Among them, technology group Thyssenkrupp has formed a consortium to process CO2-containing waste gas from steel mills
* Pressure mounts on firms in Europe's top manufacturer
* Steel group Thyssenkrupp looks to innovate to survive
* Ideas include chemical reactors and microbe filters
By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Filtering carbon dioxide through microbe-infested bubble baths is just one of the ideas being developed by top German industrial companies as they come under growing pressure to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases.
As world leaders gear up for climate talks in Paris, firms like Thyssenkrupp and Bayer's plastics unit Covestro see both a threat and an opportunity.
The threat is that harsher European penalties on emissions will force manufacturers to relocate to regions with less stringent rules. That worries some in Germany, which emits more CO2 than any other European country and depends on manufacturing for a larger share of its economy than its neighbours or the United States.
The opportunity is to harness technology to convert waste gases into useful materials, making German firms pioneers in climate protection.
Steel and technology group Thyssenkrupp has formed a consortium to process CO2-containing waste gas from steel mills into products such as ammonia for nitrogen fertilisers or methanol, a basis for various chemical products.
The so-called Carbon2Chem consortium, which includes E.ON , Akzo Nobel, Linde and Evonik , has 15 years of development work ahead of it, but its chemical reactor concept has vast implications.
Iron and steel makers account for 6.7 percent of global CO2 emissions, almost entirely via steel mill gases.
Under the scheme, the additional energy that is needed in the process would come from hydrogen generated during times of excess supply of wind and solar power.
"Basic chemicals are mainly derived from oil and gas these days," said Thyssen's Chief Technology Officer Reinhold Achatz.
"That's exactly where steel mill gas could come in after a successful Carbon2Chem launch. We would be re-using raw materials that were already used in steel production."
Others, like unlisted Brain Biotech, are harnessing the power of biology, blowing flue gases through a bacteria-filled bubble bath.
Brain, which conducts research for chemical, cosmetics and food companies, is genetically engineering microbes so that they metabolise CO2 into succinic acid, a versatile raw material whose uses include polyesters and food additives.
Elsewhere in Europe, Spanish energy group Repsol and rival Shell are also taking organic approaches in separate projects, seeking to boost the growth of energy crops for biofuel by funnelling CO2 from refinery gases into greenhouses.
While most of these schemes rely in part on public-sector funding, companies say their willingness to spend millions on climate projects will depend on staying competitive as more energy-related levies loom.
"GIVE US A CHANCE"
Thyssenkrupp, facing fierce competition from Chinese rivals, says higher prices for carbon emission rights would throw the entire European steel industry into doubt, and that its steel mills are already pushing the limits of energy efficiency.
It plans, with its partners, to invest 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in a full-blown chemical reactor by 2030 if its pilot is successful.
"Politicians need to give us a chance for there to be a steel industry in Germany in 2030 at all so that we can implement this project," said Achatz.
That echoes a common worry in industrial boardrooms: that Berlin's efforts to spearhead the fight against greenhouse gases will only drive energy-intensive operations to less regulated centres overseas.
After Group of Seven leaders pledged in June to abandon fossil fuels by the end of the century, the chief executive of German chemicals and oil group BASF quipped: "You also have to stop breathing, because we are all emitting CO2".
But behind the rhetoric, creative approaches are mushrooming. Bayer's Covestro is planning to put a polyurethane foam production line on stream next year that will replace some of the petrochemical precursor materials with CO2.
Covestro is seeking to apply the concept, which hinges on chemical catalysts prodding CO2 molecules into recombining into something useful, to other production lines.
Spain's Repsol is working on a plastics project, dubbed Neospol, that is based on similar principles.
(Additional reporting by Rodrigo de Miguel in Madrid and Georgina Prodhan in Frankfurt; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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