Displaying items by tag: polymers

Chemicals and polymers giant Bayer is to establlsh a commercial-scale plant to produce CO2 as a feedstock for the manufacture of polyurethane foam.

The company has already started the planning process for the facility at its site in Dormagen, Germany, where CO2 and aims to supply the precursor to selected processors from 2015.

Polymers business unit Bayer MaterialScience has collaborated with partners from industry and academia to develop the process, which has been in test phase for the last two years.

As part of the publicly funded research project “Dream Production”, a pilot plant at Bayer’s main site in Leverkusen produced smaller quantities of the precursor polyol, in which the CO2 is chemically bound.

“After successfully completing the test phase, we are now launching Stage 2 with the target of commercialisation,” said ,” says Patrick Thomas, CEO of Bayer MaterialScience.

The first use of the new CO2-based flexible foam will be for the production of mattresses, said Bayer, noting that
the planned production facility in Dormagen will have a capacity of several thousand tonnes.

“This will not be enough to accommodate the market demand, of course," said Thomas. "It is Bayer’s patent-registered technology and we have not yet decided to be the exclusive producer of this innovative polyol. Licensing might also be a possibility."

(Image source: Bayer)