In industrial production, automobile driving and even daily life, a large amount of carbon dioxide is produced. According to incomplete statistics, billions of tons of carbon dioxide gas are emitted into the atmosphere every year. There is no doubt that this carbon dioxide will have a bad effect on the Earth's environment. As the main culprit in the global warming effect, carbon dioxide has not had a flattering image in recent years.

But is carbon dioxide really just trouble? And don't forget fizzy drinks, foam fire extinguishers and dry ice -- not to mention the vital role of photosynthesis in plant growth. Plants use photosynthetic pigments in the sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbohydrates -- the former providing the basis for life, the latter directly providing the energy source and "building material" for plant growth.

Carbon is an important element in the chemical industry, and the main component of a large number of chemical products is carbon. Is it possible, then, to use carbon dioxide as a "carbon source" to produce plasticized "building materials" like plants? In 1969, a Japanese scientist first proposed the idea of using carbon dioxide as a "dream material" -- converting carbon dioxide into CO2-based polymers for the production of plastics. The reason why it is called "dream raw material" is not only because of the low cost and abundant reserves of carbon dioxide, but also because it can greatly reduce the dependence on fossil raw materials such as petroleum in the plastics industry, so as to expand the scope of raw materials for the basic chemical industry and open up new sustainable development ways.

However, the carbon dioxide in the last link of the combustion chain, its chemical properties are very stable, and it is difficult to decompose under general conditions. In addition, its own energy content is very little, must be driven by high-performance catalysts, in order to achieve the conversion of carbon dioxide. Finding the right catalyst has been a challenge for more than 40 years.

Not long ago, the German manufacturer of advanced polymers and high-performance plastics, Costro, announced that it had successfully found a "super catalyst" that can convert carbon dioxide into a carbon source for industrial production, and the world's first factory using carbon dioxide to produce foam plastics was officially put into operation in Dormagen, Germany. Patrick Thomas, CEO of Covestro, said that carbon dioxide accounts for up to 20 percent of raw materials in the production process. The new technology polymerizes carbon dioxide with the raw materials used to make conventional foam, bringing it into the "industrial feedstock circle" while improving product performance.

In the plastics industry, polyurethane foam is widely used as shock-proof packaging materials, sound-absorbing materials and water-absorbing materials because of its elasticity. The main components of polyurethane are polyols and isocyanates. Under the action of a "super catalyst", carbon dioxide can break the chemical bond to become a carbon dioxide group, "embedded" in the polyol, polymerized into a polycarbonate polyol, and finally with the isocyanate to form a polyether carbonate polyurethane. Polyether carbonate polyurethane as the component of foam, mechanical properties, hydrolysis resistance, heat resistance, oxidation resistance, wear resistance, are higher than the traditional polyurethane materials.

In the past, the production of foam was completely based on petroleum as raw materials. With this new technology, carbon dioxide can replace 1/4 of the oil consumption. Coupled with the fact that the catalyst is not lost during production and the equipment is used once and for a long time, the carbon dioxide can be obtained cheaply from upstream companies such as coal-fired power plants. In the long run, the use of carbon dioxide as an industrial feedstock is not only greener than conventional technologies, but also commercially competitive. Covestro plans to produce 5,000 tons of polyether carbonate type polyurethane foam per year. In the next step, they are trying to scale up the technology to the entire plastics industry, which in the future could be completely free from dependence on oil.

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