Natural Oil-Based Rigid Polyurethane Foam Thermal Insulation Applicable at Cryogenic Temperatures

This paper presents research into the preparation of rigid polyurethane foams with bio-polyols from rapeseed and tall oil. Rigid polyurethane foams were designed with a cryogenic insulation application for aerospace in mind. The polyurethane systems containing non-renewable diethylene glycol (DEG) were modified by replacing it with rapeseed oil-based low functional polyol (LF), obtained by a two-step reaction of epoxidation and oxirane ring opening with 1-hexanol. It was observed that as the proportion of the LF polyol in the polyurethane system increased, so too did the apparent density of the foam material. An increase in the value of the thermal conductivity coefficient was associated with an increase in the value of apparent density. Mechanical tests showed that the rigid polyurethane foam had higher compressive strength at cryogenic temperatures compared with the values obtained at room temperature. The adhesion test indicated that the foams subjected to cryo-shock obtained similar values of adhesion strength to the materials that were not subjected to this test. The results obtained were higher than 0.1 MPa, which is a favourable value for foam materials in low-temperature applications.