Covestro leads consortium seeking continuous fermentation of aniline
In Germany, an EU-funded biobased aniline project spearheaded by Covestro has kicked off. Dubbed Bio4PURConti for Bio-Based Continuous Production for Sustainable Polyurethane Industry, the 10-partner, 7-country project is targeting semi-industrial scale production of a low-carbon drop-in replacement for conventional aniline
Aniline is a key raw material for the plastics and chemical industry, notably for methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, a core building block for polyurethanes. However, fossil-based aniline production generates approximately 20 million metric tons of CO₂ emissions annually worldwide.
Covestro uses a tailored microorganism in its biobased process that converts industrial sugars from plant-based biomass into an intermediate product through fermentation. In a second step, chemical catalysis converts this intermediate into aniline with 100% plant-based carbon.
Bio4PURConti aims to advance this process technology from a fed-batch method to a continuous fermentation technology.
Category: Chemicals & Materials
