100 percent of carbon from biomass
The industry currently derives aniline from benzene, a petroleum-based raw material. But industrial sugar, which is already derived on large scale from, for example, feed corn, straw and wood, can be used instead. The newly developed process uses a microorganism as a catalyst to first convert the industrial sugar into an aniline precursor. The aniline is then derived by means of chemical catalysis in a second step. "This means one hundred percent of the carbon in the aniline comes from renewable raw materials," explained Jäger.

Covestro is working with the University of Stuttgart, the CAT Catalytic Center at RWTH Aachen University, and Bayer AG to further develop the process. "This interdisciplinary, motivated team combines all the needed expertise at a very high level and is the basis for continued success," said Jäger. The long-term research project will receive funding for a period of two and a half years through the FNR (Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e.V.), a project agency of Germany's Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (funding code: 22010215).

Covestro is already using renewable raw materials in a number of different products. A hardener for coatings that the company developed is one example: up to 70 percent of its carbon content is derived from plants. And CO2 is also increasingly being used an alternative raw material. Used in place of petroleum, CO2 accounts for up to 20 percent of the raw materials used in a precursor for flexible polyurethane foam that Covestro began producing in 2016. The company is also researching and developing many more products based on CO2.

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