German engineering plastics producer Covestro is expanding its work on using carbon dioxide (CO₂) as a feedstock and is developing a new manufacturing process for elastomers.

The work is part of the Dream Production project to develop a sustainable use for CO₂. A first plant to make a polyol with a 20% CO₂ content is expected to open this year at the Dormagen site.

Work on the elastomers process is being done in partnership with RWTH Aachen University and the Technical University of Berlin. Project manager Jochen Norwig, working in catalysis research at Covestro in Leverkusen, said the company was redoubling is efforts to develop cost-effective and climate-friendly production processes that use CO₂ has an element in high-performance plastics.

Covestro has already made individual batches of polyether carbonate polyurethane, which can be processed into elastomers, and is now focusing on developing a continuous commercial-scale route. Some 25% of the oil used to make the elastomer’s precursor can be replaced with the greenhouse gas.

Small-scale tests have already shown that the CO₂-derived elastomers have the same qualities as those made from petrochemical feedstocks. At the same time, Covestro said the new process has better energy efficiency and less solvent use. The company explained that because the technology uses less petroleum, there are fewer processing steps leading to a reduction in overall CO₂ emissions and energy consumption.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is providing funds of up to €1.5 million over the next three years as part of its r+Impuls (impetus for industrial resource efficiency) measure under the Research for Sustainable Development (FONA) program.