Covestro Invests 100 Mn Euros in R&D to Upgrade Its Innovation Centers

Covestro invests around 100 million euros on its worldwide R&D infrastructure and assets. With investments over three years until 2025, the worldwide provider of high-performance materials ensures its future competitiveness in a tough environment. To generate value for clients in all business segments, the firm focuses on emerging technologies to expedite the transition to a fully circular economy. A worldwide digitization strategy in R&D is an important building component in this direction. Covestro is dedicated to becoming completely circular with ongoing investments in its primary innovation hubs. Covestro takes a comprehensive approach to operations at many levels, introducing upgraded customer service equipment, automated systems, and new digital capabilities in labs and technical centers across the world.

Sucheta Govil, CCO of Covestro, says, “Our investments in R&D are integral to our strategy of creating value for our customers. They are enabling us to expand and maintain our innovation pipeline at a high level. By this, we are the go-to partner for more sustainable solutions which help to meet the climate-neutrality targets of our customers. Thanks to this global innovation booster, we come even closer to our joint goal to become fully circular.”

Digitalization opens the door to the laboratory of the future.

One of the primary examples of R&D investments and collaboration across multiple business sectors is the worldwide accessible knowledge for In-Mold-Coating (also known as Direct Coating), with facilities in Leverkusen and other major R&D locations that were recently upgraded. To accommodate future advances in process technology, end-to-end digitization was developed to capture all process-relevant data. In the increasingly competitive automobile sector, advancement in In-Mold-Coating technology allows for high-quality surfaces for new vehicle designs. This immediately contributes to the desire for more efficient automobile manufacture.

Another significant investment milestone: high-performance computers (HPCII) represent the next stage of Leverkusen's technical progress as an innovation incubator for the circular economy. High-performance computers make it possible to simulate chemical processes, allowing for speedier and more sustainable research. They are utilized, for example, in foam processing simulations for refrigerators, allowing for greater energy efficiency and enhanced cool chains in finished items.

“Simulations of chemical processes are a key element in the development of recycling technologies and research on new molecule classifications,” stated Torsten Heinemann, Head of Group Innovation & Sustainability at Covestro. “Moreover, laboratory digitalization enables test data to be recorded in higher quality and to a greater extent than is usual in analogue ways. Both help us to find the most possible and more sustainable solutions for our customers more quickly. Many developments in the field of recycling would be like looking for a needle in a haystack without digital R&D and simulations. “

Chemical recycling is a potential technique, particularly for plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled or must be recycled with significant effort. Chemical recycling allows for the recovery of huge amounts of the original substance. One example is the Evocycle CQ mattress initiative. Covestro and its partners have developed an innovative process for the chemolysis of flexible polyurethane foams from worn mattresses, allowing the key components - polyol and the precursor to the isocyanate TDI - to be recovered. In this method, discarded mattress foams are immediately recycled into new polyurethane building blocks.

Infrastructure and worldwide locations benefit from continuous investment

A functional infrastructure provides the foundation for creative research. Covestro's expenditures include modernizing efforts for its Leverkusen laboratory. These labs drive application technology for coatings and adhesives in key sectors such as automotive and construction, as well as specialty fields such as light guiding and medical applications.

Also in the United States, Covestro is investing in a series of modernization and technological enhancements at its Pittsburgh facility. Covestro sees the US market as creative and high-potential. Improving the R&D facilities demonstrates a strong commitment to the customers.

Over the last several months, different investments in infrastructure and digitalization at the Shanghai innovation center have reflected the leading solution innovations for the automotive and electronics sectors.

Source: Covestro