FSC Professor Walter Leitner and his team nominated for Deutscher Zukunftspreis
The emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) by power plants, means of transport and industrial plants processing fossil fuels is currently the subject of controversial debate. One way to use carbon sensibly would be to process it as a raw material for the production of plastics in the chemical industry. A method for this approach was developed by chemists Dr. Berit Stange, Dr. Christoph Gürtler and Prof. Dr. Walter Leitner.
CO2 - A Raw Material for Sustainable Synthetics
Berit Stange, head of Polyurethane Recycling at Covestro Deutschlang AG, Christoph Gürtler, head of the New Processes and Products division at Covestro Deutschland AG and Walter Leitner, Chair of Technical Chemistry and Petrochemicals at RWTH Aachen University and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Mühlheim an der Ruhr, have developed a method by means of which the greenhouse gas CO2 can be used on a marketable basis in synthetics production. The chemical process is based on tailor-made catalysts and makes the inert carbon dioxide usable for the production of polyols. The three researchers have now been nominated for the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2019 for the development of this catalytic process and the first products produced.