Did you know that carbon dioxide can be used as raw material for plastics?

On 6-7 December 2016, nova-Institute hosted the “5^th Conference on Carbon Dioxide as Feedstock for Fuels, Chemistry and Polymers“ in Cologne, Germany. With 180 participants from industry, science and policy, the event was one of the biggest on Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) worldwide so far. Leading experts on CCU discussed the latest developments and future potential of CO₂ use and presented their new technologies. These activities have the potential to revolutionize the whole energy, chemical and plastic sector. Representatives of the European Commission, the German Ministry of Education and Research and Climate KIC updated the participants on the activities towards CCU.

Methanol is without any doubt the first interesting target chemical from CO₂ produced on a chemical pathway. It can be efficiently produced from CO₂ and hydrogen and is the starting point of the production of a wide range of fuels and chemicals. On the biotech pathway, methane, butanol and even lactic acid are – among others – in the focus of the developments. The US company Phytonix, bronze sponsor, presented algae farms to produce competitive butanol from CO₂. Greenpeace Energy showed how important CCU and especially Windgas is for reaching high shares of renewable energies.
Silver sponsor Covestro (Germany) did not only showcase the first polyurethane foams and mattresses made from CO₂, whose production started in June this year, but also presented concepts to develop a range of building-blocks and polymers based on CO₂.
To speed up the implementation of CCU, nova-Institute and partners presented a petition for full integration of CCU fuels in the new Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). Almost 100 persons have already signed, take a look and please support the petition: www.co2-chemistry.eu/CCU-petition

All presentations of the conference will be available in January 2017: www.bio-based.eu/proceedings

In-between the sessions, Michael Carus found time for an interview with Covestro who presented their new product at the conference, mattresses made from CO₂.

Many thanks to our sponsors Covestro and Phytonix as well as to the keynote speakers of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the premium partner EnergieAgentur.NRW and of the Global CO₂ Initiative.

Download this press release as PDF file: 16-12-13-pr-co2-as-raw-material

Source: nova-Institut GmbH, press release, 2016-12-13.