Covestro, RWTH Aachen University Team in Finals for German President’s Award

A team from the materials manufacturer Covestro and RWTH Aachen University reached the finals for the German Future Prize with a new process for using CO2 as a raw material.

The award will be presented by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Nov. 27 in Berlin.

Dr. Christoph Gürtler and Dr. Berit Stange from Covestro as well as Prof. Walter Leitner, teacher and researcher at RWTH Aachen University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, are hoping for a victory. They have become instrumental in the development and market launch of technology for using the CO2 exhaust gas in plastics production.

The team has now presented the innovation to the public in Munich.

Covestro researcher Gürtler emphasized that the process makes a contribution to sustainability and resource conservation by partially replacing the conventional raw material crude oil with CO2 as a carbon supplier.

In addition, the reuse of CO2 contributes to the recycling economy.

Stange emphasized that this is a platform technology that allows the CO2 to be used for a wide range of high-quality plastics (polyurethanes).

“Chemical pre products with CO2 to produce soft foam for mattresses and upholstered furniture are already available on the market,” said Stange. At Covestro, she is responsible for recycling management in a managerial function and has played a decisive role in the marketing of the new technology.

“As alternative carbon sources, carbon dioxide, as well as plants and plastic waste, have the potential to revolutionize production in the plastics industry,” Covestro CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann said. “Covestro is a pioneer in this field. Fossil raw materials such as oil can no longer be the main resource of our industry if the world embarks on a more sustainable future.”

The use of CO2 took off with a breakthrough in catalysis research, as Prof. Leitner explained: “It takes a lot of effort for CO2 to form chemical compounds. The major challenge was to develop a tailor-made catalyst in order to control the reaction so that it is both economical and efficient.”

“Professor Leitner’s research activities on the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide are like a condensate of the excellence strategy of RWTH Aachen with the motto ‘Knowledge. Impact. Networks’, making them a prime example of our university, non-university and industrial research,” said Prof. Ulrich Rüdiger, rector of RWTH Aachen University. “Just as the university strategy describes the knowledge creation process and its transfer into integrated and interdisciplinary networks, Professor Leitner’s innovations create substantial knowledge that has an enormous impact on science, society and the climate.”