Sustainability

Our Carbon Management

Rays of sunlight and Green Forest

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 increasingly make use of electricity from renewable sources and we develop fundamentally new low-emission technologies.

 

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 processes.

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We are optimistic that these processes 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.

For now, there are limits to the uses of CO2, owing to the large amount of energy required.

The framework conditions will also be decisive for the successful implementation of new climate-friendly production processes. New technologies require very large volumes of renewable energy at competitive prices. Sectors like the chemical industry, which compete in an international market, cannot pass on the additional costs caused by low-CO2 technologies to their customers. Therefore, globally comparable carbon pricing – or at least at the G20 level – is the best solution to ensure competitiveness.

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.“

Dr. Martin Brudermüller

CEO and Chief Technology Officer, BASF SE

News board

Basic chemicals such as hydrogen and methanol are responsible for around 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions of the european chemical industry – but they are also the indispensable starting point for all the innovative products that enable our customers to protect the climate and that make our everyday lives easier. That is why our research focuses on basic chemicals.

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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.“
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Dr. Andreas Bode, Project manager Carbon Management R&D program

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.“
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Dieter Flick

Lead of the methane pyrolysis project

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.“
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Frederik Scheiff

Head of High Temperature Reactions team