a circular plastic economy within the automotive industry.
Do you think the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation for the life cycle of vehicles is the right way forward?
We are currently witnessing the evolution of the vehicle powertrain with the transition to electric vehicles and the move towards material sustainability, which is encouraged by the Paris Global Climate Ambition. Europe is taking a leading position in this evolution, and its regulatory approach is helping to accelerate industry dynamics. It is very important to remember that any regulation, while being a catalyst, should also not limit an industry’s ability to select the best technological and economic routes towards success.
What do you think will be the most important trends and developments for plastic materials in the automotive industry in the coming years?
We’re seeing more automakers (OEMs) directly engage with material suppliers to evaluate new technologies with a focus on circularity and carbon footprint reduction. Bringing these new technologies to market is challenging while supply chains are underdeveloped and while introductory costs result in premiums that must be shared across the value chain. Harmonisation of standards globally by OEMs and regulators may spur on significant innovation in this space. However, doing so without working closely with material suppliers and manufacturers could result in economically unviable scenarios that force some players to withdraw from some markets. Financial incentives, while difficult for OEMs and governments in the short term, will spur the introduction and scale-up of technologies faster and more effectively than rigid restrictions, regulations, and specifications.
Are there any material innovations for the automotive industry your company can share?
We are taking a leading role in the industry, working towards using segregated-stream, post-consumer recycled and bio-based materials to manufacture polyurethane systems that may be used in flexible foams for applications such as seating and acoustics (under carpet, dash, bonnet insulation, wheel liners and headliners) and which can meet multiple OEM specifications. We’ve introduced similar materials into polyurethane resin systems that have been used by the industry to create interior semi-structural panels, battery lids and underbody protection components. We can also produce MDI based on mass-balanced bio-circular materials to help our customers reduce the attributed carbon footprint of the products they buy today without needing to reformulate. To enable this, our manufacturing facilities in both Wilton, UK and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, are ISCC PLUS certified. We are also developing both advanced chemical recycling methods as well as foams designed for 100% recycling back into automotive parts. We look forward to introducing these solutions with industry partners in the coming years.
Huntsman is exhibiting at UTECH Europe from 23-25 April 2024. On display at Huntsman’s exhibition booth (E10), is a range of polyurethane-based products that showcase sustainability in action.
