Covestro Launches EU Project to Develop Continuous Bio-Based Aniline Production Process

Covestro announced it has launched a new EU-funded research project aimed at developing the first continuous production process for bio-based aniline, a key raw material used in manufacturing methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), a core building block for polyurethanes.

The project, called Bio4PURConti, is coordinated by Covestro and includes a 10-partner consortium spanning seven countries, including Fibenol Imavere, the University of Stuttgart, Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Axel'One, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and other industrial and academic organizations. According to Covestro, the project has a total budget of €8.4 million (approximately $9 million), including €7 million in EU funding, and will run for 42 months.

Fossil-based aniline production generates approximately 20 million metric tons of CO₂ emissions annually worldwide, according to the company. Covestro's existing bio-based process uses a tailored microorganism to convert industrial sugars from plant-based biomass into an intermediate product through fermentation, which is then converted into aniline through chemical catalysis using a fed-batch method, in which raw materials are added and product harvested in stages.

The new project aims to replace that fed-batch approach with continuous fermentation technology, using plant-based sugars, such as those derived from hardwood biomass. According to Covestro, the resulting bio-based aniline is fully compatible with existing polyurethane manufacturing processes and meets MDI specifications without requiring changes to downstream operations. The project will scale the process from lab scale to a 1.5 cubic meter semi-industrial demonstration at pilot plants in Ghent, Belgium and Leverkusen, Germany, incorporating cell recycling, real-time analytics and downstream processing.

"Demonstrating continuous fermentation at semi-industrial scale for a high-volume raw material like aniline will set a new benchmark for what biotech processes can achieve in the chemical industry. Biology and engineering, when combined at scale, can fundamentally reshape how we produce the materials the world depends on," contends Markus Dugal, head of Process Technology at Covestro, in a press statement.

Covestro claims to be one of the world's leading aniline producers, with production capacity exceeding one million metric tons per year.

The Bio4PURConti launch follows other recent sustainability-focused investments by Covestro. In May, the company announced plans to install a new steam compressor at its Dormagen, Germany site as part of what it described as its largest energy efficiency project to date. According to the company, the compressor is expected to reduce the site's energy consumption by 2% annually and cut more than 40,000 tons of CO₂ emissions per year by capturing and reusing waste steam generated during toluene diisocyanate production.