Covestro is investing in a Dutch start-up company. The aim is to build a plant in which biowaste can also be converted into chemicals.
 

By participating as a strategic partner in the company BioBTX, Covestro wants to enable the construction of the world's first demonstration plant for BioBTX technology in the Netherlands. This technology will be used to extract valuable chemicals such as benzene, toluene and xylene from biowaste and mixed plastic waste. These aromatics are considered important building blocks in the chemical industry and are used in plastics production, among other things. Covestro is investing a mid-single-digit million euro amount in the scale-up of the start-up from the Netherlands. In addition to Covestro, the financial investors Invest-NL and Infinity Recycling are said to be also involved in the project. Once operational, the demonstration plant is to be able to process mixed plastic waste in quantities of around 20 kilotons per year and will be transferred to industrial scale after successful operation.
 
Thorsten Dreier, CTO of Covestro, explains: “Chemical recycling can make a significant contribution to closing the loop, and the BioBTX ICCP technology is a promising way to recover raw materials from waste that we use in production.” Unlike other recycling technologies, this technology could also use mixed waste from different source materials for the process. “The production of renewable aromatics from plastic waste and biomass is a prerequisite for circular chemistry,” adds Ton Vries, CEO of BioBTX. With its participation in BioBTX and the construction of the demonstration plant, Covestro was making possible an important step towards a sustainable chemical industry, says Vries.
 
Sources:

• Covestro press release (3.6.2024)
• Photo: © Covestro