Covestro Acquires Shareholding in BioBTX

As a strategic partner in BioBTX, Covestro is facilitating the establishment of the world's inaugural demonstration plant for BioBTX ICCP-Technology in the Netherlands. This technology enables the conversion of organic and mixed plastic waste into valuable chemicals like benzene, toluene, and xylene. These aromatic compounds are vital raw materials for various industries, including plastics manufacturing.

Covestro is injecting a mid-single-digit million Euro sum into the scale-up initiative from the Netherlands. Apart from Covestro, financial investors Invest-NL and Infinity Recycling are also engaged in the project. Once operational, the demonstration plant will process 20 kilotons of mixed plastic waste annually. After successfully scaling up the technology in recent years, the demonstration plant represents a pivotal intermediate phase before implementing the technology on an industrial scale.

"Our vision is to completely integrate with the circular economy and achieve climate neutrality, and we are actively exploring all innovative solutions that advance us towards this objective," states Thorsten Dreier, Chief Technology Officer of Covestro. "Chemical recycling holds the potential to make a substantial impact in closing the loop, and the BioBTX ICCP technology presents a promising approach for recovering raw materials from waste, which are integral to our production processes." Unlike alternative recycling methods, this technology enables the processing of mixed waste from diverse sources.

The investment in BioBTX is a component of Covestro's venture capital initiative, through which the company supports young startups and scale-ups that offer innovative products, solutions, or business models, fostering entrepreneurial endeavors within and adjacent to its core operations. The partnership with BioBTX includes two collaborative development agreements. Within these projects, Covestro is exploring additional avenues for recycling its own products and providing expertise in digitalization to enhance plant efficiency.

For over four years, Covestro has been collaborating with BioBTX and jointly initiated the EU-funded Circular Foam project. This initiative focuses on recycling rigid polyurethane foam through pyrolysis.

"We are delighted to offer our expertise in application development, digital research and development, and chemical recycling to the project, thereby catalyzing the establishment of a new circular ecosystem for plastic waste across Europe," elucidates Torsten Heinemann, Head of Group Innovation and Sustainability at Covestro.

"Through its involvement with BioBTX and the establishment of the demonstration plant, Covestro is catalyzing a significant advancement towards a sustainable chemical industry," states Ton Vries, CEO of BioBTX. "The generation of renewable aromatics from plastic waste and biomass is a fundamental requirement for circular chemistry."

The commencement of operations for the demonstration plant is slated for early 2027.