Method of recovering polytetrahydrofuran derived from a polyurethane product

Abstract

There is provided a method for recovering a polytetrahydrofuran component from a first mixture comprising the polytetrahydrofuran component, a polyamine component and a chemolysis component, the method comprising the following steps in order: i)removing at least a part of the chemolysis component from the first mixture by distillation to form a second mixture; ii)mixing the second mixture with an acidic solution to form a split-phase mixture comprising a polytetrahydrofuran-rich phase and an acidic phase, and isolating the polytetrahydrofuran-rich phase; iii)mixing the polytetrahydrofuran-rich phase with an ion exchange compound to form a third mixture; and iv)filtering the third mixture to remove any solids to obtain a product mixture comprising the polytetrahydrofuran component.

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