Technology has taken a big stride forward. CO2 can replace fossil oil! Covestro, a company from Germany succeeds to produce industrial plastic material by CO2 from neighboring factories. He believes this new technology will be the future of sustainability.
.jpg)
Covestro built a new foam material factory in Dormagen, a town in Germany. Moreover, 20% of the plastic material was made from CO2. Compared to traditional material which based on fossil oil only, the new production technology had saved much proportion of using fossil oil. The technology used the carbon from CO2 to produce a new polyalcohol, which was the core constitution of Polyurethane Foam.
The new polyurethane foam was designed for mattress and upholstered furniture. In terms of quality, it was equivalent to the traditional material.
Patrick Thomas, CEO of Covestro said “We have to change our view to CO2. As one of the biggest challenge in this era, using CO2 as material to replace existing resources is the solution. In order to achieve “Closing Material Cycles”, we have found the new resource to substitute limited resources.”
BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) was the financial support during the developing stage. The state secretary of BMBF, Thomas Rachel emphasized that “Our vision of the future is sustainable development. The way using CO2 as raw material has great potential. The government of Germany also supports this technology, in order to expand the chemical industry. We have created a new method for sustainable development.”
Principle of Aachen University, Ernst Schmachtenberg said “Using inert gases such as CO2 effectively is really a challenge for science and technology. We have successfully integrated applied research with industrial practice to make a breakthrough.”
Once this CO2 made product also succeed in the market, Covestro will increase production capacity. Instead of Polyurethane Foam, the company also devoted to produce other plastic material from CO2. Their goal is one day we can avoid using fossil oil resource, which can make our earth better.
