Polymers from CO2
22 Mar 2011
Bayer has started up a pilot plant at its Chempark Leverkusen site to turn CO2 emissions into feedstock for production of polyurethanes.
The chemicals major is working on the ’Dream Production’ project with energy company RWE, which supplies the CO2 used in the process.
Other project partners are RWTH Aachen University and the CAT Catalytic Center, which is run jointly by the university and Bayer.
The researchers recently achieved a breakthrough in laboratory-scale catalysis technology that makes it possible to put CO2 to efficient use for the first time, Bayer claims.
The €9 million (£7.6 million) project is receiving German federal funding of around €5 million. If the testing phase goes well, industrial production of polyurethanes based on CO2 should start in 2015.
The CO2 used in the project comes from RWE Power’s lignite power plant in Niederaussem outside Cologne, Germany. At its Coal Innovation Center there, the company operates a CO2 scrubber where the carbon dioxide is separated from the flue gas.
At the pilot plant, designed, built and run by Bayer Technology Services, kilogrammes of the carbon dioxide are used to produce polyols, one of the two components essential for the production of polyurethanes.
Bayer MaterialScience is testing these materials, which are used primarily to produce soft and rigid foams, at one of its existing plants.
The efficient use of CO2 is only possible because a suitable catalyst, for which experts had been searching for four decades, has finally been discovered.
Bayer researchers are currently testing the compatibility of the catalyst with CO2 from the RWE power plant.
