Battelle to research coal-to-PU foam production

Columbus, Ohio – Battelle Memorial Institute, a Columbus-based research group, has been awarded a grant by the US Department of Energy to develop a process that eventually would make polyurethane foam from coal.

Battelle, in collaboration with the Ohio Coal Development Office, will use research first developed in the early 1970s to make polyols from bituminous coal. 

It would also make low-sulphur fuel oil as a by-product. The coal to polyol process is solvent based. It was originally patented in 1974.

"This is an important project to illustrate the importance of employing a wide variety of approaches to use fossil fuels in an environmentally responsible way," Satya Chauhan, the project's principal investigator, said in a statement.

Battelle hopes the research project will confirm the commercial viability of a coal-to-high-value solid foam products process. 

Coal sells for about $50-$60 (€44-€53) per tonne, compared to the $5,000-$6,000 per tonne for PU foam products.