Fossil-based aniline production generates approximately 20 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually worldwide. To specifically reduce the carbon footprint of aniline production, Covestro uses a tailored microorganism in its bio-based process that converts industrial sugars from plant-based biomass into an intermediate product through fermentation. In a second step, chemical catalysis converts this intermediate into aniline with 100% plant-based carbon.

Continuous Fermentation Process: A Technological Breakthrough

Bio4PURConti aims to take this a step further: instead of the fed-batch method used so far, in which raw materials are added and product harvested in stages, the project targets a continuous fermentation technology for the first time. By using plant-based sugars, e.g. from hardwood biomass, it offers a renewable feedstock pathway. The resulting bio-based aniline is fully drop-in compatible with existing polyurethane value chains, meeting MDI specifications without requiring changes to downstream processes, making it a powerful lever for defossilization well beyond the chemical industry itself. The project scales from lab to 1.5 m³ semi-industrial demonstration at Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant (Ghent) and Covestro (Leverkusen), integrating cell recycling, real-time analytics and downstream processing. Key objectives include higher space-time yields and significant improvement in product carbon footprint.

"Bio4PURConti is a landmark project – not just for Covestro or the aniline market, but for the entire field of industrial biotechnology," says Dr. Markus Dugal, Head of Process Technology at Covestro. "Demonstrating continuous fermentation at semi-industrial scale for a high-volume raw material like aniline will set a new benchmark for what biotech processes can achieve in the chemical industry. Biology and engineering, when combined at scale, can fundamentally reshape how we produce the materials the world depends on."

A Consortium Driving European Biotech Leadership

The 10-partner consortium, spanning 7 countries, brings together leading industrial and academic organisations: Covestro Deutschland AG (Germany), Fibenol Imavere OÜ (Estonia), University of Stuttgart (Germany), Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant VZW (Belgium), Center for Advisory Systems in Technology, Dortmund e.V. – ZEDO (Germany), Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU (Norway), Axel'One (France), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (Finland), Cluster Industrial Biotechnology – CLIB (Germany), and Asociación Española de la Innovación en el Marketing y la Inversión Sostenible – AEIMIS (Spain).

The project has a total budget of €8.4 million, with €7 million in EU funding, and runs for 42 months. Together, the consortium aims to significantly reduce the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) of aniline in the future. As one of the world's leading aniline producers with a production capacity of over one million tonnes per year, Covestro is uniquely positioned to drive this transformation towards a more sustainable aniline production.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
This project has received funding from the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101292477.

The project is supported by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking and its members.

The new compressor operates on the principle of a heat pump: Water vapor is generated during the production processes for TDI, a component of flexible foam. Covestro requires steam for many production processes, but the steam produced during TDI manufacturing is not hot enough. Therefore, some of it is released into the environment as waste heat. The compressor raises the steam to a higher temperature and pressure level, making it suitable for use in production processes.

“Energy efficiency is a key lever for transforming our production towards climate neutrality and a circular economy. The principle is: the less energy we need, the better,” says Thorsten Dreier, CTO of Covestro. “That’s why we’re using every opportunity to make our production even more energy-efficient with modern, innovative process technologies.” From 2005 to 2022, Covestro already reduced its energy consumption by around 40 percent. The next goal: By 2030, the company aims to consume 20 percent less energy per ton of product produced than in 2020.

This project is part of an energy efficiency strategy with which Covestro is driving its transformation to climate-neutral production. As part of the master plan, the company is continuously searching for further potential energy efficiency measures. “With these projects, we are not only reducing our CO₂ emissions, but also saving on energy costs,” says Andreas Doerfer, Global Energy Excellence Manager. “To achieve our energy efficiency target, we must utilize all available options for using the waste heat generated in our processes to manufacture our products.”

Following the installation of an energy-efficient reactor at the TDI plant last year, the new compressor for the Dormagen site is the next major project to future-proof the location: “This investment clearly demonstrates Covestro’s long-term belief in the Dormagen site and its commitment to investing here,” says Philip Bahke, Head of Operations in Dormagen and North Rhine-Westphalia.

Construction is scheduled to begin at the end of this year, with the compressor expected to go into operation in mid-2027.

Across industries, companies must increasingly demonstrate sustainability progress to meet market requirements, Scope 3 reporting needs, and comply with growing regulatory requirements. ”The CQ-Configurator supports these needs by enabling rapid, data-based environmental performance assessments and by improving transparency along the polyurethane value chain.”, said Patrizia Wegner, VP Sales Flex Foam EMLA, Covestro.

“Companies can now compare material choices and reach their desired product sustainability profile in just a few clicks — eliminating the need for time-consuming calculations and lengthy alignment processes”, said Dennis Wagner, Marketing Manager Soft Furniture, Covestro.

From data to decisions: Making sustainability tangible

The CQ-Configurator intuitively allows users to select between flexible or rigid foam applications — such as mattresses, insulation panels, or even special formulations — define technical properties and specify shares of mass-balanced isocyanate and polyol options. The tool then calculates the associated CO₂ impact and sustainable material share of each formulation scenario.

By translating formulation choices into clear, application-specific sustainability results, the CQ-Configurator provides companies with a transparent fact base to support internal decision-making. It enables rapid comparisons of different material options with exportable results that facilitate cross-functional alignment and customer discussions. At the same time, the tool links material choices to market-relevant sustainability benefits, supporting both product development and marketing strategies.

Designed for broad industry use

The tool supports various professional roles involved in product development, including R&D specialists, procurement teams, sales managers, marketing professionals, and sustainability experts. Its intuitive interface ensures that both technical and non-technical users can leverage the insights effectively.

“As sustainability becomes a key differentiator across markets such as bedding, furniture, construction, and appliances, the CQ-Configurator helps companies to make informed choices that align product performance with economic considerations,” added Dennis Wagner.

With the launch of the CQ-Configurator, Covestro is the first European PU materials supplier to offer a comprehensive digital sustainability assessment tool focusing on multiple polyurethane foam applications. Built on third-party verified raw material LCA data¹ and long-standing PU expertise of Covestro, the tool provides transparent and credible sustainability metrics that support informed decision-making across the value chain. The company continues to expand its digital portfolio to support customers in meeting their sustainability targets.

For more information and to request a demo, please visit the CQ-Configurator landing page.

_{1 Methodology for LCA data calculation certified by TÜV Rheinland}

For Schleswig-Holstein, the project represents an important step on the path to climate-neutral transformation of the state. This was emphasized by Tobias Goldschmidt, Minister for Energy Transition, Climate Protection, Environment and Nature of the state, at the groundbreaking ceremony: “The energy transition is Schleswig-Holstein's project of our time. The rapid expansion of renewable energies is a booster for our business location Schleswig-Holstein and makes future-oriented projects like the heat battery possible in the first place. Covestro and Rondo impressively demonstrate how they are driving the energy transition forward with innovative strength, technological know-how, and full confidence. Projects like this contribute significantly to energy sovereignty and to achieving our climate neutrality goals.”

The 100 MWh Rondo Heat Battery (RHB) is scheduled to go into operation by the end of 2026. Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are supporting the project. The battery will produce ten percent of the required steam at the site, saving up to 13,000 tons of CO₂ emissions per year.

"As an innovation company, we are always excited when we can further develop and test promising ideas that can bring us closer to our goals of a circular economy and climate-neutral production," says Dr. Thorsten Dreier, CTO of Covestro. "The heat battery is such an idea: a new technology that enables us to take another step forward on our path to a sustainable future."

The Rondo Heat Battery combines centuries-old materials with modern automation: electrical energy is stored in the form of heat – with the help of bricks that have been used as heat storage in steel mills for centuries. The heat drives an ordinary boiler that delivers emission-free steam. With electricity from renewable energy sources, a constant amount of steam can thus be continuously generated.

“This project shows how two of Europe’s central challenges can be solved together,” said Eric Trusiewicz, CEO of Rondo Energy. “As renewable power expands, it increasingly creates daily periods of abundant, low-cost electricity. At the same time, European industry needs reliable, affordable energy to remain competitive. Together with Covestro, we are demonstrating that clean industrial heat can be both highly reliable and a powerful tool for balancing the grid — while building the energy infrastructure needed to strengthen Europe’s industrial base and energy security.”

For Covestro, steam generation is an essential part of the production process and accounts for a large portion of energy consumption. The steam at the Brunsbüttel site is currently still generated with natural gas. Based on the experience with using the Rondo Heat Battery in Brunsbüttel, Covestro is evaluating whether deployment on a larger scale is possible.

Read more here ›

"With our automated laboratory, we can work together with our customers on the future of coatings and adhesives. Because it operates almost completely autonomously and learns from our existing knowledge and data lake as well as newly generated data, it makes the process of optimizing and developing formulations many times more efficient and precise. This allows us to optimize existing formulations faster or even develop completely new formulations for and together with our customers. We can say: We are reaching a new level of modern research," says Thomas Büsgen, head of the laboratory.

Testing Formulations with Covestro Binders and Crosslinkers 

Specifically, the new laboratory will test formulations with Covestro binders and crosslinkers for coatings and adhesives. Their clever selection ensures properties such as hardness, adhesion, opacity, gloss, or durability. Such formulations typically consist of seven to 15 components, whose combination determines the properties of the final product. The resulting high number of possible combinations means that standard formulations are usually used. The new laboratory now enables more extensive test series, also thanks to the computer-aided design of test series and the use of automation.

"Our new automated laboratory gives us more possibilities for testing formulations. It relieves our specialized laboratories of their standard tasks and can analyze samples more systematically. This allows us to focus our expertise and experience even more on customer-specific topics or try approaches we couldn't have implemented otherwise," says Martin Merkens, Head of Sales & Market Development EMLA in Covestro's Coatings and Adhesives business entity. “This will particularly help us in the area of circular economy: Alternative raw materials, for example bio-based or recycled materials, can be tested faster and evaluated for their properties in the final product.”

Facility to Run Tens of Thousands of Tests Annually 

The new facility can operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The goal is to run tens of thousands of tests annually. This sets a new standard in terms of number, variety, precision, and testing speed. Another advantage: The automated laboratory generates a large amount of structured data. The knowledge about formulation possibilities and influencing factors thus will grow rapidly. The collected data, combined with measurement data from existing studies, is evaluated using special machine learning algorithms to further improve formulations. Artificial intelligence is also used to predict new experiments based on property goals and simultaneously verify them in the automated laboratory – creating a self-learning system.

In addition to formulating water- and solvent-based 1K and 2K systems, the automated laboratory also performs numerous material tests on the raw materials themselves, their formulations, and applied films. Application can even take place in different climates in the lab to simulate product use under application conditions. The progressing laboratory digitalization across Covestro also enables easy forwarding of generated samples to more specialized testing laboratories. This makes it possible to supplement the datasets with market-specific test results and identify relevant dependencies more quickly.

Covestro at European Coatings Show 2025 in Nuremberg 

At the European Coatings Show from March 25-27 in Nuremberg, experts from application development and segments such as automotive, printing & packaging, or construction & architecture will be present to discuss new, joint approaches made possible by the laboratory with customers. Visit the company's booth in Hall 4A, Stand 438. There you can learn more about the laboratory and other innovative material solutions and technical developments for the coatings and adhesives industry.

Follow further updates on this topic here. 

"The successful completion of this project shows that climate protection and competitiveness can go hand in hand," says Dr. Philip Bahke, Head of the North Rhine-Westphalia Site Network. "The modernized plant sets new standards in energy efficiency and underlines our path toward climate-neutral production. In light of persistently high energy costs, the project significantly strengthens the competitiveness of TDI production in Europe. My special thanks go to the entire project team, who professionally implemented this complex modernization during ongoing operations."

More Efficient Processes for More Sustainable Products

The modernized plant consumes 80 percent less energy than conventional processes, achieving a CO₂ reduction of 22,000 tons per year. This is made possible by a new reactor weighing over 150 tons (330,700 lbs) and almost 20 meters (65.6 feet) high, which uses the generated reaction energy for steam production. Covestro started the modernization in summer 2023. In total, the project installed over 3.5 kilometers of new pipelines, around 14 kilometers of cables, and hundreds of new equipment, valves, and monitoring instruments in the plant.

"In Dormagen, we operate Europe's largest TDI production plant. With the successful modernization, we can now offer our customers TDI with an even better carbon footprint," explains Dr. Christine Mendoza-Frohn, Head of Sales Performance Materials for the EMEA and LATAM regions. "This supports our customers in achieving their own sustainability goals and strengthens our position as a reliable partner for climate-neutral and circular solutions."

New Global Energy Efficiency Targets Presented

During the event, Covestro also presented its new, ambitious energy efficiency target for global production. The company targets a 20 percent reduction in CO₂ emissions from energy use per ton of product by 2030 compared to 2020, underlining the central importance of energy efficiency as a lever for achieving operational climate neutrality by 2035. The Dormagen TDI plant, with its annual capacity of 300,000 tons, serves as a prime example of the successful transformation of existing production facilities toward greater energy efficiency.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) has supported this modernization through its federal funding program for energy and resource efficiency.

Further press release:

• Covestro publishes energy efficiency target ›

The climate impact of Covestro in the manufacture of its products can be assessed using the product carbon footprint from cradle to gate, which can now be calculated automatically for about 50,000 finished products. The methodology for the automated calculation of life cycle assessment (LCA) of Covestro including the product carbon footprint (PCF) is certified by TÜV Rheinland. It complies with relevant ISO standards and Together for Sustainability (TfS).

“Digitalization enables us to gather and process larger data sets automated, while reflecting timely changes at our production sites. No more manual Excel lists and manual calculations. This increases efficiency and makes annual data updates easier. Only through digitalization we can access and analyze real data efficiently enough,” says Dr. Torsten Heinemann, Global Head of Group Innovation and Sustainability. Digitalization is also the basis for data sharing along the value chain. For example, the data from Covestro tool may be integrated into exchange platforms like Catena-X or SiGreen to enable a harmonized data exchange with partners up- and downstream.

Covestro calculated LCA data for products

Covestro determines the specific product carbon footprint and further environmental impact categories for its products. Covestro will provide its customers with LCA data on the products in sale, thereby contributing to emissions assessments and potential subsequent emissions reductions on the customers’ side.

With this milestone achieved, Covestro demonstrates its willingness to walk towards full circularity and climate neutrality by improving data accuracy. Raw material impact data are collected directly from suppliers or are taken from external databases, while other input data, such as energy consumption and waste, are sourced from company Enterprise Resource Planning systems, such as SAP. In addition to the carbon footprint, Covestro offers five other environmental impact categories that the company considers to be key, amongst others the acidification- or photochemical ozone creation potential.

“We announced in Summer 2023 that we started the process. Within this year, we will have data for the around 50,000 products, based on our present product portfolio. They will be updated annually from now on. This means we are going beyond the current market standard and demonstrating our leadership in driving this topic forward” says Heinemann.

Partnership essential to boost Circular Economy

Across the entire value chain, collaboration and partnerships are crucial to achieve meaningful progress, especially in the exchange of vital data. Covestro relies on its suppliers to provide detailed information on the environmental impact of their products, while customers depend on Covestro to deliver accurate data for their own LCA calculations. Beyond individual exchanges, partnerships with industry initiatives such as TfS are essential to establish standardized methods in chemical industry, enabling this data becomes more comparable across companies.

Covestro is sharing data to drive the entire value chain towards a circular economy. By calculating LCAs and increasing transparency, all stakeholders can collaborate more effectively to identify opportunities for reducing environmental impact—especially greenhouse gas emissions—and advancing sustainability goals. Transparency is key to fostering these partnerships. A seamless exchange along the value chain enables access to more detailed and reliable data, supporting informed decision-making and sustainable progress.

After three successful years as head of Performance Materials Operations APAC, Dr. Yun Chen will assume the role of production head for Covestro's European sites starting in February. The chemical engineer, who earned his doctorate in Germany, began his professional career at the Krefeld-Uerdingen site. With more than three decades of experience in various positions at Covestro and Bayer, Chen brings not only technical expertise but also comprehensive international industry knowledge and long-standing leadership experience.

"I would like to sincerely thank Daniel Koch for his excellent work and commitment over the past years. I wish him all the best for his future career," says Hermann Dörholt, Head of the Performance Materials Business Entity at Covestro. "At the same time, I am delighted to welcome Yun Chen in his new role as head of our production in Europe. His leadership skills, comprehensive industry knowledge, and not least his impressive achievements as production manager in the Asia-Pacific region make him the ideal candidate for this important position. With his many years of experience and international perspective, I am confident that Yun will successfully guide and develop our European sites through the current challenges."

Focus on Safety, Reliability, and Efficiency

"The chemical industry in Europe faces numerous challenges and, like Covestro, is in the midst of a transformation. In the coming years, we will make our production even more reliable and efficient and drive the transition to climate neutrality and a circular economy. I look forward to tackling these challenges together with our dedicated team. The current developments also offer numerous opportunities, for example through the increased use of digitalization and artificial intelligence," says Chen.

"I want to bring in my experiences from Asia while also benefiting from the expertise of our European colleagues. I am particularly focused on the safety of our employees and production facilities. It therefore remains the foundation for our daily actions," Chen adds.

Long-standing Experience at Covestro

In his nearly 30 years of experience, Dr. Yun Chen has held numerous leadership positions within the group. After studying chemical engineering in Beijing and Shanghai, Chen earned his Ph.D. at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt. In 1994, he began his career with Bayer AG at the Krefeld-Uerdingen site. Here, he took on various positions with increasing responsibility.

In 2001, Chen moved to Shanghai, where he helped build up polycarbonate production as plant manager and from 2008 took over production and technology management for the corresponding business unit. In 2017, Chen was appointed Senior Vice President and Head of Covestro Integrated Site Shanghai (CISS), the company's largest single production site worldwide. Most recently, in 2021, he took on the additional role of Production Manager Performance Materials Asia Pacific.

“Trust, fairness, and equality are central values for us as an employer. By publishing salary ranges in our job postings, we demonstrate that we live by these values, take the concerns of applicants seriously, and promote an open and fair dialogue,” says Sophie von Saldern, Global Head of Human Resources at Covestro. The company’s existing workforce also benefits from this transparency, as salary bands are accessible internally.

Benefits for All: Greater Efficiency, Transparency, and Fairness

This new approach goes beyond positioning Covestro as a transparent and fair employer – it fundamentally transforms the entire recruitment process. The initiative was initially piloted in engineering roles, where there is a significant skills shortage. The positive results from the pilot encouraged Covestro to extend the publication of salary ranges to all job advertisements.

“We’re already seeing early indications of increased application numbers. At the same time, the recruitment process is becoming more focused, and we’re receiving positive feedback from candidates. Applicants are assessing themselves within the salary range based on their qualifications and experience, which leads to more efficient and transparent discussions,” reports Dr. Ute Breitsohl, Head of Employer Branding & Recruiting in Germany.

Job seekers benefit from this transparency in several ways: Entry-level professionals gain clear guidance on salary expectations.
Experienced professionals can recognize the value placed on their expertise and directly discuss opportunities for development, including financial ones.
Women, who often undervalue themselves in salary negotiations, benefit from clear salary bands. For all profiles, the disclosure of salary structures allows applicants to immediately determine whether a position is financially attractive and suitable. “Our goal is to create a fair and open basis for discussion right from the start. In this way, we contribute even more to an application process at eye level,” explains Dr. Breitsohl. “The positive response from applicants confirms that our transparent approach creates trust. This enables us to focus more on development prospects and career goals in interviews.”

This initiative strengthens Covestro's position as an attractive employer. At the same time, Covestro is actively sending a signal to the labor market to raise awareness of the gender pay gap. “Only if salary ranges are disclosed transparently and comprehensibly can comparability be achieved across gender boundaries. With this step, Covestro is setting new standards for fairness and equality in the world of work,” Breitsohl continued.

Early Implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive

By publishing salary ranges in job postings, Covestro is preemptively fulfilling a requirement that will become mandatory for many companies in Germany by 2026. The forthcoming EU Pay Transparency Directive will oblige employers to disclose salary information during the recruitment process.

Sophie von Saldern, Global Head of Human Resources at Covestro, highlights the strategic intent behind this move: “We see publishing salary ranges not just as preparation for future legal requirements but as a strategic tool to strengthen our employer brand. The collective bargaining agreements in the chemical industry already provide attractive conditions—our additional transparency creates a win-win situation for applicants and our company.”

More targeted applications, positive feedback from departments, fewer time-consuming salary negotiations, and greater fairness: these indicators underline the success of this initiative and Covestro’s leadership role in promoting transparency and fair working conditions.

Interested candidates can find all current job postings with corresponding salary ranges on Covestro’s career page at www.career.covestro.com. The website also provides further information about Covestro as an employer and the diverse development opportunities within the company.

The film documents the development of the innovative solar racing car “Covestro Adelie” and the participation of the team of around 50 students in the Bridgestone Solar World Challenge 2023 in the Australian outback. Using state-of-the-art technology and innovative high-performance materials from Covestro, the students have designed an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly racing car. The solar racer paves the way for the development of environmentally friendly vehicle technologies.

From design to the race track

The documentary follows Team Sonnenwagen from the design of the “Covestro Adelie” through to qualifying and then the race across Australia. In addition to the technical aspects of the racing car, the documentary also focuses on the emotions, challenges and tireless team spirit behind this ambitious project. In addition to the interviews with the dedicated students, numerous experts also have their say, including the renowned science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar, the Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport in NRW, Oliver Krischer, the former Opel boss and CEO of Continental, Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, and Sucheta Govil from Covestro.

Available online on YouTube

“We are extremely proud that there is a documentary about our team and the great work of the past two years. This project is so important because it can play a small part in solving an important sustainability problem - greenhouse gas-neutral mobility,” says Sonnenwagen team leader Leonie Brandt.

The documentary “SONNENWAGEN - Future Mobility” will be available online on Team Sonnenwagen's YouTube channel from August 27, 2024 at 6:15 p.m. The trailer is already available HERE.

The Breakthrough Energy Catalyst foundation set up by Bill Gates and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are supporting this installation of the Rondo RHB100 heat battery, which is scheduled to begin operation at Covestro’s Brunsbüttel site at the end of 2026. The project will then produce ten percent of the steam required at the site, saving up to 13,000 tons of CO₂ emissions per year.

Rondo Heat Batteries combine century-old materials and cutting-edge automation to capture electricity and deliver high-temperature heat and power. Electrical energy is stored as heat, using bricks that have been used for heat storage at steel mills for centuries. The heat powers an ordinary boiler to deliver zero-emission steam. Renewable electricity can be intermittently stored when there is an excess available and a constant amount of steam can still be generated continuously.

"As an innovation company, we are always excited when we can further develop and test promising ideas that can bring us closer to our goals of a circular economy and climate-neutral production," says Dr. Thorsten Dreier, CTO of Covestro. “The heat battery is such an idea: a new technology that allows us to go one step further on our way to a sustainable future.”

“Rondo Heat Batteries deliver deep decarbonization by changing the fuel, not the factory,” said Eric Trusiewicz, CEO of Rondo Energy. “We’re honored to be working with Covestro to prove our safety, reliability, and efficiency under real conditions on a large scale over a long period of time. And we’re excited to be deploying in Brunsbüttel, where large flexible electricity loads are particularly valuable to the electricity grid.”

For Covestro, steam generation is an important part of the production process and accounts for a large proportion of energy consumption. The learnings from this first heat battery installation will provide experience and insights for Covestro to be able to assess whether larger-scale deployments are possible.

Covestro is already making an important contribution to more sustainable vehicles and infrastructure with innovative material solutions. In this context, the company is also working in close partnership with Team Sonnenwagen, a team of around 50 students from RWTH Aachen University and Aachen University of Applied Sciences. It is dedicated to developing racing cars that are powered solely by the sun. Covestro shares the students' enthusiasm because the racing cars, with their high efficiency and use of new technologies and materials, are a powerful symbol of the mobility of the future. That is why Covestro is supporting the team as the main sponsor with material solutions and technical exchange for another two years.

"In order to create a climate-neutral and circular mobility of the future, business, politics and society must pull together. At Covestro, we are contributing to this transformation by offering the automotive industry raw materials based on biomass or recyclates and manufacturing our products as energy-efficiently and with as few emissions as possible," said Dr. Thorsten Dreier, Chief Technology Officer, during the discussion. "At Covestro, we want our production to be climate-neutral by 2035 and are relying on energy from renewable sources and innovative process technologies to achieve this."

Covestro's material developments focus on solutions for the major trends of electromobility, autonomous driving and the need for individualization. These include material solutions for compact, powerful and safe batteries for electric cars and robust charging systems, plastics for connected mobility and the Internet of Things, as well as various products for aesthetic and functional automotive interiors and exteriors.

Covestro has been supporting Team Sonnenwagen in the development of ever more efficient solar racing cars since 2017. The students are working together in a wide range of disciplines to improve the aerodynamics, optimize the chassis and install a particularly efficient photovoltaic system and battery. Participants at the NRW Mobility Day were able to take a look at the Covestro Photon, the predecessor model to the current Adelie racing car, and talk to team members. With the Photon, Team Sonnenwagen became European champion at the European solar race in Zolder, Belgium, in September 2022.

This site of Epurex Films, a wholly owned subsidiary of Covestro, houses research & development, application development and production for the semi-finished products. The company has invested a low double-digit million Euro amount in the expansion of the center of excellence for TPU-Films.

The new capacity is intended to meet the growing global demand for multilayer TPU films. They are used in automotive interiors and construction, among other applications. Breathable, water-impermeable specialty films have also proven their worth in wound care and outdoor clothing.

"With this capacity expansion, we are strengthening our Bomlitz site and our position as a leading supplier of technical specialty films," said Dr. Thorsten Dreier, Covestro's Chief Technology Officer, at the inauguration. "At the same time, we are investing in promising technologies and applications and creating new jobs."

For Aleta Richards, global head of the Specialty Films business entity, the expansion offers opportunities to respond even better to individual customer needs and offer more sustainable products. "For some time now, we have also been developing customer-specific solutions with films made from alternative raw materials, as we are also seeing increasing demand in this area. The development and production of partially biobased products is therefore to become a new focus at the Bomlitz site."

Covestro is fully geared toward the circular economy and aims to become climate-neutral by 2035. In 2022 the Bomlitz site has switched its power supply completely to green electricity. Epurex Films is one of Covestro's three competence centers for specialty films in Germany, along with Leverkusen and Dormagen.

"With our multi-layered campaign, we are pursuing the goal of establishing contacts with many partners to advance the industry on its path to climate neutrality and the circular economy," explains Dr. Christian Haessler, one of the two project managers for K 2022 at Covestro. "This communicative 360° approach was also expressed in the motto of our appearance at K 2022, 'Crafting Connections With You'." The Red Dot label has established itself internationally as one of the most coveted seals of quality for good design.

Rüdiger Maeßen, CEO Europe at Uniplan, is equally positive: "The good co-creative collaboration and the innovative concept were fundamental to the success of this holistic campaign. Together with Covestro, we have driven the circular economy agenda in the industry by creating an authentic exchange on multiple channels. Therefore, we are even more pleased that the sustainable campaign approach not only convinced the global target audience, but also the jury of the Red Dot Award."

Creating connections with digital platform

In order to connect with target groups around the world at an early stage and offer them a holistic, long-term experience as a "home base," Covestro and Uniplan designed a digital event platform called "SPACE." It went live several months before the start of the trade show and provided information about planned activities at the booth and the company's major highlight topics:

• Crafting Circular Economy
• Crafting Electrification
• Crafting Sustainable Living
• Crafting Smart Designs

A stage for current trends

These Topic Clusters also formed the basis for the second pillar – the integrated STAGE booth concept. As the other Covestro project manager Dr. Christopher Stillings explains, "Not only the exhibits and topic clusters, but also the wide-ranging lecture program in the central Talks Arena were tailored to these topics. Inspiring guests from well-known companies and universities – all actors in their respective fields – captivated the audience with keynotes on current trends and technologies and during panel discussions. Not only booth visitors participated, but also viewers around the world who followed the live broadcasts via social media."

Another highlight is the Color Material Finish (CMF) Sample Library, a collection of plastic samples that makes materials visible and tangible. Part of Uniplan´s and Covestro's STAGE concept is that the booth – or parts of it – can be used repeatedly for further exhibitions. Sustainability aspects and the reduction of CO₂ emissions were also at the forefront in the selection of materials for the trade show appearance itself. The success proves both partners right: Thus, the quality of contacts was significantly improved compared to K 2019, and a positive response developed both externally and internally over a longer period of time.

Innovators in the spotlight

While innovative developments are showcased and (hopefully) get the attention they deserve, the researchers behind them are often not visible. In the video series "Meet The Innovators" Covestro gives a voice to some of them and their inventions – see the blog post. They were introduced to a larger audience at K 2022, but prominent guests continue to discuss important innovations and technologies in the "Meet The Innovators" livestream series.

Many inspiring encounters at K 2022 have already led to a large number of new partnerships, technologies and material solutions. They form a valuable basis for developments that Covestro plans to showcase at the next major trade show appearance at K 2025. The company's motto may be different then – but the message remains that partnerships are the key to achieving a climate-neutral and circular economy: "Crafting Connections With You".

A Red Dot Award rarely comes alone

Back in May 2023, Covestro and its partner Accesso Dynamics were honored with an award offered by Red Dot and Koelnmesse. At the furniture supplier trade show interzum 2023, they received the "Best of the Best" interzum Award for their Arfinio^® technology. This technology, first presented at K 2022, enables products with complex but seamless shapes. The development also contributes to sustainability, as the products are partly made from bio-based raw materials, are repairable and can be mechanically recycled at the end of their useful life.

Covestro and Uniplan were also nominated for the Heavent Award in the "Forum, Summit, Congress, Fair Award" category for their communication concept for K 2022. A total of 132 projects from event, experimental and live marketing agencies as well as companies and trade fair and congress organizers were submitted for this year's event competition.

"I am amazed by the increased efficiency and energy savings you achieve with each new car model," said Chief Technology Officer Dr. Thorsten Dreier in welcoming the guests. “The Covestro Adelie shows on a small scale what high-performance plastics can do for a sustainable future on a large scale. We are convinced that they are the key to sustainable mobility. That's why we are consistently driving forward material innovations and recycling solutions together with our partners in industry and science.”

Optimization through teamwork

Even during the two-year development period of the Covestro Adelie, the teamwork of around 50 students led to success: aerodynamics, electrical engineering, driving strategy, chassis, powertrain and structure interlock perfectly. More than 200,000 hours of calculations were required to optimize the exterior shape, plus 10,000 workshop hours for the body, and many more days for electrical and mechanical components and the development of the driving strategy.

"A lot of work, heart and soul and the concentrated experience from our three predecessor models have gone into the Covestro Adelie," confesses Clemens Odendahl, head of marketing at Team Sonnenwagen. "Now we hope to win the Challenger class, in which we are the only German team competing. There, it's all about performance and maximum energy efficiency."

Thanks to the optimizations, the structure of the new model weighs 16 percent less than that of its predecessor, the Photon, and the chassis even has 20 percent less weight. This improvement is also due to some Covestro materials, such as a battery cover made of the high-performance plastic polycarbonate and the construction of the seat shell with thermoplastic polyurethane. The Photon is also currently on campus and will remain there for some time.

More sustainable outfit

But the Aachen-based tinkerers are not only committed to more sustainability on the road – their official outfit was also produced using alternative raw materials with fewer petrochemical components. Both the shoes and the shorts were provided by Covestro's Chinese partner Huafeng. The two companies jointly developed a design for them using Huafeng's HAPTIC^® textile coating system, which is made with Covestro's partially bio-based Impranil^® CQ DLS/1 polyurethane dispersion.

Covestro wishes Team Sonnenwagen every success and victory in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. This time, 42 teams from 23 countries are taking part in what is probably the toughest solar car race in the world. Under harsh climatic conditions, they have to master the more than 3,000-kilometer route from Darwin to Adelaide as quickly as possible, right across the Australian outback.

Covestro’s climate impact in the manufacture of its products can be assessed using the product carbon footprint from cradle to gate, which can be calculated automatically for about 50,000 intermediate and finished products. At the moment, the results are being validated in order to make them available to customers gradually in 2024. In the meantime, Covestro continues to deliver data from a manual process using a life cycle assessment tool and a method that was certified according to ISO 14040/44 and ISO 14067 last year by TÜV Rheinland Energy GmbH. The automation of the calculation will enable Covestro to determine the specific carbon footprints for products in its entire product portfolio and identify potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, Covestro plans to provide its customers in future with data on the products for sale, thereby contributing to an emissions assessment and a potential subsequent emissions reduction on the customer’s side. In addition to the carbon footprint, the digital solution also enables the calculation of other environmental impact categories, such as the acidification- or photochemical ozone creation potential. 

The calculation considers emissions of raw materials used, energy consumed, direct emissions generated, and waste streams generated during the manufacture of a product. The calculation is based on Covestro’s internal plant- and site-specific data as well as external databases for e.g., raw material data and, if available, specific raw material data from suppliers. The data that is calculated includes intermediate and finished products, meaning that the entire value chain for the products all the way to the Covestro gate is taken into account.

“We all want and need to reduce emissions along the value chain – this applies to us at Covestro just as much as it does to our suppliers and customers. Our customers’ requirements are clear: to provide data for all our products and to identify opportunities to reduce emissions,” explains Lynette Chung, Chief Sustainability Officer at Covestro.

Digitalization as a core component for generating sustainability data

Covestro has now taken a major step forward in automated calculation. Information on material and energy consumption is pulled from existing data sources and systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), and merged with data from databases in the cloud. Covestro uses the Product Sustainability Platform from AllocNow GmbH for this purpose. The software company specializes in the automated calculation of life cycle assessments for chemical products. In the future, further supplier data could be reflected in the calculation. “In 2022, our portfolio had about 50,000 intermediates and finished products. The manual calculation of life cycle assessment data for just one of these products took several days,” explains Michaela Lentz, IT & Digital Transformation Partner for Sustainability at Covestro and IT lead for the project. “By combining and using the data, we can now calculate greenhouse gas emissions in production for a single product. Annual recalculations and future process changes can be retrieved at the push of a button, so to speak. Our software solution has been developed directly in the cloud,” Lentz continues. Covestro does not need to maintain server capacity for the annual recalculation of LCA data, but can scale up computing capacity as needed. The company is thus very resource-conscious in its use of server services and is making a further contribution to its sustainability goals.

“Covestro’s manual life cycle assessment calculation process was already reviewed against ISO 14040/44 and 14067 and certified by TÜV Rheinland Energy GmbH last year. Now we are seeking additional certification according to the relevant ISO-standards and in alignment with the Together for Sustainability (TfS)-guideline for the automated method,” says Dr. Catherine Lövenich, the project manager who works at Group Innovation. “The method is very complex. Take MDI, for example, a typical precursor for insulation foams. Covestro purchases the raw material benzene, which is then converted into the finished product MDI via several intermediates using energy and other raw materials,” Lövenich explains. “All these steps and the use of the raw materials employed are included in the calculation of the carbon footprint for a particular MDI type.” Since both the quality of the methodology and of the data are important to Covestro, the results are being validated at Covestro. Validation of the data should be completed by the end of 2024. In the meantime the current manual approach will keep supporting with customer requests.

Digitalization is a major driver to improve sustainability and achieve the circular economy. Covestro is focusing on more data-centric business management to achieve digital transformation. Production, Research and Development, and Supply Chain Management are the three divisions that are currently the main focus.

"For me, the Sonnenwagen is a powerful symbol of future mobility, because it shows us that we need to ask crucial questions about materials science and design on the way there," said Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer at Covestro, in her welcoming speech. "For me, the Sonnenwagen team are exemplary for creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. The students proved an impressive motivation and know-how to develop and optimize new ideas for solar-powered, light-weight electric vehicles."

Multidisciplinary team

As many as nine disciplines of the Aachen-based team were involved in the design: the chassis, aerodynamics, structure, electrical engineering, driving strategy, production, sponsorship, marketing and logistics departments. "Close and efficient cooperation between these areas is very important, because we want to compete in the Challenger class at the race, where the main focus is on performance and maximum energy efficiency," explains Lina Schwering, 1st Chairwoman of Team Sonnenwagen. "A lot of working time has gone into the Adelie, which we have invested alongside our studies and during our free time, and a lot of commitment and heart and soul."

In total, more than 50 teams from 24 countries are setting out on the more than 3,000-kilometer route from Darwin to Adelaide – right across the Australian outback. There, people and models are exposed to very harsh climatic conditions with high temperatures and strong UV exposure from the sun during the race, but also during the preceding test drives. In addition, the vehicle is subjected to strong mechanical stresses that can affect the efficiency and performance of the battery.

Innovative materials

"The Sonnenwagen team therefore needed a lot of support in selecting the materials," says Andreas Brandt, Head of Group Marketing and project sponsor at Covestro. "The new Sonnenwagen incorporates innovative products with different functionalities from various business segments, which are tested under track conditions."

For example, the aerodynamic outer shell was made from milled SikaBlock® polyurethane foam blocks from Sika, a long-standing partner of Covestro and another sponsor of Team Sonnenwagen. The Leverkusen-based company provided raw materials for this and advised the team on the implementation. The Sikaflex® sealants for the solar cells are also based on components from Covestro. Other examples include a plastic sheet made of polycarbonate for the battery enclosure and thermoplastic cushioning materials for the driver's seat trim.

"Pushing boundaries is what we at Covestro have in common with the young talents of Team Sonnenwagen," says Sucheta Govil, summarizing her message. "We push the boundaries of innovation in materials, driven by our commitment to sustainable mobility of the future. With our products and solutions, we materialize the circular economy."

"For me, the chemical industry is predestined for the use of AI because we have a lot of complex processes going on that cannot be described by fixed rules," says Walter Grüner, Head of IT & Digitalization at Covestro. "They are not suitable for automation. We rather need learning systems to which we grant a certain degree of decision-making autonomy. In doing so, we focus primarily on the development of systems that work in a complementary manner to humans and support their abilities."

With the introduction of AI in the chemical industry, questions about technical, operational and organizational implementation are also increasingly emerging. This includes, for example, the role of AI in decision-making, but also its implementation along value chains.

Artificial Intelligence – great opportunity for chemical industry

Under the motto "Shaping industrial change with AI", the participants exchanged in a generic way views on the following topics:

• AI system to assist decision making or as an autonomous decision-maker?
• AI awareness, literacy and capabilities
• Production technology vs. supply chain management: independent or joint optimization?
• Needs and requirements for external data generation (monitoring)?

"It is precisely the exchange across company boundaries that helps us a lot in the upcoming transformation because overall challenges become clearer," says Nils Janus, Global Head of Advanced Analytics at Covestro. "This increases efficiency and saves time."

Overall, there was agreement among the participants: Artificial intelligence offers great opportunities for the chemical industry. The new systems help to create a common ecosystem for cross-divisional production planning. It must be decided on a case-by-case basis and each company has to decide individually and independently how much autonomy these systems will be given. With regard to access to the systems, the participants saw a strong democratization of artificial intelligence. Companies could support employees in learning more about data and AI and bring them into contact with experts when it comes to the widespread use of AI solutions in the company. The generation and dissemination of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) data are currently the biggest drivers for using external data sources. Here, all participants saw opportunities to intensify the use of external sources.

Digitalization drives sustainability

Digitalization is a key driver to improve sustainability and make the circular economy a reality. Covestro is focusing on more data-oriented corporate governance to drive digital transformation.

Covestro is advancing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) both in its own company and in the chemical industry. To this end, the materials manufacturer is investigating how digital technologies can make processes more efficient and sustainable as part of several pilot projects across different divisions.

"With this we have fully achieved the goal of developing a technology to chemically recycle these products and convert polyurethane into a high-quality recycled material," says Bart Haelterman, R&D Director at Recticel. "For the first time in history polyurethane is truly fitting into a circular economy." The European Union funded the PUReSmart project with six million euros over a four-year period under its Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (agreement No. 814543).

Building on the PUReSmart project, Covestro is working with partners from the waste management industry to drive the further development of flexible foam recycling through to industrial use. "Our goal is to turn waste into valuable raw materials and to anchor the principle of the circular economy in our company and along the value chain with our partners to achieve this," says Christine Mendoza-Frohn, Head of Performance Materials Sales EMEA & LATAM of Covestro. ʺThat’s why we make innovative recycling a priority. We call this ongoing Evolution of Recycling: Evocycle^® CQ. The first initiative of this kind is dedicated to the chemolysis of PU mattress foam and is called 'Evocycle^® CQ Mattress'. This underlines our willingness to further invest in this technology," says Mendoza-Frohn.

Raw materials in high yield and purity

Unlike other chemical processes for recycling PU flexible foam, the process does not use fossil-based polyol. It requires only the pre-sorted foam from mattress waste, a glycol and an additive. During chemolysis, the polyol and toluene diamine (TDA), the precursor to TDI, are recovered in high purity and yield. After reprocessing, they can be used again as often as required for the production of new PU flexible foams. This ensures a sustainable circular economy for PU flexible foam with a reduced CO₂ footprint.

The goal: an industrial value cycle

Covestro's first initiative, Evocycle^® CQ Mattress, transforms end-of-life mattress foam directly back into its main building blocks, giving old foam a new life within an optimized circular system. The company aims to close the loop in the PU mattress industry by converting waste into valuable resources, reducing the use of fossil fuels and significantly lowering CO₂ emissions. However, there are still many steps to be taken before this vision becomes reality, especially with regard to upscaling the process.

The journey began for Covestro in 2019, leading to the start of a pilot plant at its Leverkusen site as early as 2021 to verify the positive laboratory results achieved to date. If the trials continue to be successful, the company plans to build a larger recycling plant to validate the technology in an industrial simulation environment.

However, an effective and cost-efficient supply of used PU mattresses is also crucial to building a circular economy. To achieve this, large quantities must be collected, broken down into individual components such as springs, textiles and foam parts, and the foam components pre-sorted according to purity and density. This can only succeed in close cooperation with partners – in this case in the recycling industry. Covestro is already cooperating on this with companies such as Interzero and Ecomaison (formerly Eco-mobilier).

Covestro started working in the field of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites in 2015 with the acquisition of TCG Thermoplast Composite GmbH. Following the strategic decision to discontinue the Maezio^® product line after almost eight years, Covestro searched intensively for a buyer for the Markt Bibart site. As this attempt was ultimately not successful, Covestro decided to close the site later this year. Most recently, 48 of the approximately 7,600 employees in Germany were employed there. “We have initiated an extensive sales process, which, unfortunately, was not successful. Our focus on the ground is now on providing the best possible support to all colleagues. To this end, we will be working closely with the local employee representatives to find fair solutions for all those affected and to ensure that the closure process is socially responsible,” emphasizes Site Manager John Bauer.

A focus on core business

Thermoplastic fiber composites are a highly specialized and competitive niche business. Covestro has invested in building up the business since taking over the site in 2015 and has made very good technical progress in production. Nevertheless, the company has not succeed to scale business with sufficient success in the market. There are only a few synergies with the core business of the Engineering Plastics business entity and the vast majority of key account business. In addition, the typical customers for thermoplastic composites only order on the basis of joint, complex and time-consuming technical application development, and then only in very small quantities. This is in marked contrast to the far predominant distribution model and key account business in the Covestro Group.

Covestro is thus sharpening its focus on its core Engineering Plastics business by discontinuing the Maezio^® products. Major customers in the automotive, electronics and healthcare divisions, among others, use these high-quality polycarbonates for further processing in a wide range of products.

"The joint project with Covestro is an important building block in making our entire value chain climate-neutral. By sourcing raw materials for these products with a significantly reduced carbon footprint, we will be able to reduce our reported indirect emissions by up to 120,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents per year," says Dr. Hubert Fink, member of the LANXESS Board of Management. With its Net Zero Value Chain Initiative, the specialty chemicals group plans to eliminate Scope 3 emissions within its upstream and downstream supply chain by 2050. This includes indirect emissions, particularly from purchased raw materials, but also in logistics or disposal. For Scope 1 and 2 emissions, the company aims to be climate neutral as early as 2040. "With this program, we are taking the next step towards a climate-neutral product portfolio and also supporting our customers, who are increasingly looking for sustainable solutions," says Fink. 

Chlorine, caustic soda and hydrogen are basic building blocks for many products in the chemical industry. However, their production is very energy-intensive. LANXESS uses the raw materials supplied by Covestro, for example, for products that are then used in the food and agricultural industries. Covestro produces the three basic raw materials at its North Rhine-Westphalian sites in Leverkusen, Krefeld-Uerdingen and Dormagen. Both the former have already been certified to the internationally recognized ISCC PLUS standard for the production of the strategic raw material chlorine, while this is also planned for Dormagen in the near future. The correct allocation of the electricity to the products is ensured via this certification and the use of the renewable energy is proven by the invalidation of certificates of origin at the Federal Environment Agency. 

Covestro is also actively involved in various projects to build a hydrogen economy that uses mainly or exclusively green hydrogen as an energy carrier. Among other things, the company is supporting, in cooperation with Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies, to build the world's largest plant for storing renewable hydrogen in liquid organic carriers in Dormagen, Germany. 

With regard to its energy supply, Covestro focuses on power purchase agreements (PPAs) for renewable energy or high-level certificates. Only recently, the company signed PPAs with Chinese supplier CGN New Energy on wind and solar power that will cover around 30 percent of the electricity needs of its important production site in Shanghai. Under another, utility Ørsted will supply offshore wind energy starting in 2025, which is expected to meet 10 percent of the electricity needs of Covestro's sites in Germany. ENGIE, Belgium's largest renewable energy producer, will provide onshore wind energy to meet 45 percent of the electricity demand of Covestro's Antwerp production site in Belgium. 

Currently, two of its own ships and two additional chartered ships belong to Tailwind Shipping Lines. In addition to the non-food products from and for Lidl, Tailwind offers space on these ships also for interested companies. Covestro uses this now to also become more independent from the busy main routes and shipping companies and to increase the speed and punctuality of its own deliveries.

"Ocean shipments have been severely disrupted since the pandemic began, and the scheduling accuracy of large shipowners has fallen from 70 to 20 percent," says Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer at Covestro. "To increase our reliability and punctuality, we are therefore actively looking for alternatives. With Tailwind, we have found a partner to navigate the direct route from Asia to Europe with its ships - and who is therefore exactly where it helps us."

Smaller vessels, more flexibility and punctuality

The Tailwind ships have a capacity of around 5,000 "Twenty Foot Equivalent Units", or TEU, per month. TEU is a standard measure for shipping containers. Large ships from the big shipping companies can hold three to five times more. However, those mega ships can also only discharge at large ports and travel rather fixed routes with pre-determined stops, which increases the susceptibility to delays.

"We now determine the route ourselves. And because our ships are smaller, we can also have them sail to and discharge at smaller ports. This gives us a great advantage in terms of flexibility, speed and thus also punctuality," says Wolf Tiedemann, CEO of Sales, Logistics and Central Divisions of Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG. "This allows us to import our own goods reliably from Asia - but at the same time we still have room that we can offer. We are pleased to have found a first interested customer and partner with Covestro and hope to be able to expand the cooperation further and find other interested parties."

A first container of Covestro materials successfully completed the route from the company's largest production site near Shanghai to Europe. Currently Covestro ships a good 8,000 containers a year on that route alone. How many of these will be transported by Tailwind in the future is currently being negotiated.

"All our solutions under the umbrella CQ prove that we are continuing to work on making our vision of the circular economy a reality, to help customers and partners achieve their sustainability and climate goals. In this way, we also aim to meet consumer demands for more sustainable products," says Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer of Covestro. "And this is just the beginning. In the long term, Covestro also wants to offer every one of its products in a climate-neutral¹ version."

Evocycle^® CQ: a new name for all innovative recycling technologies and cycle designs of Covestro

Plastic waste is a valuable raw material and should not simply be disposed of. Therefore, Covestro is taking pride in proving that the path to circularity is possible for all stakeholders – and makes innovative recycling a priority. For the continuous evolution of recycling, the company now introduces the name "Evocycle^® CQ". It is an extension to the CQ label and stands for recycling technologies which enable the use of recycled plastics and recycled raw materials from the Covestro portfolio within a streamlined closed-loop system.

What’s more, the company is not active here alone, rather collaborating with partners from all fields of recycling and reuse to unlock its potential across the entire value chain. That’s how it transforms the industry turning waste into valuable resources, reducing the use of fossil fuels and significantly reducing CO₂ emissions.

The first initiative is called Evocycle^® CQ Mattress: Covestro, together with partners, has developed an innovative technology for the chemolysis of polyurethane flexible foams from used mattresses, in which both main components – the polyol and the precursor to the isocyanate TDI – can be recovered. With this, end of life mattress foams are directly transformed back into renewed polyurethane building blocks.

Since last year the company is operating a pilot plant at its Leverkusen site confirming the positive lab test results. And the journey continues: Covestro is working with recycling specialists such as Interzero and Eco-mobilier², as well as other partners along the value chain, to ultimately close the material cycle for polyurethane mattresses completely and on an industrial scale.

From mass-balanced raw materials to green hydrogen

Raw materials produced from biomass and, in particular, from biowaste and residual materials are also becoming increasingly important. Covestro relies primarily on the latter raw materials because they are available in large quantities and can be used to manufacture a wide range of plastics. Through mass balancing, they are offered in the same good quality as their fossil-based counterparts without customers having to change their processing operations. Covestro works with a number of suppliers who offer the raw materials using a mass-balance approach certified to the internationally recognized ISCC PLUS standard. The starting point also includes fossil raw materials, with the biological portions being allocated to the products by a third party audited allocation method.

Covestro is thus converting its production to the use of alternative and, above all, mass-balanced raw materials, in some cases also using renewable energy from wind and solar power. Many of the company's sites are now also ISCC PLUS certified, including Leverkusen, Dormagen, Krefeld-Uerdingen, Antwerp, Filago, Shanghai, Map Ta Phut and Changhua.

Green hydrogen generated with the help of wind or solar energy also plays an important role for the chemical industry – both as an alternative raw material and as a source of clean energy. Covestro, together with partners, is committed to the urgently needed market ramp-up. The company uses hydrogen and its derivatives to produce high-performance plastics.

¹ Climate neutrality is the result of an internal assessment of a partial product life cycle from raw material extraction (cradle) to Covestro's factory gate, also known as cradle-to-gate assessment.
² The company "Eco-mobilier" has changed its name to "ecomaison" at the beginning of October 2022.

“We have set ourselves the goal to become fully circular. To this end, we want to convert our raw material base to 100% renewable sources. We are very pleased to have found a partner in SOL Kohlensäure who will support us in this transformation with a pioneering spirit,” explains Daniel Koch, Head of NRW Plants at Covestro.

“We at SOL Kohlensäure are advancing the shift to more sustainable CO₂ sources. In this way, we are increasing security of supply, becoming independent of fossil raw materials, and reducing our environmental footprint at the same time,” emphasizes Falko Probst, Sales Manager at SOL Kohlensäure.

From waste product to raw material

The CO₂ used is obtained by SOL Kohlensäure from various sources, such as bioethanol and biogas plants. In these plants, CO₂ is produced as a by-product during the treatment of various biomasses, such as plant residues.  This is separated by SOL Carbon Dioxide, purified and then made available to Covestro production as a raw material. 

In this way, the supply partnership supports the circular concept and contributes to reducing emissions. 

Covestro’s Lower Rhine sites in Leverkusen, Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen are ISCC PLUS certified and can supply their customers with more sustainable products made from renewable raw materials.

Goal of climate neutrality by 2035

Covestro has set itself the goal of becoming fully circular. This also includes using alternative raw materials. Biomass, CO₂, as well as end-of-life materials and waste replace fossil raw materials such as crude oil or natural gas. Carbon is managed in a circular way. In realizing these ambitions, both companies are relying on long-term supply partnerships.

In addition to biogenic CO₂, Covestro is investigating the use of other technical gases from renewable sources. The materials manufacturer is already offering its customers its first sustainable products, such as climate-neutral¹  MDI. With the expansion of its alternative raw material base, this portfolio is set to grow further in the coming years.

ISCC (“International Sustainability and Carbon Certification”) is an internationally recognized system for the sustainability certification of biomass and bioenergy, among others. The standard applies to all stages of the value chain and is recognized worldwide. ISCC Plus also encompasses other certification options for instance for technical-chemical applications, such as plastics from biomass.

¹ _{Climate neutrality is the result of an internal assessment of a partial product life cycle from raw material extraction (cradle) to the factory gate (Covestro gate), also known as cradle-to-gate assessment. The methodology of our life cycle assessment, which has been critically reviewed by TÜV Rheinland, is based on ISO standards 14040 and 14044. The calculation takes into account biogenic carbon sequestration based on compensation measures.}

"The development of these resins is very important to us. After all, it contributes to the expansion of alternative energies and strengthens our strategic orientation to sustainably reduce the CO₂ footprint and take even more steps towards climate neutrality," explains Klaus Franken, Head of Application Development Wind and Pultrusion at Covestro. "To be competitive, the wind industry faces the constant challenge of reducing the Levelized Cost of Electricity. We can help here by enabling our customers to produce rotor blades faster and thus more cost-effectively. At the same time, higher energy yield through optimized blade properties and longer service life also play a role."

Close cooperation with customers

One goal of the Wind Technology Center is to develop robust materials that combine the properties important for rotor blades, such as strength, stiffness and temperature resistance. Existing products are continuously optimized and completely new formulations are developed and tested. Another goal: application technology development in close cooperation with customers. Klaus Franken explains: "Here we can simulate our customers' manufacturing processes and show how our PUR resins help them to realize both their rotor blade designs and the manufacturing process in the best possible way."

Covestro attaches great importance to optimally tailoring its products to the needs of its customers. That is why a number of cooperative ventures with European and Asian wind turbine manufacturers are already in place. The focus here is on constructing and testing prototypes.

The high-tech center is located in Leverkusen and was completed and put into operation at the beginning of this year. It comprises two interconnected units: a laboratory area for chemical development and an Upscaling Plant. The latter is home to processing technology and application development.

Development and application go hand in hand

The center offers clear advantages: "Chemical development and application technology can work hand in hand here. On top of that, the physical proximity makes it easier to exchange information directly and quickly. We use identical resources and the same infrastructure and quickly obtain a comprehensive depiction of the process. This helps us to pursue our goals in a results-oriented manner and without losing knowledge, and enables us to offer new, innovative solutions to our customers," explains Technical Center Manager Frank Grimberg. "Process and plant safety, explosion protection, machine safety and, of course, occupational safety are always in the spotlight here," explains Tobias Wollersheim, who as Project Management was responsible for planning and implementing the investment.

Another positive aspect: with the innovative technology center, Covestro is increasing its attractiveness as an employer. Indeed, wind technology offers a wide range of new, interesting fields of work that arouse curiosity and offer diversity. Covestro has taken on a newly qualified chemical technician from its own training program to operate the machines. He is being intensively trained in the processes and machine technology.

This much is clear: Things are moving in the area of wind energy.

Quotes

The new capacity is intended to meet the growing global demand for multilayer TPU Films. They are used in automotive interiors and construction, among other applications. Breathable, water-impermeable specialty films have also proven their worth in wound care and outdoor clothing. The new facilities are scheduled for completion as early as the end of 2023.

"With this capacity expansion, we are strengthening our Bomlitz site and our position as a leading supplier of technical specialty films," said Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer of Covestro, at the groundbreaking ceremony. "At the same time, we are investing in promising technologies and applications and creating new jobs."

For Aleta Richards, global head of the Specialty Films segment, the expansion offers opportunities to respond even better to individual customer needs and offer more sustainable products. "For some time now, we have also been developing customer-specific solutions with films made from alternative raw materials, as we are also seeing increasing demand in this area. The development and production of partially bio-based products is therefore to become a new focus at the Bomlitz site."

Covestro is fully geared toward the circular economy and aims to become climate-neutral by 2035. To this end, the Bomlitz site plans to switch its energy supply completely to green electricity starting this year.

Epurex Films is one of three Covestro competence centers for specialty films in Germany. The other two centers in Leverkusen and Dormagen are focused on research, production and application of polycarbonate films.

For Covestro, offering renewable TDI via mass balance is only a logical next step of making this important chemical raw material even more sustainable, as Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer of Covestro, explains: "Already years ago, our unique gas phase technology was a milestone towards more energy efficiency in the production of TDI. After that we committed ourselves to ensure a further reduction in emissions from our production by switching to green electricity. This additional improvement now makes it clear how consistently we are pursuing our path to climate-neutral production³ and the circular economy: By using mass-balanced renewable raw materials, we are now also striving to significantly reduce our indirect emissions in the supply chain and to offer products with a reduced carbon footprint."

"With our shift to mass-balanced products, we are helping customers in various industries achieve their climate targets and drive the transition to a circular economy," says Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer of Covestro. "At the same time, we are strengthening the use of alternative raw materials and reducing CO₂ emissions along various value chains." Customers can use this TDI as a drop-in solution, meaning it can be implemented rapidly and easily in existing production processes without the need for technical modification.

Flexible PU foams made with TDI and long-chain polyols are important materials in the manufacture of seat cushions and mattresses. Renewable TDI meets demands for more sustainable production while ensuring the good quality, optimal comfort and high breathability known from fossil-based TDI. It also meets the expectations of the automotive industry, which is looking for alternative raw materials for car seat cushions with a lower carbon footprint.

Sinomax as pioneer for more sustainability

Only late last year, Covestro signed its first commercial supply contract with Sinomax, a global manufacturer and distributor of polyurethane comfort products based in China. Both companies share a clear commitment toward the circular economy, and Sinomax wants to be the first customer to use the new TDI to reduce its CO₂ emissions. The mass-balanced TDI required for this is supplied by the ISCC PLUS-certified Shanghai site of Covestro. Thanks to its global presence, the company can also supply larger amounts of mass-balanced TDI.

In this mass balance approach, raw materials derived from biomass or waste are fed in at an early stage of raw material extraction and mathematically attributed to the finished products. This saves fossil raw materials and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, while the quality of the mass-balanced products remains the same compared to purely fossil-based ones. Manufacturers can continue to use their proven formulations, equipment and processes, meanwhile gradually transforming their product portfolio towards a more sustainable one and achieving their climate targets.

_{¹ The renewable TDI is produced with the help of the mass balance approach using renewable raw materials - from virgin biomass and bio waste and residues - which are mathematically attributed to the product.}

_{² According to an internal assessment of a partial product life cycle from raw material extraction (cradle) to the factory gate (of Covestro), also known as cradle-to-gate assessment. The methodology of our LCA is based on the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards. The calculation takes into account the biological origin of the carbon based on preliminary data from the supply chain. No compensation measures were applied.}

_{³ The term “climate-neutral production” refers to the Covestro target of reducing scope 1 and scope 2 emissions to zero by 2035.}

Covestro is also providing its companies in Slovakia and Poland, where many Ukrainian refugees are currently arriving, with further EUR 40,000, which will be donated to local aid organizations. Even though the group itself only has a small business commitment in the region affected, it feels an obligation to the people in need.

In view of the worsening humanitarian situation in the middle of Europe, Covestro CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann has stated clearly: “Violence must never be the answer to any conflict. I am shocked and saddened by the terrible events! The violence must stop before more people lose their livelihood, are injured or killed. Supporting people in need is a matter close to our hearts.”  

In addition to emergency financial aid, Covestro is currently examining further measures to support the global aid efforts. 

"I am very pleased that we can now offer our customers even more certified mass-balanced products and thus help them even better to achieve their sustainability goals and drive the transition to a circular economy," says Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer of Covestro. "In doing so, we are also supporting the use of alternative raw materials and reducing CO₂ emissions along the value chains."

Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer at Covestro, adds, "The raw materials we use for these products meet the high sustainability requirements of the ISCC Plus standard all the way back through the supply chain. That's why we want to make greater use of alternative raw materials such as these renewably attributed precursors in our production. In addition to the three German sites, also our plants in Antwerp and Shanghai are already ISCC Plus certified, with more sites to follow."

In the mass balance approach, bio-based or recycled raw materials – in this case reprocessed residual materials – are fed in at an early stage of raw material extraction and mathematically attributed to the finished products. This saves fossil raw materials and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, while the quality of the mass-balanced products remains the same compared to purely fossil-based ones. Manufacturers can continue to use their proven formulations, equipment and processes.

ISCC ("International Sustainability and Carbon Certification") is an internationally recognized system for sustainability certification of biomass and bioenergy, among others. The standard covers all stages of the value chain and is widely used worldwide. ISCC Plus includes further certification options for technical-chemical applications, among others, including plastics from biomass.

Converting its energy supply to renewable energy sources is a central pillar in the strategy of Covestro. The company is fully aligning itself with the circular economy and aims to make its production climate-neutral in the long term. “By sourcing solar power from EnBW’s farm, we are underlining our ambition to play a pioneering role on the road to a climate-neutral future and once again sending out a signal for the expansion of renewable energies in Germany. The climate-neutral transformation of the industry requires large quantities of renewable energies at internationally competitive prices,” said Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer at Covestro.

EnBW’s solar farm near Berlin with its 465,000 solar panels has been fully connected to the grid since March 2021. “We have long worked on the principle that renewable energy can hold its own on the market without subsidies. PPAs are an important tool for making subsidy-free generating assets commercially viable. They are also pivotal to the energy transition, as they help industrial consumers achieve their climate targets quickly and efficiently. This makes PPAs particularly attractive for companies with energy-intensive production. We are delighted to be able to support Covestro’s production with our solar energy,” explained Dr. Georg Stamatelopoulos, Chief Operating Officer Generation & Trading at EnBW.

More sustainable plastics thanks to green energy

Covestro intends to primarily use the solar power from EnBW in the production of mass-balanced and ISCC Plus-certified high-performance plastics of the Makrolon^® RE and Desmopan^® product series at its sites in Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen. “This enables us to further enhance the sustainability of our production processes and to help our customers reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining the same quality,” Dr. Klaus Schäfer added.

The Group is already able to produce selected grades of Makrolon^® RE polycarbonate that are climate-neutral* from cradle to factory gate. Covestro also produces Desmopan^® thermoplastic polyurethane with an improved carbon footprint. Polycarbonates are used in electronics products and car headlights, among other things. Thermoplastic polyurethanes are used, for example, in household products, ski boots and industrial applications.

A key factor in being able to produce more sustainable plastics is the use of renewable energy. Covestro was an early mover in converting its energy supplies to renewables and has built up a portfolio of various PPAs in Germany, Belgium and China since 2019. The agreement with EnBW is the first PPA for solar power in Europe.

Pioneer in power purchase agreements

EnBW is among the pioneers with regard to long-term PPAs in Germany and recently signed an 85 MW corporate PPA with Fraport, the Frankfurt Airport operating company. It plans to further step up renewable energy marketing activities in 2022 – both for the “Weesow-Willmersdorf” solar farm and for its two other large-scale subsidy-free projects, “Gottesgabe” and “Alttrebbin”. These two 150 MW photovoltaic installations are currently under construction and are scheduled to go on stream in spring 2022.

___________

_{* Climate neutral is the result of an assessment of a partial product life cycle from resource extraction (cradle) to the factory gate, also referred to as cradle to gate assessment. The methodology of our Life Cycle Assessment is based on the ISO 14040 standard, critically reviewed by TÜV Rheinland on the basis of a plausibility check. The calculation considers biogenic carbon sequestration based on preliminary supply chain data and replacing electricity grid mix with renewable electricity used for the manufacturing process. The electricity was allocated on the basis of so-called "Guarantee of Origin" certificates. No offsetting measures have been applied. In the future, the mass-balanced products are to be produced using the renewable energies from the PPA with EnBW.}

Demand for high-performance batteries is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. Covestro brings extensive plastics processing expertise to the table and will showcase a battery module it has developed in-house at the show, allowing it to test its own materials. The company also performs CAE component simulations and provides support to customers with moldflow analyses and injection molding upon request.

Covestro's booth, number 205 in Hall 4, will focus on high-performance plastics for key battery components such as cell holders for dimensionally accurate placement in housings. These include, in particular, flame-retardant polycarbonate blends from the Bayblend^® FR portfolio, which feature exceptionally good dimensional stability, as well as good electrical properties. As a result, they enable dimensionally stable parts with tight tolerances and thus mass production of battery modules. They also exhibit high impact strength.

Since the plastics in the Makrolon^® RE series have bio-waste and other residual materials as well as renewable energies attributed to them during their production, they can reduce the carbon footprint compared with traditional material solutions. This also applies to the Bayblend^® RE series: the polycarbonate content in these blends is also mass-balanced, so the carbon footprint of these products is reduced by up to 70 percent compared to fossil-based blends. In some cases, renewable energies are also used in production, for example at the Antwerp site of Covestro, where the company is supplied with energy from wind power.

Another important aspect is the dissipation of heat, which is released during battery operation. The thermally conductive polycarbonate Makrolon^® TC (TC stands for "thermally conductive") offers new options for cooling the battery module. Here, for example, Covestro is investigating the effects on battery life. Depending on the design of the battery system, this could also enable faster charging. Battery modules made with this material can be used in electric vehicles, in stationary energy storage systems and in replaceable batteries for two-wheelers.

Stronger, lighter and more sustainable plastics for charging stations

The number of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids is growing significantly, and with it the need for charging stations. There is a wide range of charging equipment on offer, from fixtures in parking lots to wall-mounted charging points in private homes.

Charging stations require materials that meet a number of often very specific requirements. They have to withstand all types of weather and also withstand attacks of vandalism well. Added to this are the wishes of the operators of charging stations, for example manufacturing by means of mass production as well as high functionality, lightness, toughness and good electrical insulation of the materials. And last but not least, they must be easy to shape in order to offer as much design freedom as possible.

Polycarbonates from the Makrolon^® range and polycarbonate blends from the Bayblend^® series meet all these requirements. Together with the mass-balanced products of the Makrolon^® RE series, they play their part in further reducing the carbon footprint of this more sustainable form of propulsion.

The new committee has a lot of plans for the next term of office. In particular, it wants to breathe even more life into the three guiding principles of the society with a focus on digitization, diversity and internationalization, and thus also continue the course it has taken in recent years to drive forward the modernization of the GDCh. "We can be truly proud of what the GDCh has achieved and what it represents, but we also want to support the changes in society and science and thus play an active role in shaping the future of the GDCh," Danielmeier emphasizes.

Karsten Danielmeier, born in Werl in 1967, studied at the University of Bonn where he received his doctorate in synthetic organic chemistry under Professor Dr. Eberhard Steckhan in 1995. The following year, he joined Bayer AG where he was active in numerous positions of increasing responsibility in raw materials research for coatings and adhesives in Germany and the United States. Most recently, he headed research for the Functional Films division in Leverkusen and was Senior Vice President for Research and Development in the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment at Covestro from 2015 to 2021.

Danielmeier has been a member of the GDCh board since July 2020 and had previously served for several years on the scientific planning committee of the Coatings Chemistry division.

The new products are produced using bioattributed raw materials and have a reduced carbon footprint in comparison to their fossil-based counterparts. At the same time, the mass-balanced products boast the same impressive quality and properties and can be integrated directly into manufacturing processes in downstream industries without technical modifications. In this context, the products are to be certified according to the ISCC Plus standard.

"I am thrilled that we will soon be able to help our customers in the electronics, footwear, automotive and other industries reduce their carbon footprint with this drop-in solution," said Dr. Andrea Maier-Richter, global head of the TPU business at Covestro. "With the ISCC Plus certification, we aim to achieve more transparency from raw material purchasing to our production and distribution to customer use. This is an important step in achieving our vision of becoming fully circular."

Extensive range of more sustainable TPU plastics

Covestro has already launched various TPU products based on alternative resources over the past few years, as more and more consumers prefer more sustainable products. Covestro is offering a webinar on this topic on October 28 as part of its CE Days event series. Outdoor outfitter VAUDE, for example, plans to use a foam midsole made partly from bio-based TPU in its new Lavik Eco hiking boot. Other product types contain a component that has been manufactured proportionately using CO₂ instead of fossil raw materials. Covestro's range of Desmopan® brand TPU plastics also includes a range of fully recycled products. They are used, for example, in smartphone cases from the Dutch manufacturer Fairphone.

Thermoplastic polyurethanes are very versatile plastics. They come in a variety of hardnesses, are flexible yet impact resistant, and are therefore highly suitable for a wide range of applications.

Mass balancing creates transparency

Supplying mass-balanced products is part of Covestro's comprehensive global program designed to fully align itself with the circular economy. In doing so, the company is focusing on increasing the use of alternative resources such as bio-based materials, plastic waste and CO₂, as well as renewable energies. The company is also collaborating with partners to develop innovative recycling technologies.

In mass balancing, fossil and alternative raw materials are mixed in production but treated separately in accounting. The chain-of-custody method enables materials to be tracked along the entire value chain and allows alternative resources, such as bioattributed components, to be allocated to selected end products. To date, a total of three Covestro production sites in Europe and Asia-Pacific have been certified in compliance with the ISCC Plus standard, with further sites to follow.

ISCC ("International Sustainability and Carbon Certification") is an internationally recognized system for the sustainability certification of biomass and bioenergy. The standard applies to all stages of the value chain and is recognized worldwide.

In the German cities of Überlingen and Stuttgart, climate-neutral residential quarters are being realized as part of the STADTQUARTIER 2050 project – with a special focus on socially responsible rent development –, which are already intended to serve as a lighthouse for the climate targets to be achieved by 2050 at the latest. The project includes both new buildings and the renovation of existing buildings. See the video.

Highly efficient insulation material

At the subproject in Überlingen, the focus is on very good thermal insulation of the around 170 residential units distributed over 14 new buildings. It is achieved by means of an efficient high-performance insulation material from project partner puren. "Our insulation panels make an important contribution to ensuring that the buildings in Überlingen meet the top energy standard KfW 40 Plus," explains Dr. Andreas Huther, Managing Director of puren. KfW Efficiency House 40 Plus means that a building requires only 40 percent of the primary energy of a reference building in accordance with the Energy Saving Ordinance. "But the insulation boards offer even more sustainability, as they are manufactured in a resource-friendly way and are also durable and recyclable."

"The insulation boards are based on polyurethane raw materials from Covestro and offer the best insulating effect of commercially available insulation materials," adds Fernando Resende, Marketing Manager Building and Construction in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region at Covestro. "Therefore, they can be designed thinner compared to other materials to achieve the same insulating effect. The result is a gain in usable space in the home, but also less resource consumption in the manufacture of the panels."

Affordable housing

The socially responsible rental concept of the investor, Baugenossenschaft Überlingen (BGÜ), also ensures a plus in sustainability. Low energy costs due to thermal insulation, a gain in living space due to slim facade insulation, and an innovative and efficient local heating supply all contribute to this. In addition, there is a new type of neighborhood app tailored to the residents with a bonus system for conscious energy consumption of the Project Group Business Informatics of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT). The socially compatible and rent-neutral renovation of the neighborhood on the outskirts of Überlingen also contributes to this.

STADTQUARTIER 2050 is supported by the Federal Ministries of Education and Research (BMBF) and Economics and Energy (BMWi) as a flagship project at the neighborhood level (funding code: 03SBE116). It is part of the interdepartmental funding initiative “Solar Building/Energy Efficient City” within the framework of the 6th energy research program of the Federal Government.

Individual city quarters such as the one in Überlingen serve as real-world laboratories in which, with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, innovative concepts for the heating and energy revolution can be researched and implemented simultaneously, but also quickly transferred to other municipalities.

"The Expo in Dubai is a unique opportunity to show the world how we can tackle the many global challenges and shape a truly sustainable future. This will succeed if society and business consistently adapt to the circular economy," says Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro. "The chemical industry is contributing to this by making its processes and products even more environmentally compatible. With this in mind, we at Covestro are developing more and more ways to produce high-quality plastics using CO₂ instead of petroleum."

Science and industry discuss future topics

To accompany Expo 2020 in Dubai, Covestro and the Institute of Biological and Earth Sciences 2: Plant Sciences at Forschungszentrum Jülich are hosting #IndustryMeetsScience Talks, a virtual talk series highlighting and discussing current issues and global challenges such as endangered biodiversity, future mobility and the expansion of renewable energies. The talks feature high-profile opinion leaders from the fields of science and business.

"The #IndustryMeetsScience Talks are an exciting virtual talk series that highlights exemplary solutions to global challenges. Together, we want to highlight Germany's innovative solutions to key issues. I am pleased that we have been able to attract renowned experts for this purpose," says Professor Ulrich Schurr from Forschungszentrum Jülich. The first virtual talk on the topic of plant life and biodiversity will take place on October 15. This will be followed on October 21 by the topic of alternative raw materials with Covestro CEO Markus Steilemann.

The #IndustryMeetsScience Talks will be broadcast live on Covestro's popular social media channels, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook und Youtube.

Part of the German Pavilion with focus on sustainability

Covestro and Forschungszentrum Jülich are partners in the German Pavilion consortium at Expo 2020 Dubai. The exhibit on the circular economy is part of the German Pavilion, which is located on the grounds in the sustainability area and is organized by Koelnmesse GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. In total, the German Pavilion showcases 36 innovative and creative exhibits designed to encourage guests to interact and raise awareness of the importance of sustainability in the present and future.

The exhibits are divided into the core themes of energy, city of the future and biodiversity, each of which represents a so-called lab. The Covestro exhibit on the circular economy will be located in the Lab City of the Future, which is divided into a series of innovative ideas and approaches that take a look at the mobility, buildings and life of tomorrow.

Expo 2020 will start on October 1, 2021 and run for a total of six months, until March 31, 2022.

"I am fascinated by the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit with which the students are developing and optimizing new ideas for solar cars," says Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer of Covestro. "That’s why we’re sponsoring this project: with our commitment to sustainable future mobility and building a Circular Economy, we want to encourage young people from top universities to use their talents to work with us to develop advanced materials and technologies."

"After two years of hard work, we finally reveal our new Sonnenwagen," says Simon Quinker, vice chairman of Team Sonnenwagen Aachen. "By using innovative technologies, the Covestro Photon is the most efficient Sonnenwagen. We are looking forward to the cooperation with Covestro and together we are taking a further step towards sustainable mobility."

Becoming fully circular

Global challenges such as climate change and increasing resource consumption require new concepts for future mobility. Covestro has been developing material solutions for electromobility for some time, but is also focusing on the increased use of renewable energies such as solar and wind power. Together with the use of alternative raw materials and the development of innovative recycling concepts, it is part of a comprehensive program with which Covestro is fully gearing itself to the Circular Economy. To achieve this, the company cooperates with many partners along the value chain as well as with universities and institutes.

In the solar cars of the Sonnenwagen team, Covestro is testing innovative and sustainable materials under the extreme climatic conditions that typically prevail on such race tracks: very high UV radiation, high temperatures and mechanical vibrations while driving. The company thereby underscores that its innovative and sustainable materials can be used in cutting-edge technologies, for example for cars. In addition to partially biobased raw materials, the company also plans to launch recycled plastics in the next vehicle.

"This nomination is an important confirmation of our efforts towards making chemistry more sustainable. It shows how crucial patents are for the development process of a technology," says Christoph Gürtler, who is responsible for the development of new processes and products at Covestro. "It is a tremendous honor to be part of the award ceremony on behalf of the interdisciplinary team from product research, process development, marketing and the many other minds driving our invention."

Successful cooperation between industry and science

"The plastics industry can make a significant contribution to combating climate change by switching to greenhouse gas-neutral production. To achieve this, we need to break away from petroleum and use alternative raw materials such as CO₂", says Dr. Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro. "The nomination for the European Inventor Award is an endorsement of our company as a pioneer in this field. I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the many colleagues, including those at our partners, who contributed to the development of the innovative CO₂ technology – a genuine sustainability highlight."

The two nominees, Gürtler and Leitner, have played a significant role in the development and market launch of the platform technology, which originated in the collaboration between application-oriented science and research-oriented industry. Their involvement in a large number of patents related to the use of CO₂ is proof of this: together, the two hold over 100 patents on CO₂ technology.

Breakthrough in catalysis research yields success

Covestro and RWTH Aachen University founded the CAT Catalytic Center in 2007. "The scientific community has long had the desire to be able to use carbon dioxide as a supplier of carbon for plastics. Experts have been working on this issue for nearly half a century," explains Walter Leitner.

CO₂ forms chemical compounds only with great difficulty. This is the problem that Christoph Gürtler and Walter Leitner's team had to solve. The team combined industrial and academic expertise. A great deal of creativity, perseverance and many experiments with catalysts finally culminated in success. The breakthrough was achieved by precisely controlling the reaction between CO₂ and the petroleum-based propylene oxide in the presence of a customized catalyst system. "We collaborated closely to develop the right catalyst that led us to success," says Gürtler.

The resulting so-called polyol was introduced to the market by Covestro under the product name cardyon®. It is already being used to produce soft foam for mattresses, for adhesives in sports floors, padding in shoes and in car interiors. Elastic textile fibers are currently on the threshold of market maturity. Research projects have successfully demonstrated that CO₂ can also be deployed for insulating materials made of rigid foam and for surfactants, for example in detergents.

Contributing to resource conservation and the circular economy

The use of CO₂ contributes significantly to the circular economy. Replacing conventional crude oil as a carbon source in part with the climate gas CO₂ preserves resources. The carbon, in turn, remains in the cycle without being released into the atmosphere. Moreover, initial studies have also shown that this technology makes it possible to produce more recyclable plastics whose components can be more easily recycled. An all-round sustainable innovation.

Launched in 2006, the European Patent Office's Inventor Award distinguishes outstanding European inventors and teams and is one of the most prestigious awards of its kind. The award ceremony will take place online for the first time on June 17 and will be broadcast live on the Internet. Three teams are nominated in the Industry category.

"With this expansion in capacity, we are strengthening our Dormagen site as a production and competence center for specialty films," says Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer at Covestro. "At the same time, we are investing in future-oriented technologies and applications."

The new lines will mainly produce multilayer flat films. These products, for example, play an important role in identity documents in order to embed security features and ensure the best possible protection against counterfeiting. They are also used in medical technology and car interiors.

Equipped for the future

Michael Friede, Global Head of the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment: "These high-quality products and applications represent an important future business for Covestro. With the new capacities and their integration into our film center, we are emphasizing our proximity to the customer and our service."

"Our new production lines are equipped with state-of-the-art technology," emphasizes Dr. Thorsten Dreier, Global Head of Covestro’s Specialty Films and Thermoplastic Polyurethanes business. "That’s why we can now supply our customers faster and with higher quality. We also want to improve our development work and bring new products to market even faster."

Competence centers close to customers

The competence center in Dormagen houses production, a technical center for film processing, as well as a showroom and research laboratories. Covestro operates two other German competence centers for semi-finished products in Leverkusen and Bomlitz, as well as several competence centers worldwide.

As a further measure of the global investment program, Covestro started up a new production facility for polycarbonate films in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, last year. Previously, a coextrusion film plant in Guangzhou, China, was converted for the future and the efficiency and quality of production in South Deerfield, USA, were improved.

Press Releases:

• Closing the loop for polyurethane mattresses
• Covestro and REnato lab launch Circular Design Guidebook for EEA industry

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Infographic:

Videos:

On average, mattresses contain 15 to 20 kilograms of foam, which results in a large amount of waste at the end of their useful life. The foam is primarily made of two important raw materials. While other chemical recycling approaches mainly focus on processing one of them, the Covestro process now enables the recovery of both raw materials.

Covestro has also recently started operating a pilot plant for flexible foam recycling at its Leverkusen site to confirm the positive laboratory results achieved to date. The first phase is to focus on recycling one of the raw materials, before the recovery of the second component is also to be piloted from summer this year. Covestro´s goal here is to industrialize chemical recycling processes for used flexible foams and ultimately to remarket both recovered raw materials.

Closing material loops

"The development of this innovative recycling technology and the investment in the pilot plant are further milestones in realizing our vision of fully aligning Covestro to the circular economy," says CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann. "In doing so, we want to replace fossil resources in production, steadily further reduce the carbon footprint of our materials and create new solutions for dealing with plastic waste. Chemical recycling is particularly promising for this, and must be developed further and used more intensively overall. Above all, it should finally be put on an equal legal basis with other recycling methods."

In cooperation with the companies Recticel and Redwave – a division of Wolfgang Binder GmbH – and as part of the PUReSmart research project, Covestro has also developed an intelligent sorting solution for separating the different PU foams from post-consumer mattresses. The software uses algorithms to correctly identify the different foam types, which facilitates an effective recycling process. This development is another element of Covestro’s digitalization strategy, combined with the new opportunities it entails for the chemicals and plastics industry.

Co-creation of a circular ecosystem

"Based on our competencies and experiences, we also want to take part in shaping the emerging value creation cycle," says Daniel Meyer, Global Head of the Polyurethanes segment at Covestro. "To accomplish this, we rely on international cooperation with partners and also develop innovative business models. The aim is to generate new sustainable business opportunities with our customers, other partners and for ourselves."

The project is an important step forward in taking the development of the circular economy at Covestro to entirely new heights. The increased use of used materials further contributes to solving the societal challenge of sustainable disposal of such waste and to achieving the European Union´s goals for the circular economy and for climate and environmental protection.

“Especially in buildings with high foot traffic, it’s important to have an abrasion-resistant and durable flooring so that it still looks appealing after several years,” explains Contardo Pafumi, Industrial Marketing Manager Construction at Covestro. “For such applications, polyurethane-based sealers have proven their worth. They are very robust and also easy to clean.”

More environmentally compliant coating

For these and other reasons, Covestro chose the elastic terrazzo system from the Swiss installation company TEXOLIT AG. It is also particularly low in emissions and complies with AgBB regulations for indoor air emissions. It is also suitable for environmental certification under the LEED Gold Standard (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design).

In total, an area of 1,800 square meters was equipped with the terrazzo floor. The coating comes from coatings manufacturer KLB Kötztal Lacke + Beschichtungen GmbH and is based on an aqueous polyacrylate dispersion from Covestro´s Bayhydrol® range and a polyisocyanate crosslinker from the Bayhydur® series.

“With the help of artificial intelligence, we will be able to find digital solutions across departmental boundaries in the future that were not possible before. This opens up completely new possibilities to achieve greater sustainability with improved resource utilization and thus to serve the needs of our customers even more precisely,” says Sucheta Govil, Chief Commercial Officer of Covestro.

Pilot projects put the use of AI to the test

At its Dormagen production site, Covestro is testing how the manufacturing process for polyesters can be optimized. Polyesters are needed for the production of polyurethanes. The use of artificial intelligence in the processing of the company’s comprehensive process data is intended to create free production capacities and minimize energy consumption. Digital technologies are also used in Dormagen and at the Leverkusen and Krefeld-Uerdingen sites to predict the peak steam consumption of production plants. In this way, energy consumption and costs can be reduced in the long term.

Another project deals with the digital customer experience. Machine learning is used to help to identify potential customers for Covestro at all digital touch points on the Internet and social media. The aim is to win them over as customers in the long term through consultation and information. Artificial intelligence will also be used in Covestro’s purchasing department in the future. Faulty invoices can then be identified with less effort, making the invoicing acknowledgement process much more efficient.

Utilizing data science for more intelligent production

“AI is a fascinating opportunity for Covestro worldwide. The ongoing projects show that data and its proper use not only make the entire industry smarter and faster, but can also contribute to the bottom line,” says Nils Janus, Head of Advanced Analytics at Covestro. To make optimum use of data-based findings in the future, the materials manufacturer has developed the Covestro Analytics Platform (CAP), a platform for data scientists. It collects raw data from production plants, research results, and business processes and supplements it with external databases to perform analyses and train machine learning models. In this way, Covestro is taking another important step towards digitalization and data-driven business management.

Covestro intends to base all the company’s operations on the principles of the circular economy and is pursuing the long-term goal of climate-neutral production. “Technological innovations in the area of process technology, in particular, are an important pillar of our strategy to achieve this goal,” says Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Covestro. “AdiP is a technology we have worked on intensively in its development at multiple sites, and which once again underlines the innovative leadership of Covestro.”

“If we want to overcome the climate crisis as a society, we need ambitious and innovative impulses from the industrial sector. Innovative economic activity and climate protection are not opposites; nowadays, business and climate protection belong together. You can see this in the Covestro project presented to us today", says Minister Jan Philipp Albrecht.

More efficient and environmentally friendly than existing processes

AdiP stands for adiabatic-isothermal phosgenation, which describes the key feature of the technology: the reaction is controlled more efficiently and does not require an external heat supply, as the heat generated during the reaction process is used.

As a result, this innovative production process significantly reduces energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in MDI production. Thanks to AdiP technology up to 40% steam and 25% electricity can be saved per ton of MDI produced in an MDI plant – and CO₂ emissions are thus reduced by up to 35%.

Another advantage of the innovative method is that the production output increases by 50% compared to the technology currently in use. As a result, future MDI production plants based on AdiP technology can be smaller than in the past.

Pilot phase to bring long-term experience

“I am confident that the new technology will pass its practical test and become an important component of our growth strategy for MDI. At the same time, I expect AdiP to significantly improve the efficiency of our production processes,” says Daniel Meyer, head of the Polyurethanes unit at Covestro. The pilot phase should be completed in about 12 months’ time.

“I am proud of the fact that this innovative process has been implemented for the first time on a large scale at our Brunsbüttel site. And I am absolutely convinced that our employees will successfully commission the new technology and optimize it for future use in our global production network,” says Dr. Uwe Arndt, the Brunsbüttel site manager.

Covestro is one of the world’s leading producers of MDI, a raw material much in demand for producing energy-efficient insulation solutions for buildings and refrigerating devices. In 2019, the global MDI market had a volume of around 7,500 kilotons and is expected to further grow in the long term. With the new technology, Covestro is making an important contribution to achieving the climate goals of its customer industries.

“In particular, a high-quality and individual design has considerable influence on consumers' buying decisions while providing car manufacturers opportunities for brand differentiation,” explained Jochen Hardt, Global Marketing Mobility in the Polycarbonates segment at Covestro, in a live webcast to journalists. “Here, the focus is on the design of surfaces using colors, optics and haptics, with light effects and functions. Products from Covestro open up almost unlimited possibilities.”

Jack of all trades polycarbonate

Plastics such as the polycarbonate Makrolon^® and the polycarbonate blends Bayblend^® and Makroblend^® are lightweight and robust and ensure good thermal and electrical insulation. They can be used to implement a wide range of design solutions, with glass-like surfaces, many colors and options for integrating displays, sensors and cameras.

Wafer-thin layers of natural materials such as wood and marble will play a vital role in the car interior of the future. On the surface of injection-molded components made of the polycarbonate Makrolon^® Ai (derived from "Automotive interior"), they are ideal for creating a feel-good ambience.

Good mood with lighting effects

With lighting, the effects can be enhanced even further. One example is the floor in the prototype car interior concept: Here, light from a polycarbonate part shines through a wafer-thin layer of marble. This effect could also be created by coating it with a digitally printed film.

But the high transparency of polycarbonate itself can also be used to create lighting effects, for example by illuminating the background or edges. The light can be dynamic and communicative, but also atmospheric, relaxing and cozy. Covestro anticipates growing demand for increasingly personalized lighting experiences and functions.

Polycarbonate also forms the basis for continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites called Maezio®. The unidirectional arrangement of the fibers lends the surface a special aesthetic effect. In addition, the seat shells made from it and a new space-saving table are very light and exceptionally robust.

More sustainable coatings

The use of paints and coatings in car interiors is also multifaceted. Many colors as well as optical and haptic effects are possible here. Covestro was a pioneer in the development of water-based coatings with a very low content of volatile organic compounds (VOC). In the interior concept, the waterborne floor topcoat is based on the polyurethane (PU) raw materials Bayhydrol^® and Bayhydur^®, which give it durability and individuality. The aqueous INSQIN^® PU technology for textile coating is used in the headrests, instrument panel and seats.

Covestro is also a pioneer in the use of predominantly organic-based PU raw materials such as the coating hardeners Desmodur^® eco N 7300 and Bayhydur^® eco 701-90 and the urethane acrylate dispersion Bayhydrol^® eco 2877.

Advantage of polyurethane

The floor of the interior has been completely redesigned with PU materials to create a pleasant and homelike setting. Baypreg^® is a two-component polyurethane system that is lighter than steel, providing significant advantages. The combination of Baypreg^® and glass fiber mats with core materials such as paper honeycomb or foamed polycarbonate enables a significant reduction in weight while providing high mechanical strength.

The Baynat^® PU system provides effective sound absorption. It makes self-supporting components possible and has long been used in vehicle headliners, but it is likely to play a particularly important role in the quiet electric car of the future when it comes to absorbing the noise of other passengers and the world outside. The soft Bayfit^® polyurethane system is recommended for even greater damping of noise and vehicle vibrations. It is usually foamed in cavities for this purpose.

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Press Releases:

• Design variety in the car interior of the future
• Modular table concept for the car of the future
• Innovative lightweight construction concept for seat backs

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“The coronavirus pandemic is an exceptional situation and has reinforced the existing global uncertainties even further,” CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann said. “Protecting the health of our employees and their families as well as our business partners is our top priority. In addition, Covestro is doing everything it can to continue to be a reliable supplier for its customers during this crisis. We are confident that we will successfully master this challenge with our absolute focus on customers, strict cost awareness and strong team spirit.”

Full year guidance already adjusted for coronavirus impact

Covestro had already adjusted its previous annual guidance in mid-April as a consequence of the foreseeable negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the global economic development and therefore also on future business performance. “Updating our guidance was necessary in view of the serious impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global markets,” explained Dr. Thomas Toepfer, Covestro’s CFO. “Covestro has a solid position and still has a strong balance sheet and high liquidity. We continue to rely on our operational efficiency, cost cutting programs and ongoing review of our investments to safeguard our stable financial foundation during these challenging times.”

For fiscal year 2020, Covestro anticipates core volume growth below the previous year. FOCF is expected to total between minus EUR 200 million and EUR 300 million, with return on capital employed (ROCE) amounting to between minus 1% and 4%. EBITDA is projected at between EUR 700 million and EUR 1.2 billion. In addition to the existing efficiency and effectiveness program launched in October 2018, Covestro increased the target for additional short-term cost savings by another EUR 100 million to EUR 300 million for the current fiscal year. Current investments are being reduced by around EUR 200 million bringing total investments to some EUR 700 million.

The Annual General Meeting originally scheduled for April 17, 2020, has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. In accordance with the adapted legal framework, the AGM is now to be held without physical presence on July 30, 2020 as a fully virtual event.

Liquidity secured, focus on sustainability and innovation unchanged

In March 2020, Covestro replaced its existing credit facility of EUR 1.5 billion with a new, as yet undrawn syndicated revolving credit facility amounting to EUR 2.5 billion to maintain the company’s financial flexibility and secure liquidity. The interest component is linked to an ESG (environmental, social, governance) rating, which provides Covestro with financial incentives for sustainable business development. Additionally, the company has signed short-term working capital facilities amounting to EUR 500 million, which have been fully drawn in the meantime.

In addition, Covestro was able to secure a loan of EUR 225 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The loan is being used to strengthen Covestro’s research and development activities in the areas of sustainability and circular economy within the European Union. Details on the strategic program for a comprehensive orientation towards the circular economy are expected to be provided in the second quarter of 2020.

In order to further build the company’s capacity for innovation, Covestro expanded its strategic partnerships with start-ups early this year. The company is pursuing the Covestro Venture Capital (COVeC) approach to invest in young companies in five technological focus areas. The latest example is Covestro’s equity investment in French tech start-up Crime Science Technology (C.S.T.). As a stockholder, Covestro pushes the development of sustainable innovation as a long-term growth driver in its core businesses.

Segment results impacted by coronavirus pandemic

In the first quarter of 2020, Covestro’s business in all segments was affected by the significant impact of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly in China.

The Polyurethanes segment saw core volumes decline by 3.6% compared with the prior-year quarter during this period. This is mainly attributable to the downturn in volumes in the electrical, electronics and household appliances sector and the automotive industry. As a result of increased competition worldwide and the change in total volumes sold, sales were down to around EUR 1.3 billion (– 13.7%). EBITDA fell to EUR 50 million (– 68.2%) due to the decline in margins.

Core volumes in Polycarbonates declined by 4.9% from the prior-year quarter. This was due to considerably lower volumes sold in the electrical, electronics and automotive industry. A low level of selling prices and decreased volumes drove sales in the Polycarbonates segment down to EUR 733 million (– 14.8%). Lower margins caused EBITDA to decline to EUR 109 million (– 29.7%).

Core volumes in the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment fell 5.2% compared to the prior-year quarter. This development was driven by weaker demand for coating precursors in all key customer industries, particularly the automotive industry. Sales were down 8.8% to EUR 572 million due to a decline in total volumes sold and lower average selling prices. EBITDA fell to EUR 130 million (–11.0%) due to negative volume effects and weaker margins. Lower costs enabled the EBITDA margin in the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment to rise to 22.7% despite the effects of the coronavirus.

Currently, the solution enables manufacturers to create a digital version of their materials based on trusted (audit) documents. This enables them to prove the sustainability of their supply chain and create reliability and trust. “We are now seeing more companies ranging from material producers to OEMs and brands show interest in creating an open standard for the industry. More players see the value of implementing new technologies to become more transparent, they also realise that it can’t be done alone,” says Mesbah Sabur, Circularise founder.

The start-up has already followed up on their success by presenting the standard to BASF and Stanley Black & Decker in the context of their Circularity Challenge. Circularise ended up being the only software company out of nearly 100 competitors to become a finalist in the challenge.

“The value of having this standard developed by the industry, instead of just one or two companies is in avoiding a central powerful authority and giving equal rights to all participants,” says Thomas Nuyts, Director of Global Product Management at DOMO. Encouraging broad marketplace adoption, the Circularise PLASTICS is available to any organization that manufactures, processes, recycles or uses plastics.

Depending on the position of parties in the value chain, there are different benefits that they can expect. “For material suppliers and processors, as well as molders, Circularise PLASTICS’ participation means increased material value and trust in your production, by adding material passports to plastic resins, additives, colorants and any other materials produced. For OEMs and brand owners, it helps on the road to achieving sustainability targets and a strengthened brand position, by revealing a product’s origin and transparency on its environmental impact,” says Dr. Burkhard Zimmermann, Head of Strategy, Sustainability and Digital, Covestro Polycarbonates.

Industrial companies Covestro and DOMO Chemicals were key architects of the pilot’s final requirements, and will work to adopt the standard. Following completion of a pilot period with these companies, the system is available to the broader market. The objective is to create a strong consortium of companies to set an industry standard for transparency regarding e.g. recycled content and other sustainable practices.

At CES 2020 the new Block chain Traceability Solution will be demonstrated at Covestro’s booth (313) in the Smart City exhibition and at Circularise's booth (51726) at the Eureka Part.

The membership offers the opportunity to be in a leading position and drive the change in the plastics industry. https://www.circularise.com/plastics

This is the first major corporate supply agreement for green electricity from new plants in Germany. It is also an unprecedented step for the chemical industry in Europe. “By purchasing green electricity, we are underpinning our comprehensive sustainability strategy and preparing ourselves for the expected rise in energy prices and CO₂ costs,” said Covestro CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann. “We assume that this will enable us to inspire and motivate our customers and corresponding value chains towards sustainable industrial production.”

“At the same time, we also hope that the cooperation with Ørsted will stimulate the accelerated expansion of renewable energies in Germany,” Steilemann added. “Without green electricity, the chemical industry, but also industry as a whole, cannot make its contribution to ensuring that Germany becomes largely greenhouse gas-neutral by the middle of the century, as specified in the climate protection plan.”

“Our agreement with Covestro is the first tangible step to secure stable revenues for part of the power generated by Borkum Riffgrund 3 which will be built and operated without subsidies. At the same time, this corporate PPA shows that offshore wind can be a reliable source of green power delivering the large volumes required by energy-intensive industrial players. With this agreement, Ørsted and Covestro support the German energy transition and the continued build-out of renewable energy which is urgently needed to reduce carbon emissions in the German industrial sector,” said Martin Neubert, Executive Vice President and CEO of Ørsted Offshore.

Covestro will use the electricity generated at the wind farm to supply its production sites in Germany. The DAX-listed company operates three large plants in North Rhine-Westphalia and another in Schleswig-Holstein. The plants produce high-performance plastics and chemical intermediates for foams, coatings, and films, among other products. These are needed in many areas of daily life.

The green electricity for Covestro will come from the “Borkum Riffgrund 3” wind farm, which Ørsted will be building in the North Sea over the next few years. It will have a total installed capacity of 900 megawatts and will be implemented without public funding. The Danish company already operates two offshore wind farms off of Borkum.

"With this capacity expansion, we are strengthening the Dormagen site as a competence center for specialty films," said Dr. Klaus Schäfer, Covestro's Board Member for Production and Technology, at the laying of the cornerstone. "At the same time, we are investing in promising technologies and applications." The high-quality semi-finished products are used, among other things, in cars, in medical products and in security cards.

Michael Friede, global head of the Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties segment at Covestro, commented: "This investment underscores our strategic focus on such growth businesses. At the same time, the worldwide capacity increases are an expression of our proximity to customers and our increased efficiency in the major regions.”

Latest technology

Covestro is equipping the production lines with the latest technology. "We want to remain the partner of choice for our customers and in the future we will be able to supply them faster and with higher quality," explained Dr. Thorsten Dreier, global head of Covestro's film business. "Together with other facilities at our competence center in Dormagen, they facilitate even better development work. We are currently working on many projects that are expected to be brought to market maturity even faster with the new plants."

The new lines are designed for the production of multi-layer flat films. These products, for example, play an important role in identity documents in order to embed security features and ensure the best possible protection against counterfeiting. They are also used in car interiors.

The competence center in Dormagen, which specializes in polycarbonate flat films, houses production, a technical center for film processing, a showroom and research laboratories. The other two German competence centers are located in Leverkusen and Bomlitz and specialize in film coating and thermoplastic elastomer films.

Global capacity expansion

The investment is part of a global capacity expansion announced last year to meet the growing demand in all regions and strengthen Covestro's position in the film market. The planned total investment of more than 100 million euros also includes an expansion of the associated infrastructure and logistics in order to shorten delivery times. A total of more than 100 new jobs are to be created worldwide.

Another new production line is currently under construction in Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate, Thailand, while the conversion of the coextrusion line in Guangzhou, China, is progressing and the first products are being delivered to customers. There, too, new film capacities will be subsequently built up. Film production in South Deerfield, USA, has now been expanded and converted to around-the-clock operation. This created 30 new jobs.

About Covestro:

With 2018 sales of EUR 14.6 billion, Covestro is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,800 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2018.

Find more information at www.covestro.com.
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Forward-looking statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro’s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.