Germany first uses carbon dioxide as an industrial raw material for the production of plastic materials
People's net, Germany Domargen June 17 (reporter Feng Xuejun) On the 17th, German advanced polymers and high-performance plastics manufacturer Costro held a global news debut in Dormagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, announced that it has successfully mastered catalytic methods, carbon dioxide gas can be used as raw materials for industrial production, for plastic-material production. Among them, the proportion of carbon dioxide used as raw materials is as high as 20%. Also on the same day, Covestro launched trial operations at a new plant in Dormagen dedicated to the production of foam using the technology. The plant plans to produce 5,000 tons of foam per year, marking the start of the technology's commercial use. Patrick Thomas, Covestro's chief executive, said carbon dioxide would be a key ingredient for everything from mattresses to upholstery in the future, and could wean existing plastics industries off their dependence on crude oil.
Polyurethane foam is widely used as shock-proof packaging, sound absorption and water absorption materials due to its elasticity and softness. The main components of polyurethane are polyols and isocyanates. Using this technology, polyols can be polymerized with carbon dioxide to a new polyether polyol carbonate under the catalysis of a special catalyst, and then with isocyanate to form polyurethane, and finally produce a new type of foam. In short, the technology can polymerize carbon dioxide with the important raw materials required for the production of plasticizing materials, and at the same time improve the performance of the final product, carbon dioxide becomes one of the production raw materials.
As early as 1969, Japanese scientists first proposed the idea of using carbon dioxide as a raw material for industrial production. However, how to chemically inactive carbon dioxide to participate in chemical reactions, to find a suitable catalyst has been difficult. Under the long-term funding of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Covestro and the Catalyst Center in Aachen have cooperated for many years in research and development, and successfully found the right catalyst in the first half of this year.