Rethinking Chemistry

Gabriela Uchôna dos Santos, 28, works in Technical Service at the site in São Paulo, Brazil. She is passio­nate about our customers. She works closely with them to develop inno­vative solutions tailored to their needs. As part of a project to produce more eco-friendly cleaning agents, she worked in a team on a preser­vative of natural origin – one of the few ingre­dients that has mainly been produced syntheti­cally until now. The basis: terpenes extracted from orange peel. No other country produces more oranges than Brazil. So why not use the peel? The preser­vative Lutensit^® EcoCitrus can be used in a variety of household cleaners and deter­gents to effectively counter­act bacteria and fungi in an environ­mentally friendly way. By using recycled and renewable raw materials instead of fossil ones, Gabriela wants to contribute to more sustaina­bility and environ­mental compati­bility in the home care industry.

Zi Ming Yang, 30, works as a researcher at BASF’s Innovation Campus in Shanghai, China. She comes from the Chinese province of Shanxi, an area that is primarily characterized by coal mining. She realized early on that she wanted to work in sustainable technology research. Her passion for innovation in chemistry led her from her hometown to Oxford University and back to Shanghai. Today, she works with a team on pioneering technologies for advanced heating concepts, hydrogen recovery and CO₂ efficiency. Zi Ming focuses in particular on technology scouting, benchmarking and process modeling to accelerate the transition of cutting-edge technologies from the lab to the production line.

Linde Eysermans, 25, studied energy engineering and works as a utility manager at BASF in Belgium. Her role primarily involves ensuring a reliable supply of electricity for the Antwerp site’s operations, while also monitoring and settling consumption levels. By 2050, BASF aims to achieve net-zero CO₂ emissions for production and energy purchases. BASF is actively exploring new electricity-based production processes to reach this goal. As part of its sustainability initiatives, there is an increasing demand for green electricity at BASF Antwerp. On one hand, Linde and her colleagues are working to significantly expand the electricity grid’s capacity to meet the growing need for electricity. This is a significant undertaking given the size of the Antwerp Verbund site. On the other hand, there is a specific focus on sourcing green electricity. This involves investments in wind farms, solar parks, and green electricity contracts, with the overarching goal of achieving a global proportion of at least 60 percent green electricity by 2030.