Biobased HMDA represents an important sustainability milestone

Covestro, the Leverkusen, Germany based raw materials manufacturer, and Genomatica, a biotech company based in California have announced that they have successfully  produced significant volumes of a plant-based version of the chemical raw material HMDA (hexamethylene diamine).

The development is the fruit of a long-term partnership that was established in March 2019. Back then, the companies came together to research and develop high-performance materials based on renewable feedstocks, driven by the ambition to reduce the industry’s dependence both on fossil raw materials and market fluctuations.

The programme with Genomatica is complementary to Covestro’s internal R&D, said Covestro CEO, Markus Steilemann. Genomatica focusses on the development of renewably-sourced, plant-based counterparts of widely-used ingredients and materials, while Covestro established an R&D Competence Center for biotechnology to strengthen its overall know-how in this field.

The programme is ‘one of our largest external funding of biotechnology R&D to date, and underscores both the field’s importance to Covestro and the results it can deliver’, he added.

This announcement represents an important milestone in that partnership.

HMDA, with a worldwide market of 2 million tons per year, is a key ingredient in the USD 6.4 billion market for nylon-6,6, as well as an important component of raw materials for coatings and adhesives from Covestro. Each year, the automotive market uses 500,000 tons of polyurethane coating based on HMDA.

The two companies expect to produce ton quantities of high-quality material over the course of multiple production campaigns. Both partners are already processing and testing material from their initial production campaigns, and the resulting bio-HMDA is of high purity and quality. The companies plan to advance the program to full commercial scale, and Covestro has secured an option from Genomatica to license the resulting integrated GENO HMD process technology for commercial production.

"This programme is of great importance to us, because markets are increasingly asking for more environmentally compliant products based on renewable raw materials, which are just as powerful as their fossil-based alternatives," said Thorsten Dreier, global head of the Covestro business entity Coatings & Adhesives. As well, a purely plant-based HMDA, will allow Covestro to progress its  corporate objective of CO₂-neutral production.