Intermediates

Acetylenics and carbonyl derivatives
These specialty intermediates are based on raw materials from BASF’s Verbund, such as acetylene and chlorine. Among the acetylene derivatives are vinyl monomers, acetylenic alcohols and higher alkylpyrrolidones. Chlorine-based intermediates include acid chlorides and chloroformates. Further specialty intermediates are glyoxal and imidazoles, cyclododecanone, 2-mercaptoethanol and triphenylphosphine. The products serve as building blocks for crop protection agents and pharmaceuticals or as monomers and performance additives for polymers, coatings and printing inks.

Acids and polyalcohols
BASF is the world’s leading manufacturer of polyalcohols, such as neopentyl glycol (NPG) and 1,6 hexanediol (HDO), and carboxylic acids, such as formic and propionic acid. Carboxylic acids are used as preservatives for the feed and food industries, as auxiliaries for textile and leather applications and as deicing agents. The portfolio also includes higher carboxylic acids such as 2-ethylhexanoic acid and isononanoic acid (iNA), which are primarily utilized in synthetic lubricants, paint dryer and PVC plasticizer applications. Polyalcohols are mainly offered for the production of a wide range of coatings.

Amines
With about 300 different amines, we have the world’s most diverse portfolio of this type of chemical intermediate. Along with alkyl-, alkanol-, alkoxyalkylamines and ethyleneamines, we offer heterocyclic and aromatic as well as specialty amines. The range is completed by a portfolio of chiral amines of high optical and chemical purity. The versatile products are used mainly to manufacture process chemicals, pharmaceuticals and crop protection agents, as well as cosmetic products and detergents. They also serve to produce coatings, specialty plastics, composites and specialty fibers.

Butanediol and its derivatives
BASF is among the world’s largest manufacturers of 1,4-butanediol, which is a chemical building block for products such as polyesters and polyurethanes. Its derivatives are used to manufacture products ranging from fibers to paints, pharmaceuticals and lithium-ion batteries, and include N-methylpyrrolidone, tetrahydrofuran (THF) and PolyTHF^®.

We consistently align our innovation activities with the needs of our customers. As sustainability is the most important driver of innovation in many of our customer segments, we strive to make our product portfolio more sustainable and thus enable our customers to better achieve their sustainability goals.

We have launched a number of our chemical intermediates as “LowPCF” products globally. This suffix denotes the low carbon footprint (PCF) of these products relative to that of comparable products available on the markets. Our range of LowPCF products currently consists of tert-butylamine, formic acid, propionic acid (PA), 1,6-hexanediol (HDO^®) and NPG.

In addition, we have been globally offering NPG and PA produced at our Ludwigshafen Verbund site with the suffix “ZeroPCF.” We achieve this by using renewable raw materials in our Production Verbund via our biomass balance (BMB)¹ approach. We additionally use renewable energy in the production of NPG.

As drop-in solutions, our LowPCF and ZeroPCF products have the identical quality and properties as standard products. As a result, our customers can use them without having to adapt their existing processes. Customers can easily and efficiently reduce their Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and increase the share of renewable raw materials in the value chain, thus contributing to the transition to a circular economy.

1 The biomass balance approach allows fossil fuels to be replaced by renewable raw materials in BASF’s Production Verbund. The amount of renewable feedstock is allocated to specific products using a third party-verified certification method. For more information on the mass balance approach, see basf.com/massbalance

The Intermediates division holds one of the top three market positions in all strategic business areas in which it is active.

The main competitors (alphabetical order) include Dairen, Dow, Eastman, Huntsman, Luxi, LyondellBasell and Wanhua.

The main aim of process innovation is to optimize existing production technologies and develop new, highly efficient processes that offer significant sustainability contributions and cost benefits.

From 2021 onward

1 Operated in a fully consolidated joint venture with PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad
2 Operated in a joint venture with Sinopec; the startup of the plant expansions for ethanolamines and ethyleneamines took place in early 2024.

From 2021 onward

Thousand metric tons per year

1 All capacities are included at 100%, including plants belonging to joint operations and joint ventures.

BASF supplies Asahi Kasei with biomass-balanced THF

BASF supplies biomass-balanced tetrahydrofuran (THF BMB) to the ROICA Division of Asahi Kasei Corporation, a multinational Japanese company. Asahi Kasei uses BASF’s THF BMB to produce its sustainable stretch fiber under the ROICA^™ brand. The BMB product variant has a carbon footprint significantly lower than BASF’s standard THF products. According to Asahi Kasei, utilizing the BMB variant can lead to a reduction in CO₂ emissions of about 25% compared to its existing products.