Covestro is continuing to advance the sustainability of its polyurethane foams. While the company had previously announced the availability of renewable toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and climate-neutral methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), used in the production of respectively soft and rigid PU foams, it is now also offering polyether polyols based on bio-circular feedstock.
As a result, Covestro is now able to supply both key raw material components for the production of PU foams based on alternative raw materials. Like TDI and MDI, the polyols are produced with the help of the mass balance approach using renewable precursors – from biowaste and residual materials – which are allocated to the products by calculation.
The new polyether polyols are produced in Dormagen, Germany, using the mass-balanced precursor propylene oxide from the shared site with LyondellBasell in Maasvlakte, The Netherlands, where the companies produce propylene oxide and styrene monomer as part of a joint venture. Both of the above-mentioned sites are certified according to the internationally-recognised ISCC PLUS standard.
As drop-in solutions, the polyols, TDI and MDI can be quickly and easily integrated into existing production processes without the need for technical modifications.
The products have been tagged with the CQ suffix in the product name, to distinguish them from their fossil counterparts. CQ stands for Circular Intelligence and is the identifying label for Covestro´s circularity-related products and initiatives.