If Dr Markus Steilemann has his way more and more people will soon be able to snooze on the climate killer CO2 The CEO of poly mers supplier Covestro in Leverkusen is referring to the fi rst prod ucts of the company s Dream Production facility in Dormagen that was launched about three years ago This is where Covestro with the help of the notorious carbon dioxide produces some 5 000 metric tons 5 500 short tons of polyol per year a substance that s required for polyurethane foam in upholstered furniture and mat tresses etc In a second stage this chemical which is normally pro duced completely from the carbon in petroleum is planned to be used for the production of insulating materials for buildings or refrig erators and air conditioning systems CO2 to replace petroleum as a raw material The subsidiary of chemical giant Bayer is one of the fi rst companies in Germany to use carbon dioxide as a raw material for polymer pro duction on an industrial scale instead of dismissing it as undesir able waste With CO2 as a carbon supplier we re increasingly able to dispense with traditional fossil sources like petroleum says Coves tro s chemist Dr Christoph Gürtler who developed the facility s pro cesses in collaboration with the Catalytic Center of RWTH Aachen Experts generally refer to this process as carbon capture and utiliza tion CCU Thus the climate gas is beginning to see a change in im age Previously the main idea had been to pump the fraction of CO2 that cannot be avoided by switching to alternative propulsion or pro duction technologies into underground storage areas There prefer ably captured forever in layers of rock carbon dioxide was supposed to do no more harm CO2 recycling is still in its infancy Now the idea is to recycle the climate gas This concept has begun to inspire widespread enthusiasm among the international scientifi c By Denis Dilba Whereas all previous plans revolved around storing the climate gas CO2 in underground layers of rock or just getting rid of it it s now supposed to be converted into a valuable raw material Mattresses carbon fi bers and fuel experts are working on the sensible utilization of CO2 to manufacture these and other products 13 Global

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