This study propounds a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based polyurethane (PU) foams, aiming to curtail this nonrenewable resource’s continued and uncontrolled use. Coconut fatty acid distillate (CFAD) and crude glycerol (CG), both wastes generated from vegetable oil processes, were utilized for bio-based polyol production for rigid PU foam application. The raw materials were subjected to catalyzed glycerolysis with alkaline-alcohol neutralization and bleaching. The resulting polyol possessed properties suitable for rigid foam application, with an average OH number of 215 mg KOH/g, an acid number of 7.2983 mg KOH/g, and a Gardner color value of 18. The polyol was used to prepare rigid PU foam, and its properties were determined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis/derivative thermogravimetric (TGA/DTA), and universal testing machine (UTM). Additionally, the cell foam morphology was investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), in which most of its structure revealed an open-celled network and quantified at 92.71% open-cell content using pycnometric testing. The PU foam thermal and mechanical analyses results showed an average compressive strength of 210.43 kPa, a thermal conductivity of 32.10 mW·m⁻¹K⁻¹, and a density of 44.65 kg·m⁻³. These properties showed its applicability as a type I structural sandwich panel core material, thus demonstrating the potential use of CFAD and CG in commercial polyol and PU foam production.

This study propounds a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based polyurethane (PU) foams aiming to curtail this nonrenewable resource's continued and uncontrolled use. Coconut fatty acid distillate (CFAD) and crude glycerol (CG), both wastes from vegetable oil processes, were utilized for bio-based polyol production for rigid PU foam application. The raw materials were subjected to catalyzed glycerolysis with alkaline-alcohol neutralization and bleaching. The resulting polyol possessed properties suitable for rigid foam application with an average OH number of 215 mg KOH/g, acid number of 7.2983 mg KOH/g, and Gardner color value of 18. The polyol was used to prepare rigid PU foam, and its properties were determined using FTIR, TGA/DTA, and UTM. Additionally, the cell foam morphology was investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) in which most of its structure revealed an open-celled network and quantified at 92.71% open cell content using pycnometric testing. The PU foam thermal and mechanical analysis results showed an average compressive strength of 70.59 kPa, thermal conductivity of 46.50 mWm-1K-1, and density of 32.79 kgm-3. These properties showed its applicability as thermal insulating foam, thus, demonstrating the potential use of CFAD and CG in commercial polyol and PU foam production.

Polyurethane coating has been widely used as a protective coating due to its wide range of mechanical strength, excellent abrasion resistance, toughness, low-temperature flexibility, and chemical resistance, simplicity in production and application, and superior protection on corrosion to mild steel. No studies have been reported utilizing coconut-based/PPG blend polyols to produce polyurethane-based protective coatings on mild steel. Therefore, in this work, we fabricated polyurethane-based protective coating using coconut-based/PPG blend polyols for anti-corrosion application. Due to low adhesion strength of Polyurethane-based protective coating, the incorporation of nano-fillers into the polymer matrix improved the adhesion strength of the coating due to its functional benefits and its effects gave rise to increased intermolecular bonding, hydrogen bonding, van der waals, magnetism, and surface energy. Therefore, we fabricated PANI/PU composite coatings with varied amounts of polyaniline nanoparticles on mild steel using coconut-based/PPG blend polyols exposed in 3.5 wt% NaCl aqueous solution for anti-corrosion application. Characterizations like Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Potentiodynamic Polarization (Tafel plot), contact angle, adhesion test, FESEM, XRD, and UV-VIS were used in this study. Tafel plot revealed that PU-based and PANI/PU composite coatings exhibited a significant reduction in corrosion current density (I_corr), perhaps due to the adsorption of inhibitor in the surface of the mild steel which reduced corrosion rate of the metal by retarding the anodic process and impeding the corrosive species from the surroundings. Among all fabricated coatings, 0.5-PANI/PU composite coating was the best, having a less corrosion rate of 5.66x10^-5 mmpy compared to others. In addition, its surface was more compact, smooth, rigid, and no voids present at the interface according to the result of FESEM, suggesting better corrosion protection to mild steel. Hence, PU-based protective coating and PANI/PU composite coatings using coconut-based/PPG blend polyols inhibited the penetration of the corrosive species and served as an adequate barrier protection against corrosion for mild steel.

Soil erosion, a global problem, degrades land quality and increases pollution and sedimentation in bodies of water. This study propounds a new material to mitigate soil erosion using rice straw-based polyurethane foam (RSPF) blocks as a potential replacement for commercially available expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam in slope stabilization. RSPF was synthesized via a conventional one-shot foaming method with 15% rice straw-based polyol content. The RSPF blocks have an average density of 43.29 kg/m³, average compressive strength of 184.55 kPa, closed cell content of 88.4%, and water absorption capacity of 262% that can effectively reduce water runoff. These properties are comparable to EPS foams according to ASTM D6817, except for the high absorption capacity of RSPF. This added feature allows the foam to act as topsoil protection by reducing runoff. In slope stabilization and topsoil protection applications, the effectiveness of the RSPF blocks in reducing soil loss was tested in both simulated and natural rainfall events with different land slope degrees, rain intensities, and soil covers. Results show that the use of RSPF in the simulated setup with a heavy rain intensity of 80 mm/h reduced the soil loss by 61.5%, 22.7%, and 4.3% in 5°, 10°, and 20° of land slope, respectively. There was also a higher degree of soil loss reduction when the RSPF block was coupled with a natural vegetation soil cover by 79.6%, 70%, and 19.3% in 5°, 10°, and 20° land slopes, respectively. Moreover, in the natural rainfall events in an open field with a land slope of 20°, the recorded soil loss reduction reached 93.6–98.8% at an average rainfall intensity of 16.26 mm/h. Additionally, the relationship between soil loss and land slope was investigated to produce a best fit model that predicts the soil loss up to a 20° land slope. An interesting observation was made wherein the erosion rate increased using linear regression modeling in the simulated setup for bare soil (BS), soil with vegetation (SV), soil with RSPF (SF), and soil with RSPF and vegetation (FV), with high coefficient of determination (R²) values between 0.92 and 0.99. These findings suggest that the RSPF block is a promising alternative and sustainable material for EPS foams in mitigating soil erosion, especially under heavy rainfall conditions.

Mild steels were the most frequently used materials in industries and factories since it possesses unique properties but due to weak environmental changes, these cause deterioration and corrosion to the materials’ surface. To prevent such, protective coatings were applied to protect against corrosion in which by incorporating titanium nanoparticles in polyurethane coatings. Titanium nanoparticles were synthesized using titanium butoxide as a precursor. The obtained nanoparticles were used as an inhibitor mixed with coconut oil-based polyurethane polyol blend against the corrosion on mild steel of 3.5% of sodium chloride solution which has been investigated using the Tafel polarization technique. The polarization curves of the corrosion potential for bare mild steel, along with different amounts of titanium nanoparticles coating, exhibit a positive shift. This shift indicates that the coating film effectively reduces the transport path for the corrosive solution, providing a protective barrier against corrosion. This observation is further supported by the results of the adhesive strength test, which demonstrates that the attachment of the coating films to the metal increases with higher amounts of titanium nanoparticles. This indicates improved adhesion and a stronger bond between the coating and the substrate, enhancing the overall corrosion resistance. The increase of contact angle test confirms the improvement of the coating’s hydrophobicity with the addition of titanium nanoparticles. This suggests that the coating repels water more effectively, further contributing to its protective properties against corrosion. Results also show that the addition of 4wt% of titanium nanoparticles has better anti-corrosion properties than the PU CCP alone, and 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0wt% of titanium added.

In this study, an eco-friendly coconut oil-based polyol blend was synthesized for bio-based waterborne polyurethane (WBPU) and WBPU-silane composite coatings. It was demonstrated that an increase in silane content incorporated into the WBPU matrix significantly enhanced the corrosion protection of WBPU coatings. Results also show a fourfold increase in the adhesion strength of WBPU-silane composite coatings as compared to that of bare WBPU coatings. Further, the water contact angle revealed that hydrophobic properties increase as the silane content incorporated into the WBPU matrix increases. This work provides a novel route for enhanced corrosion protection utilizing a bio-based polyol blend.