Covestro Launches Energy Efficiency Project at Its Dormagen Site

With an investment in a new steam compressor at its Dormagen site, Covestro will reduce its energy consumption in Germany by 2% per year compared to 2025. 

From 2005 to 2022, Covestro has already reduced its energy consumption by around 40%. By 2030, Covestro aims to consume 20% less energy per ton of product produced than in 2020.

This is Covestro’s largest energy efficiency project to date, which will save a low three-digit GWh volume of energy and more than 40,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year. Covestro is investing a low double-digit million Euro amount in the modernization project.

Following the installation of an energy-efficient reactor at the TDI plant last year, the new compressor for the Dormagen site is the next major project to future-proof the location. 

“Energy efficiency is a key lever for transforming our production towards climate neutrality and a circular economy. The principle is: the less energy we need, the better,” says Thorsten Dreier, CTO of Covestro. “That’s why we’re using every opportunity to make our production even more energy-efficient with modern, innovative process technologies.” 

The new compressor operates on the principle of a heat pump. Water vapor is generated during the production processes for TDI, a component of flexible foam. Covestro requires steam for many production processes, but the steam produced during TDI manufacturing is not hot enough. Therefore, some of it is released into the environment as waste heat. The compressor raises the steam to a higher temperature and pressure level, making it suitable for use in production processes.

Construction is scheduled to begin at the end of this year, with the compressor expected to go into operation in mid-2027.

This project is part of an energy efficiency strategy with which Covestro is driving its transformation to climate-neutral production. As part of the master plan, Covestro is continuously searching for further potential energy efficiency measures. 

“With these projects, we are not only reducing our CO2 emissions, but also saving on energy costs,” says Andreas Doerfer, Global Energy Excellence Manager. “To achieve our energy efficiency target, we must utilize all available options for using the waste heat generated in our processes to manufacture our products.”