Volatile and semivolatile compounds from the pyrolysis and combustion of viscoelastic memory foam

Viscoelastic memory foam (VMF) is a polyurethane-based foam with additional chemicals to obtain a material showing both viscous and elastic behavior at the same time. This type of foam presents the ability to distribute the weight over all surface, being mainly used to manufacture mattresses and pillows in order to provide products which can prevent health problems related with the lack of sleep. The increase of sleeping disorders in the population has involved that the memory foam mattress market has grown 20% in the past eight years, meanwhile for the next three years the expected trend is to achieve the annual increase of 7%. Mattresses waste management is a big problem because of their high volume. They are not desirable items for landfilling and their recycling involves economic drawbacks. These facts, together with the high caloric value of this type of waste, make the waste-to-energy the best disposal option. To optimize this management method it is necessary to know the kinetics of the decomposition of VMF, which has been reported previously1, and the pollutant formation under different conditions. The present work aims to characterize the emissions from pyrolysis and combustion of VMF waste at different temperatures, mainly focusing on the analysis of gases, light hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs).Support for this work was provided by: Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sport; Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain) (CTQ2013-41006-R project); Valencian Community Government (Spain) (PROMETEOII/2014/007 project)