Thermolysis and analysis of TDI char by supercritical methanol using TGA, DSC, IR and SEM

TDI's synthetic plant generates about 5 mass % of tar by phosgenation process, which has been currently a bottleneck needed to be broken through for the worldwide TDI companies. At present, the reduction fraction of TDI tar is up to 48% relative to the mass of tar and renders the residue of solid crust known as TDI char. In this study, a suasive and effective reduction method has been found, the supercritical methanol is executed to depolymerize the TDI char, and in short, the char can be readily methanolyzed at supercritical state of methanol. With the outstanding depolymerization capability than various existing approaches, the destruction fraction can achieve 81 mass % at supercritical point. A best value as high as 95 mass % is first discovered at 270 °C, exceeding the efficiency at supercritical state. Characterizations of the intrinsic properties of raw char and char remnant after methanolysis have been implemented by TGA, DSC, FT-IR and SEM-EDS. For industrial applications, the diverse methodologies for recovering TDI or related components by alkaline hydrolysis, distillation, vacuum distillation and thermolysis are also discussed and compared with methanolysis in order to recognize the optimal abatement technique.