Niklas Meine, Strategic Technology Manager at Covestro, spoke at the annual Biorizon-meeting at the Green Chemistry Campus in Bergen op Zoom. Covestro is one of the participants at the Biorizon-programme.
‘Sustainability is very important for our company. We look at it from the viewpoint of the entire chain: from feedstock to end-of-life. As for feedstocks, we are looking for biomass that ideally has the best environmental footprint. Therefore a project like Waste2Aromatics has our special attention. Nevertheless, we expect high performance chemicals and subsequent polymers for our polycarbonates and polyurethanes and the applications that are ultimately brought to the market.’
Marathon
Meine made it clear that, despite lower oil prices are low the relative abundance of fossil feedstocks, Covestro intends to explore and use more biobased chemicals. ‘There is definite need within the industry for biobased aromatic compounds, mainly because of environmental reasons, but also because of functionalities. Within Biorizon, various parties are running this marathon towards industrial production. This is also the best modus given the various expertise needed and derisking of scaling up.’
See also: website Covestro
