Preliminary results from the Bayer MaterialScience (BMS, Leverkusen / Germany; www.bayerbms.com) “Dream Production” project to manufacture polyether polycarbonate polyols (PPPs) from carbon dioxide (CO₂) are “highly promising,” the company says. Since 2011, BMS has operated a pilot plant at Chempark in Leverkusen to test the process for its suitability to make the flexible polyols used to produce foam products such as mattresses – see Plasteurope.com of 21.02.2012.

The project, which is receiving aid from the German research ministry, links the Bayer group with RWTH Aachen University and the jointly operated CAT Catalytic Center (www.catalyticcenter.rwth-aachen.de). In the pilot facility, the partners are studying foam with properties equivalent to those of conventional grades. In place of petrochemicals, the process uses as feedstock CO₂ from a gas-scrubbing facility operated by project partner energy utility RWE.

“The collaboration has significantly helped us to optimise the original Bayer catalyst,” says Christoph Gürtler, who heads up several of the chemical group’s projects on sustainable use of carbon dioxide. As a result, he says, “we can now get the chemically inert carbon dioxide molecule to react.” The viscosity of the polyols is said to be somewhat higher than that of standard products, while processing on existing foaming machines poses no problem.

Following successful completion of the pilot phase in 2015, BMS plans to bring the first products to market. Simultaneously, the company is researching additional applications for the CO₂-to-polyols process in polyurethane products. The new process is claimed to save oil and energy while at the same time reducing emission of greenhouse gases. RWTH is currently conducting an eco-efficiency analysis to determine whether CO₂ “is indeed ultimately reduced,” BMS says, adding that the encouraging results so far “look likely to back up this hypothesis.”