可持续发展
化工行业使用少量的原材料制成千上万种不同的产品。大部分化工生产都是从蒸汽裂解装置开始的。该装置可以利用蒸汽将石脑油（一种长链碳氢化合物）裂解成更小的分子。这些分子包括氢、甲烷、乙烯和丙烯，它们成为下游生产的基础材料，主要被制成塑料、涂料、溶剂和作物保护产品。
因此，这一原则类似于消费者购买“绿色”或“清洁”电力。尽管消费者无法确定他们在家中使用的电力是否直接来自可再生能源，但绿色能源在电网中的总份额随着需求的增加而上升。在化工行业，我们在化工生产的初始环节添加可再生或再循环原料，并将其分配给最终产品。这种基于计算的原则具有多种优势：它减少了温室气体排放和化石原料投入，产品质量和性能则保持不变。因此，产品可以像传统生产材料一样进行加工，无需调整配方、设施或工艺。购买生物质平衡产品的客户可以像使用传统产品一样使用它们，同时享有同等的产品品质。
独立机构负责审核分配方法（例如，如何将可持续原材料通过算法分配给最终产品）。然而，目前专家们仍在使用不同的方法（或标准）进行审核和认证。
我们在不同的利益相关者平台上进行合作：
The mass balance approach defines the rules for attributing the proportion of sustainable raw materials to the end product. In the initial phase of the transition, it offers the opportunity to differentiate more sustainable products on the market and return the higher costs of alternative processes and materials using the existing infrastructure. What matters is that someone introduces a more sustainable alternative to the existing business.
If customers decide to buy a product that offers a sustainability benefit while maintaining high quality, they can contribute to a higher proportion of alternative feedstock. In the absence of quotas or regulations, the main driver of the transformation to renewable raw materials is the market.
The chemical industry is undergoing a raw material transformation. While a major part of chemical production is still based on fossil raw materials, BASF is taking steps to become less dependent on fossil resources. The aim: to use more renewable and recycled raw materials in existing production plants.
BASF's biomass balance and ChemCycling® approach were born out of a simple question: How can we replace fossil raw materials for thousands of products manufactured in BASF's vast, complex production network? The solution is to feed alternative raw materials into the production chain alongside fossil raw materials at such an early stage that the end products remain chemically unchanged. Products that are certified as biomass-balanced or Ccycled® thus offer the same performance and quality as conventional products, with the added benefit of a lower carbon footprint and a contribution to waste recycling.
Two steamcrackers, the synthesis gas plant and the acrylic acid plants are core elements of the Verbund. In the steam cracker, steam is used to split or “crack” naphtha, a long-chain hydrocarbon, into smaller molecules. These molecules then serve as the building blocks for downstream production. They include, for example, hydrogen, methane, ethylene and propylene, which are mainly processed into plastics, coatings, solvents and crop protection products.
The plants are the beginning of countless value chains, and their products are further processed into thousands of commercial products through further process steps. That’s why setting up a dedicated production system for relatively small amounts of recycled or renewable feedstock would leave a huge environmental and economic footprint and cause additional CO2 emissions.
Mass balance offers a solution for the early phase of the transition: We can introduce different alternative materials such as biogas, bio-naphtha, or pyrolysis oil in technically viable feed-in points of our integrated chemical production. In order to use all possible feedstocks as efficiently as possible, a mass balance model with flexible feedstock selection is required.
Interlinked production facilities and highly optimized processes ensure that all materials are used in the most efficient way. What's more, we can scale the quantities of alternative raw materials in line with increasing customer demand for mass-balanced products, thereby accelerating the transformation.
Mass balanced products can be processed by our customers in various industries in the same way as their conventional twin. Our mass balance portfolio includes more than 1.500 certified products. Their advantage lies in the combination of proven ecological benefits with unchanged product properties.
How mass balanced products deliver environmental impact:
Independent bodies audit the attribution (i.e., how the volumes of the sustainable raw material are mathematically assigned to the final product). However, at the moment, experts are still using different methods – also known as standards – for auditing and certification.
