The Leverkusen, Germany-based firm is looking to produce plastic components with a CO2content of at least 20 percent and the remainder coming from ethylene oxide (EO), Covestro said.
It is already being used in the company's cardyon for flexible foam polyols, however Co2– EO compounds could also “feasibly be used to produce additives,” Covestro added.
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the three-year research project with which RWTH Aachen University and Berlin University of Technology are involved, along with Mainz, Germany-based PSS Polymer Standards Service, Puren based in Uberlingen, Germany and BYK Additives & Instruments in Geretsried, Germany..
Christoph Gurtler, project coordinator head of catalysis research at Covestro, said: “We are now taking the next step on the way to establishing carbon dioxide as an alternative raw material in the chemical and plastics industry.
“With CO2as a carbon source, we can increasingly dispense with traditional, fossil sources such as petroleum. After successfully incorporating it in a key precursor to flexible foam, we are now tackling the next challenge.”
Covestro already developed the technology required to use CO2in elastomers.