ChemCycling
Conversion: turning it into raw materials, BASF
From plastic waste to virgin-grade products
Watch ChemCyclingTM first prototypes
With the ChemCyclingTM project, BASF aims to manufacture products from chemically recycled plastic waste on an industrial scale. In the pilot phase of this project, BASF presented several prototypes with customers. These included mozzarella cheese packaging, transparent refrigerator components and insulation boxes for sensitive applications. In 2020, the first commercial products were launched by customers onto the German market.
As feedstock, BASF focuses on post-consumer plastic waste which is impossible or very inefficient to be sorted for high-value mechanical recycling. An example is mixed plastic waste fractions, e.g. multi-layer food packaging. Therefore, ChemCyclingTM is a complementary approach to mechanical recycling and can contribute to reducing the amount of plastic waste that is landfilled or incinerated.
BASF cooperates with technology partners who use a thermochemical process called pyrolysis to transform plastic waste into secondary raw material (pyrolysis oil). BASF can feed this oil into its production network (Verbund) at the beginning of the value chain, thereby saving fossil resources.
The share of recycled material is allocated to products manufactured in the Verbund site by using a third-party audited mass balance approach. The resulting products have the exact same properties as those manufactured from fossil feedstock. Customers can therefore further process them in the same way as conventionally manufactured products and use them in applications with a high demand for quality, hygiene and performance.
In addition, chemically recycled products have a lower carbon footprint than conventional ones. This is the conclusion of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis, carried out by the consulting company Sphera on behalf of BASF.
The ChemCyclingTM circle
More partnerships to combat mixed plastic waste
BASF SE has signed an agreement for the purchase of pyrolysis oil from mixed plastic waste with ARCUS Greencycling Technologies GmbH, a technology company based in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The two companies want to contribute their respective know-how to the value chain in order to return plastic waste that is not recycled mechanically in the sense of a circular economy and reduce CO2 emissions. ARCUS will supply BASF with pyrolysis oil and expand its capacities in the coming years. BASF will use the oil in its production plants as a raw material for certain products.