Covestro won the MATERIALICA Design Technology Awards 2018 at the eMove360 Europe 2018 in Munich, Germany, the international trade fair for mobile travel 4.0. With its world's first bio-based curing agent for lightfast polyurethane coatings, the company has successfully gained an advantage in terms of "CO2 efficiency".
Over the years, Covestro has increasingly used alternative raw materials for product production, while also reducing its dependence on fossil resources. Therefore, on this basis, the company, as a material manufacturer, fulfilled the growing interest in products and became a pioneer in sustainable development.
Improved ecological footprint
Hiep Tran, Biobased Curing Agent Project Manager, Covestro Coatings, Adhesives, and Specialty Chemicals explained: "Our curing agent is of the same high quality as its similar petrochemical products, and our curing agent biomass ratio is 70%. Compared with similar fossil products, its ecological footprint is 30% higher. "
In addition, its performance is also compatible, allowing manufacturers to use formulated coatings under their system at the lowest adaptive cost. Desmodur® ecoN coatings are also suitable for automotive, plastic, wood, furniture and industrial coatings.
Promising direct solutions
In addition to replacing raw materials, industries such as the automobile depend first and foremost on energy efficiency and the possibility of using existing processes and factories at competitive prices.
The polyurethane raw material Desmodur® eco meets all these requirements: the curing agent is produced from fermented feed corn, thus saving fossil resources. Compared with traditional products, several process steps are saved in the manufacturing process.
The first car painting work of the same series
Last year, a project team consisting of car manufacturers Audi, BASF's Coatings Division and Covestro achieved a new milestone: the Audi Q2 test car was successfully coated with a bio-hardener clear coating for the first time. The application was performed at the Audi Ingolstadt plant under similar conditions using existing systems. One of the cars was exhibited at the European Coatings Show in Nuremberg from April 4 to 6, 2017.
Desmodur® ecoN is just the beginning: Covestro is expanding its product range to include many variant materials with different characteristics, such as the recently launched water-soluble product Bayhydur® eco, which perfectly meets the needs of high-performance water-based coatings. At the same time, Covestro and its partners are working to develop the next generation of bio-based materials extracted from cellulose and biomass waste.