Sustainability
Our Carbon Management
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We want to live up to our responsibility for climate protection. One way we do this is with our products, which enable our customers to lower CO2 emissions. But that is not all: We also become more efficient in our production and energy use, we will increase our use of renewable energies and we will accelerate the development and deployment of new CO2-free processes for the production of chemicals.
In recent decades, BASF has already achieved a considerable reduction in CO2 emissions by optimizing energy generation and production processes as well as systematically reducing emissions of nitrous oxide. We continue these efforts and we are also gradually replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources in our electricity purchasing. Moreover, to cut our greenhouse gas emissions dramatically, BASF researchers are intensively working on fundamentally new low-CO2 emitting production technologies.
How can we build a more climate-friendly chemical industry?
While continuing to focus on efficiency, we must also pursue breakthrough technologies and utilize renewable energy.“
We are optimistic that these technologies can be implemented from 2030 onward. Our primary goal here: We want to prevent CO2 emissions from occurring at all. Further options, such as the use of biomass, CO2 or waste as a raw material for chemical production will also increasingly play a role. However, the potential of sustainably available biomass is finite.
BASF expects that this switch to climate-neutral production processes will lead to a sharp increase in electricity demand at the group’s major sites, including the largest production site in Ludwigshafen, in the coming decade. From around 2035, the group’s electricity demand is expected to be more than three times higher than it is today.
A precondition for the transformation of chemical production is the reliable availability of large quantities of renewable electricity at competitive prices. Regulatory framework conditions are also essential for making this transformation economically feasible.
News board
Our research focus area: basic chemicals
What our researchers say
We still have a long way to go. But we are optimistic that technologies such as methane pyrolysis or the electrification of the steam cracker will enable a transformation to low-CO2 chemical production.“
We are working at high pressure on methane pyrolysis, because feasible solutions for clean hydrogen are needed. It is a particular challenge for us to help shape this path to a low carbon chemistry.“
We are about to take a major step out of the laboratory and into a test plant for methane pyrolysis. This is a real milestone and I am very excited to test our low CO2 production process for hydrogen in the new plant.“