14 May 2021
Sustainability

BASF expands global PGM refining capacity, further driving circular economy business

May 14, 2021

BASF announced today the expansion of its Seneca, South Carolina, USA, Platinum Group Metals (PGM) refining facility. The company will invest double-digit millions in capital improvements to increase refining capacity to recycle precious metals from spent catalysts such as automotive catalytic converters.

An operator at the Seneca, South Carolina, site recycles precious metals from a scrapped catalytic convertor. The site serves as BASF’s global production hub for the recycling of end-of-life automotive and chemical catalysts, allowing for the efficient recovery and recycling of the precious metals contained inside. This creates a sustainable secondary supply source for such limited global resources.

Recycled metal has as much as 90% lower CO2 emissions than metal from primary mines. By recovering the precious metals for reuse in fresh catalysts BASF closes the loop with circular economy solutions.

“This investment further strengthens our global leadership position in the spent automotive catalyst recycling market,” said Tim Ingle, Vice President, BASF Precious Metals Refining, Chemicals & Battery Recycling. “We are proud to enable the circular economy and to support our customers’, and our own, sustainability goals.”

BASF’s Seneca site produces precious metal catalysts and chemicals that are used by BASF customers to produce a wide variety of products, including herbicides, plastics, pharmaceuticals, automotive emission catalysts, fragrances and fertilizers.

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Birgit Hellmann
Global Sustainability Communications
Last Update 14 May 2021