M&As: Covestro becomes a shareholder in recycling firm BioBTX; Wacker acquires US silicone healthcare products firm

German materials firm Covestro has become a strategic partner in BioBTX, to enable the construction of what it says is the world’s first demo plant for the BioBTX ICCP-Technology in the Netherlands, scheduled to go into operation by early 2027.

The technology makes it possible to produce chemicals such as benzene, toluene and xylene from organic and mixed plastic waste. These aromatics are essential building blocks for the chemical industry and are used in plastics production, among other things.

Covestro is investing a mid-single-digit million Euro amount in the scale-up from the Netherlands. In addition to Covestro, the financial investors Invest-NL and Infinity Recycling are also involved in the project. Once operational, the demonstration plant will convert 20 kilotonnes/year of mixed plastic waste. Following successful upscaling of the technology over the past years, the demonstration plant is a crucial intermediate step for the technology to be implemented on an industrial scale.

"Our vision is to fully align with the circular economy and climate neutrality, and we are pursuing all innovative solutions that bring us closer to this goal," says Thorsten Dreier, CTO of Covestro. "Chemical recycling can make a significant contribution to closing the loop and the BioBTX ICCP technology is a promising way of using waste to recover raw materials that we use in production." Unlike other recycling technologies, this technology also makes mixed waste from different source materials suitable for the process.

The investment in BioBTX is part of Covestro's venture capital program, in which the company invests in young start-ups and scale-ups with innovative products, solutions or business models and thus promotes entrepreneurial activities in and alongside its core business.

The partnership with BioBTX also includes two joint development agreements. In the development projects, Covestro is researching further possibilities for recycling its own products and contributing know-how in the field of digitalisation to improve plant performance.

Covestro has been cooperating with BioBTX for more than four years and, together with the company, has launched the EU-funded Circular Foam project, which is working on the recycling of rigid polyurethane foam using pyrolysis.

"We are pleased that we can contribute our expertise in the areas of application development, digital research and development and chemical recycling to the project and thus provide impetus for a new, Europe-wide circular ecosystem for plastic waste," explains Torsten Heinemann, Head of Group Innovation and Sustainability at Covestro.

In other news, German chemical company Wacker is acquiring production facilities and know-how from US coater Bio Med Sciences Inc. to expand its expertise and business with silicone-coated healthcare products. As part of the acquisition, a large part of the workforce will also move to Wacker. Both companies have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

With the acquisition of the equipment and know-how from Bio Med Sciences, Wacker it is expanding its expertise in the fully integrated development and production of silicone-coated pressure-sensitive adhesive products.

Thanks to their skin compatibility and easily adjustable adhesive properties, silicones enable improved product solutions. The market for fixation aids and adhesive pads for health plasters and medical technology products has been growing in popularity for years.

All production lines and a large part of the workforce will be transferred to a new business unit called Wacker Silicone Manufactured Innovations LLC (WSMI). The unit, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wacker Chemical Corporation, acts as a prototype developer, technical service provider and contract manufacturer for medical devices and wound dressings. The company is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, US.

Existing consumer products and related brands will remain with Bio Med Sciences and will not be acquired by Wacker.

"The acquisition is an important step for us. It gives us the opportunity to drive our silicone specialties business even more effectively," says Wacker Executive Board member Christian Kirsten. "We can work even better with customers who are looking for innovative coating solutions. The new business perfectly complements our existing solutions in the field of silicone adhesive gels for medical and cosmetic applications."

Wacker adds it will also use the acquired technology as a development platform for innovations in the field of fixatives, such as portable medical devices, and scar care applications.

"With the ability to produce prototypes, we can now also demonstrate the performance characteristics and advantages of our silicones to coaters, assemblers and design experts of medical devices," explains Christoph Kowitz, CEO/President of Wacker Chemical Corporation.

"In the future, we will be able to provide the best possible support to coaters who are not yet able to use silicone or systems for silicone coating," says Kowitz.

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