European industry fosters CO2 reutilisation
The pan-European research project Carbon4PUR has taken the next step in investigating how waste gas from the steel industry can be turned into chemicals for valuable plastics.
The consortium has started evaluation of the ideal conditions for industrial-scale testing in southern France, where a steel mill of ArcelorMittal and a chemical plant of Covestro are close neighbours.
On a laboratory scale, the Carbon4PUR project has shown promising results with first plastic precursors having been obtained from flue gases such as CO2.
The consortium has invited representatives from industry, politics, media and authorities to a field trip on March 20th in the port city of Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, to inform about the status and discuss the future infrastructure needed to scale up research under real industrial conditions.
Dr Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro, said: “We must consider waste as a resource. A cross-sector approach as pursued by the Carbon4PUR consortium is the right way to reach this goal. Together, we can make more use of alternative carbon sources such as CO2 in order to close the carbon loop and save direct fossil resources such as crude oil.”