ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,698,376, issued on Aug. 4, was assigned to Evonik Operations GmbH (Essen, Germany).
"Depolymerization of polyurethanes under mild conditions" was invented by Jens Hildebrand (Johannesberg, Germany), Annegret Terheiden (Alpen, Germany), Natalia Hinrichs-Tontrup (Alzenau, Germany) and Walter Pfefferle (Langgoens, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention relates to an improved process for depolymerization of polyurethanes under mild conditions, wherein polyether polyols and polyamines can be recovered in high yields. The method is practiced by hydrolyzing a polyurethane by contacting with water in the presence of a base c...