Materials manufacturer Covestro and RWTH Aachen University are extending their partnership in catalysis research. Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Markus Steilemann and RWTH Rector Professor Ernst Schmachtenberg recently signed an agreement to this effect. Under the agreement, Covestro will contribute a total of 12 million euros over the next seven years to fund the CAT Catalytic Center in Aachen, operated jointly by the two partners.
They had originally joined forces in 2007 to establish the facility. The Center currently has 25 employees engaged in basic research into innovative technologies, with a focus on fundamental, long-term issues in catalysis research. Scientific director of the Center since its inception has been Professor Walter Leitner, Chair of Technical Chemistry and Petrochemistry at RWTH.
“Our power to innovate is key to Covestro’s business success and thus its future. We therefore collaborate closely with the research community,” said Steilemann. “The CAT Catalytic Center and its international experts have produced many research results that have been extremely useful to us and our customers.”
Rector Schmachtenberg added: “The CAT Catalytic Center is representative of the fruitful partnership between science-oriented industry and application-oriented basic research. We are therefore very pleased that this facility has secured funding for the next few years.”
The greatest achievements by the CAT Catalytic Center and Covestro to date have been in the utilization of carbon dioxide as a new raw material in plastics production. The two partners developed a catalytic method and brought it relatively quickly to the point of market introduction.
Specifically, CO2 can now be used as component for manufacturing polyurethane foam. This material is normally produced entirely from petroleum. Covestro this year opened a plant with an annual production capacity of 5,000 metric tons at its Dormagen site.
The researchers at RWTH and Covestro have received several joint awards in recognition of their successful partnership, the most recent being the Innovation Award from industry market information provider ICIS in the Category “Innovation with the best benefit for the environment and sustainability.”
