Covestro and Genomatica announced an important industry milestone to advance sustainability resulting from their partnership. The two companies have teamed to be the first to successfully produce significant volumes of a plant-based version of the chemical raw material HMDA (hexamethylenediamine). HMDA, with a worldwide market of 2 million tons per year, is a key ingredient for a widely-used type of nylon (nylon-6,6), as well as an important component for raw materials for coatings and adhesives from Covestro.

Up to now, HMDA has been manufactured from fossil feedstocks. Coatings and adhesives can be produced more sustainably thanks to bio-based HMDA, made from renewable feedstocks. Areas of application include automotive, construction, furniture, textiles and fibers.

Teams from Genomatica and Covestro have been working together to develop a commercial process technology for bio-based HMDA. The companies expect to produce ton quantities of high-quality material over the course of multiple production campaigns. Both partners are already processing and testing material from their initial production campaigns, and the resulting bio-HMDA is of high purity and quality.

The companies plan to advance the program to full commercial scale, and Covestro has secured an option from Genomatica to license the resulting integrated GENO™ HMD process technology for commercial production. Genomatica develops widely-used ingredients and materials using biotechnology and renewable, plant-based feedstocks rather than fossil feedstocks and their associated extractive processing methods. These materials are used by brands and their suppliers in popular goods ranging from apparel to cosmetics.

Covestro brings extensive know-how in the field of research, chemical process technology and application development. The cooperation for the development of alternative raw materials based on biotechnology advances Covestro's global program to achieve the circular economy. Covestro established an R&D Competence Center for biotechnology to further strengthen its overall know-how in this field.

Bio-based raw materials and biotechnology have also been identified as one of five focus areas at Covestro´s Venture Capital (COVeC) approach.