The German manufacturer Covestro materials to work together to explore the possibilities of incorporating carbon dioxide into a rigid polyurethane foam. According to the news portal www.pro-ptr.ru, the company has said it aims to produce plastic components with CO2 content of not less than 20%. The rest will be supplemented with ethylene oxide (EO).

It is already used by the company for flexible polyols, however, CO2 and EO compounds can also be “feasibly be used for the production of polymer additives”, – is spoken in Covestro. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding research three-year project, which also includes the RWTH Aachen University and the Berlin University of Technology, along with the PSS Polymer Standards Service, Mainz, Germany, Puren from Überlingen, Germany, and the BYK Additives & Instruments in Geretsried, Germany .

Christophe Gurtlet, project coordinator and head of the research on catalysis Covestro, said: “Now we take the next step towards the creation of carbon dioxide as an alternative raw material in the chemical and plastics industry. With CO2 as a carbon source, we can do all the more and more without traditional fossil fuels, such as oil. “