CO₂-Based Material CARDYON® Enables New Application

Covestro, in collaboration with Shandong INOV New Materials Co., Ltd., a plastic sports flooring materials manufacturer and engineering contractor, completed the installation of a walkway using cardyon®, a CO2-based material, at Covestro's Asia-Pacific Innovation Center in Shanghai. The use of Covestro's cardyon® polyols in plastic tracks marks a new milestone. This is the first application in China where the innovative CO2-based material has been used to produce sports flooring. Daniel Meyer, Head of the Polyurethane Business Unit at Covestro, said, "The efforts of our Chinese colleagues together with INOV represent an important step toward raising awareness of the application possibilities of our innovative materials. Our collaboration with industrial partners will continue to be a focal point for conducting further research in the future and promoting the use of our sustainable products. Our goal is to continuously reduce our CO₂ footprint and align our business with the circular economy in a sustainable manner." For the walkway, carbon dioxide is contained in a binder or, more precisely, in one of its components—a polyol called cardyon®, developed by Covestro for plastic synthesis. This sustainable material can save up to one-fifth of crude oil in production—meaning an innovative contribution to resource conservation and the circular economy. [caption id="attachment_104911" align="aligncenter"] New polyurethane walkway with CO2 technology at Covestro's regional innovation center in Shanghai.[/caption]

Breakthrough in the use of innovative materials in sports

The 66-meter-long and 1.2-meter-wide walkway uses cardyon®-based polyurethane adhesive and INOV's molecular structure design. It features exceptional flexibility and evenness that provide greater comfort. The walkway material has a magnificent and durable color with high resistance to yellowing. Xu Jun, President of INOV, said, "We are greatly honored to participate in the installation of this cardyon®-based walkway at Covestro's Asia-Pacific Innovation Center. We hope to use this opportunity to continue collaboration with Covestro in more areas and to explore sustainable and innovative applications of polyurethanes."

Using CO₂ to conserve oil resources

Cardyon® material is Covestro's groundbreaking product that converts CO₂ into a valuable raw material. Through close collaboration with RWTH Aachen University in Germany, inert CO₂ molecules are activated and used to partially replace crude oil in the production of polyether carbonate polyols. Since 2016, Covestro has been producing new CO₂-based polyols at its Dormagen facility near Cologne, using carbon dioxide generated as a by-product from a neighboring chemical company. Dr. Michael Schmidt, Head of Innovation for Covestro Asia-Pacific, said, "It is wonderful to see the CO₂ walkway built at our Asia-Pacific Innovation Center, which is another example of our commitment to fostering sustainability-inspired innovation. We eagerly await using CO₂ as a new raw material in various applications. We hope to create a closed loop in CO₂ usage, thereby conserving oil resources and promoting a circular economy." Cardyon® has so far been used to produce soft polyurethane foam for mattresses and upholstered furniture and sports flooring at a renowned sports club's hockey facility in Germany. This product is also used in the production of innovative elastic textile fibers. The latest development is an application of soft foams produced with cardyon® for automotive interiors. By jointly constructing the polyurethane walkway, Covestro and INOV now mark a groundbreaking use of cardyon® in China and further strengthen their collaboration in the plastic tracks sector.