Covestro and Neste partner to produce renewable polycarbonates

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Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.

Covestro and Neste are starting a strategic cooperation in Europe to promote the use of sustainable raw materials in plastics production. Covestro will be supplied with material from renewable sources to replace a significant portion of the fossil raw materials used to date in the manufacture of polycarbonates. This type of a high-performance plastic is used, for example, in car headlamps, LED lights and electronic and medical devices.
Press release (Neste): “Neste and Covestro join forces – renewable raw materials for plastics production”, 27/5/2020.
Related posts:
- “LyondellBasell and Neste announce commercial-scale production of biobased PP and LDPE”, 20/6/2019.
- “Borealis to produce polypropylene using Neste’s renewable propane”, 17/10/2019.
- “Borealis is producing polypropylene based on Neste renewable feedstock”, 23/3/2020.

Figure 1. Headlamp cover made from transparent polycarbonate (taken from the press release, courtesy of Covestro)

Over the short term, the collaboration aims to replace several thousand tons of fossil raw materials in the production of polycarbonates with raw materials produced with Neste’s renewable hydrocarbons (based on waste and residue oils and fats). Thanks to being a drop-in replacement to commonly-used fossil feedstock in the polymers production, Neste’s product is suitable for existing production infrastructures and enables customers like Covestro to generate more sustainable products with consistently high quality using their existing processes.

With Covestro, the positive impact provided by Neste’s renewable hydrocarbons is expanded beyond the field of polyolefins (see related posts to know more about Neste activities on the biobased polyolefins field), showing the product’s value and compatibility with more complex value chains. In the future, both companies intend to expand the scope of their partnership, also with regard to other types of polymers. At the same time, they are inviting other stakeholders along the value chains to cooperate.

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