Polymer supplier Covestro has entered an agreement with Mitsui Chemicals for the supply of phenol and acetone from ISCC Plus-certified mass-balanced sources. Both components will be used for the production of polycarbonate at Covestro’s Asian sites in Shanghai, China, and Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The high-performance plastic is used in a variety of automotive interior applications.
“With this agreement, Covestro, Mitsui Chemicals and Mitsui & Co., are taking their partnership to a new level, with the goal of supplying customers along the process chain with more sustainable raw materials from mass-balanced, renewable sources,” said Sucheta Govil, chief commercial officer at Covestro.
“I am very pleased that we are now also gradually converting our production in Asia to products with renewable raw materials. In this way, we are helping customers achieve their sustainability goals and offering them a drop-in solution that they can use immediately without a major changeover.”
Recently, the first shipment of mass-balanced phenol produced by Mitsui Chemicals’ Osaka site arrived at Covestro’s production facility in Caojing, Shanghai. Further shipments are set to follow, including bio-attributed acetone. Mitsui Chemicals uses bio-feedstock from waste and residues as raw material basis for its bio-attributed phenol and acetone products.
“We’re pursuing not only plastic recycling but also a switch to biomass in aim of realizing a circular economy,” said Yoshino Tadashi, senior managing executive director and president of the Basic Materials Business Sector of Mitsui Chemicals.
“So it’s a delight to have been able to make our first shipment and delivery of mass-balanced phenol based on bio-feedstock to Covestro. With our materiality contributing to the realization of a sustainable society, we look forward to working together with everyone to steadily promote the social implementation of biomass.”
In mass balancing, bio-based raw materials are used at an early stage of production and mathematically allocated to finished products. This saves fossil raw materials and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, while the quality of mass-balanced products remains the same compared with purely fossil-based ones.
