1974 / Wastewater Treatment Plant

Following 17 years of research and planning, the first wastewater treatment plant at the Ludwigshafen site starts operations in December 1974. It is Europe’s largest mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plant. In terms of capacity, the treatment plant could purify the wastewater of six to seven million people. The wastewater plant is continuously being improved and upgraded. For example, the wastewater treatment plant has been operating with the so-called process of nitrification since 2001. This enables BASF to significantly reduce its annual nitrogen disposal into the Rhine from 3,500 tons (2001) to 593 tons (2013).