In addition to mattresses, sports floors, and textile fibers, Covestro has also explored more applications where carbon dioxide is used in plastic production: now, foams in the automotive industry can also be partially produced using carbon dioxide to replace fossil raw materials such as crude oil. To this end, the Swiss company FoamPartner uses innovative cardyon® materials to produce foam for various areas of vehicle interiors.
Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer of Covestro, said: "We are now taking another important step towards the wider use of carbon dioxide as an alternative raw material for the chemical industry. By doing so, we are accelerating the transition to a circular economy. And support our positive growth momentum in recent weeks."
Michael Riedel, CEO of FoamPartner, added: “Innovative materials such as cardyon® are extremely important for the development and responsible production of sustainable foam. We are very pleased to work with Covestro to become one of the innovative leaders in the use of alternative raw materials. One."
In the future, FoamPartner will use OBoNatureTM as a new product line to sell sustainable foam. It will be laminated with textiles for use inside the vehicle. They will be mainly used in the roof, but will also appear in door panels and armrests and car seat covers. In addition to resource-saving production, the particularly low-emission foam also has the characteristics of longer service life and material resistance. In addition, due to their optimized lamination performance, they can reduce the material thickness while achieving a faster lamination process. This saves material and manufacturing costs.
Strategic orientation to ensure profitable growth
Technologies such as these have made significant contributions to the promotion of a circular economy, and Covestro is fully prepared for this. In addition to alternative raw materials such as carbon dioxide, biomass and waste, the focus is also on the development of innovative recycling technologies and the use of clean energy (such as wind energy) in production.
The long-term strategic positioning around innovation and sustainable development trends promotes Covestro's profitable growth. Although the coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact in the first half of 2020, the company's global demand has continued to rise steadily since mid-May. The sales volume in July has returned to the level of the previous year, and continued to maintain a positive trend in August. Therefore, Covestro expects an EBITDA in the third quarter to be approximately 350 million euros, compared with 125 million euros in the previous quarter.
Multifunctional applications accelerate the circular economy
Covestro has developed a new technology that can incorporate up to 20% of CO2 into so-called polyols. These are the key components of polyurethane, which is a versatile and versatile plastic. In this way, fossil raw materials are replaced, which makes Covestro make an important contribution to resource conservation. Since the carbon contained in carbon dioxide is recycled, the new process also supports circular economy.
Cardyon® brand carbon dioxide polyols have been used in many other applications. In addition to foams in mattresses and upholstered furniture, they have also been used as special adhesives for sports floor bottoms. Further research projects may also produce elastic textile fibers based on cardyon®. They can replace traditional oil-based elastic fibers, for example in stockings and medical textiles. Among other things, Covestro is working with several textile manufacturers to increase fiber production to an industrial scale and bring new fibers to the market.