{"id":69404,"date":"2019-12-06T06:44:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T05:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=69404"},"modified":"2021-09-09T21:24:29","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T19:24:29","slug":"co2-innovation-in-the-limelight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/co2-innovation-in-the-limelight\/","title":{"rendered":"CO2<\/sub> Innovation in the Limelight"},"content":{"rendered":"

CO2<\/sub> instead of crude oil: A new method for the use of carbon dioxide as a raw material ranks among the year\u2019s best innovations in Germany. This helped a team from the materials manufacturer Covestro and RWTH Aachen to make it to the final round of the renowned German President’s Award for Innovation in Science and Technology, which was presented on Wednesday evening at a Gala in Berlin by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The new technologies make CO2<\/sub> usable in plastics production and thereby reduces fossil resources like petroleum.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"CO2
CO2 innovation in the limelight: Dr. Berit Stange, Prof. Walter Leitner and Dr. Christoph Guertler in the final round of German President’s Award, with German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (2nd from left), Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer of Covestro (2nd from right) and Dr. Markus Steilemann, CEO Covestro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTeam CO2<\/sub>\u201d, which made it among the three finalists and presented its innovation on stage in Berlin, consists of Dr. Christoph G\u00fcrtler and Dr. Berit Stange from Covestro, as well as Professor Walter Leitner, who teaches and performs research at RWTH Aachen and the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion. The trio played a major role in the development and market launch of this innovative method. The German President\u2019s Prize (or \u201cDeutscher Zukunftspreis\u201d) is handed out annually for outstanding achievements in technology and natural science that lead to market-ready products.<\/p>\n

\u201cInnovation is a perfect fit for the times\u201d<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe are very happy that we made it to the final round. The idea behind CO2<\/sub> innovation fits in perfectly with the times: Fossil sources such as crude oil can no longer be the industry\u2019s central resource if the world is heading towards a future that is low in greenhouse gases,” said Covestro CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann. \u201cThe award has encouraged us to continue working intensively on developing innovative solutions for greater sustainability in many areas. Together with partners from the business and scientific community, we will continue to forge ahead with the development of alternative resources such as CO2<\/sub>. As a chemicals and research location, Germany can make a name for itself in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contributing to resource conservation and circular economy<\/h3>\n

According to team spokesperson G\u00fcrtler, using CO2<\/sub> contributes to resource conservation by partially replacing the conventional raw material oil as the sole source of carbon. At the same time, it also makes it possible to produce more recyclable plastics whose components could be recycled more easily. In addition, the circular economy will benefit from the reuse of carbon dioxide. \u201cWe also see considerable potential for value creation by using CO2<\/sub>,\u201d stressed G\u00fcrtler, who is responsible for developing new methods and products at Covestro.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the new platform technology, CO2<\/sub> can be used to develop a wide range of high-quality plastics,\u201d explained Berit Stange. She is responsible for the circular economy in a leading position at Covestro and supports the marketing of the new method.<\/p>\n

Chemical precursors with CO2<\/sub> (polyols) are already on the market for producing soft foams (polyurethane) for mattresses and soft furniture. The new material cardyon\u00ae is now also used for sports flooring. Further areas of application include elastic textile fibers, insulation and car interior applications.<\/p>\n

Breakthrough in catalysis research<\/h3>\n

The use of CO2<\/sub> was conceived in a research breakthrough. The difficulty that CO2<\/sub> has in forming chemical bonds was a great challenge that was overcome. The solution was essentially found in a custom-made catalyst. It controls the chemical reaction so that it is environmentally friendly, economical and efficient.<\/p>\n

This breakthrough was achieved by experts from Covestro and the CAT Catalytic Center, a research institute jointly operated by the company and the RWTH Aachen. Experts had been searching for such a catalyst for decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CO2 instead of crude oil: A new method for the use of carbon dioxide as a raw material ranks among the year\u2019s best innovations in Germany. This helped a team from the materials manufacturer Covestro and RWTH Aachen to make it to the final round of the renowned German President’s Award for Innovation in Science […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[12330,11635],"supplier":[10858,98],"class_list":["post-69404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-ccu","tag-innovation","supplier-covestro-group","supplier-rheinisch-westfaelische-technische-hochschule-aachen-rwth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69404"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=69404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}