ContiTech partners with Colipi on carbon-to-biomaterials project

Hamburg, Germany – Continental’s ContiTech group sector has partnered with biotech startup Colipi GmbH to advance the production bio-based oils and materials.

Starting summer 2026, the Hamburg University of Technology spinoff intends to lease space at the ContiTech site in Hamburg-Harburg and use CO2-rich exhaust gases from the production site to cultivate microorganisms, said ContiTech 19 Nov.

The goal of the collaboration is to establish “one of the world’s largest bioreactors,” where bacteria will convert CO2, hydrogen and oxygen into biomolecules such as “climate oil”, an alternative to plant-based oils like palm oil.

Once installed, the bioreactor will receive CO2-rich exhaust gases directly from the steam generation system to feed microorganisms as their sole carbon source.

The process transforms CO2 into “a resource for producing bio-based materials,” said ContiTech, noting that the project marks “a major step toward industrial carbon capture and utilisation (CCU).”

The collaboration follows an earlier “milestone” trial carried out in the summer, in which a Colipi team collected exhaust samples from the rooftops of the ContiTech site for lab analysis.

The experiment, said the German manufacturer, was “highly successful,” demonstrating that untreated combustion gas from steam generation does not inhibit bacterial growth.

The microorganisms were able to use the CO2 as a carbon source – even in the presence of trace gases such as 46 ppm nitrogen oxides and 7 ppm carbon monoxide.

These findings, ContiTech stressed, highlight a key advantage of biological CCU technologies over chemical-catalytic methods: their tolerance to fluctuations and impurities in exhaust quality.

The partnership gives the start-up both a base for scaling and a source of real-world emissions testing, according to Maximilian Webers, CEO and co-founder of Colipi.

“Not only are they giving us space to grow, but they’re also contributing CO2-rich exhaust for our field testing, helping us validate our technology for industrial CCU applications,” he said.

ContiTech is the industrial and materials arm of Continental AG and focuses on products made from rubber, plastic and metal.

In Hamburg, air springs as well as rubber compounds are produced for use as preliminary products for a wide range of industries.

ContiTech said some of the products to be produced through the CCU process could be used in ContiTech’s rubber compounds.

“The ability to use CO2 productively could be a breakthrough. It turns CO2 from part of the problem into part of the solution,” said Michael Hofmann, head of technology at ContiTech.