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New technologies
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.
The most important climate-friendly technologies on which BASF is working at full speed include the electrically heated steam cracker furnace for the production of basic chemicals and processes for the production of hydrogen such as methane pyrolysis and water electrolysis. Clean hydrogen is a key to the success of the transformation toward climate-friendly chemistry, mobility and heating. Researchers have also developed a process to produce methanol without any greenhouse gas emissions and we want to investigate the use of storage processes for CO2.
Our most important new technologies
Electrically heated steam cracker furnace
Fossil fuels represent the largest sources of CO2 in the chemical industry because chemistry requires energy. To split naphtha into olefins and aromatics for further processing, BASF’s steam crackers need to reach a temperature of 850°C. Until now, the cracker’s furnaces have been fossil-fired, meaning they are operated with natural gas.
If we could operate these crackers with electricity from renewable sources instead, this would reduce the CO2 emissions by 100 percent during the heating process.
BASF, SABIC and Linde have signed a joint agreement to develop and demonstrate solutions for electrically heated steam cracker furnaces. The partners have already jointly worked on concepts to use renewable electricity instead of the fossil fuel gas typically used for the heating process. With this innovative approach focusing on one of the petrochemical industries’ core processes, the parties strive to offer a promising solution to significantly contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions within the chemical industry.
Climate neutrality with clean hydrogen
For BASF, the use of clean hydrogen is a key element in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In Europe, for example, BASF is one of the largest hydrogen producers. At our main plant in Ludwigshafen alone, we produce around 250,000 metric tons of hydrogen per year. The gas is a key and irreplaceable raw material for important products such as ammonia and is found in many consumer products from chewing gum to plastics. Hydrogen is mostly produced from hydrocarbons such as natural gas by steam reforming, which involves high CO2 emissions (about 9 to 10 tons of CO2 per ton of hydrogen). This makes hydrogen production one of the largest CO2 emitters in the chemical industry.
In order to produce hydrogen without CO2 in the future, BASF is relying in parallel on two processes: commercially available water electrolysis and methane pyrolysis, for which BASF is developing a new process technology. In order to further expand CO2-free hydrogen production, sufficient electricity based on renewable energy must be available
While hydrogen is used as a material in the chemical industry, it can be used as an energy carrier (mobility, building heating) in other areas of application. Since low-emission hydrogen is in short supply, it needs to be prioritized for those areas in which its use is essential.
Clean hydrogen: Methane pyrolysis
The chemical industry needs large quantities of hydrogen. For instance, BASF uses it as a reactant for ammonia synthesis. Because hydrogen is indispensable for carrying and storing energy in numerous sustainable future applications, it will continue to grow in importance.
Steam reforming is currently the most important industrial-scale procedure for producing hydrogen from natural gas or coal. However, this process releases considerable quantities of CO2.
As part of its Carbon Management program, BASF is working together with cooperation partners in a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to develop methane pyrolysis, a methane pyrolysis technology for producing climate-friendly hydrogen from natural gas. Here, methane or natural gas, which mainly consists of methane, is split directly into its components of hydrogen and solid carbon. The process uses comparatively little energy and, if it is run using electricity from renewable resources, is even CO2-free. Compared to other processes for emission-free hydrogen production, methane pyrolysis requires only around one-fifth as much electrical energy. A pilot reactor has been constructed in Ludwigshafen and is being started up.
It is still unclear how the granular carbon from our pyrolysis will be used. In general, there are numerous markets for solid carbon, especially for high purity carbon, e.g. aliminium or steel industries.
Storage is also conceivable in principle, because our pyrolysis carbon is not a hazardous substance and can be stored in a stable manner. The various approaches are being investigated in the current project.
CO2-free hydrogen production: Water electrolysis
Climate-friendly hydrogen plays an important role in the transformation of the chemical industry toward climate neutrality. BASF is open to technology and is focusing on various hydrogen technologies that will produce climate-friendly hydrogen from electricity from renewable sources in the future. In addition to methane pyrolysis, this includes water electrolysis.
In water electrolysis, water is split into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity. Since the energy here is introduced by electricity and not by an oxidation process, i.e. combustion, electricity consumption is high.
In cooperation with Siemens Energy, it is planned to build a water electrolysis plant at the Ludwigshafen site with a capacity of 50 megawatts and integrate it into the Verbund system. Together with our partner, we have applied for funding by IPCEI H2 (Important Project of Common European Interest “Hydrogen Technologies and Systems”). The project called Hy4Chem has taken the first hurdle und made it to the shortlist. The climate-friendly hydrogen will be used as a raw material to manufacture products with a low CO2 footprint. It will also be used for regional mobility concepts in the metropolitan Region Rhine-Neckar.
Storage technologies for CO2
Our goal is to prevent CO2 emissions from occurring in the first place. However, if this is not possible, we also want to investigate the use of storage processes for CO2. At the Antwerp site, BASF is planning to participate in one of the largest projects for storing CO2 under the North Sea (carbon capture and storage, CCS). Together with partners in the “Antwerp@C” consortium, this offers the possibility of avoiding the emission of more than 1 million metric tons of CO2 per year from the production of basic chemicals. A final investment decision is expected to be made in 2022.
Read the press release on the joint CCS project of BASF and AirLiquide
CO2-free production of Methanol
Methanol is an important feedstock for the chemical industry. BASF researchers therefore worked on a new climate-friendly process for producing this basic chemical with the aim of not only reducing CO2 emissions, but also not emitting any CO2 throughout the entire process. Process development as part of the Carbon Management R&D program has been completed and BASF is currently reviewing all options for use.
The process
In BASF's new process, syngas is produced by partial oxidation of natural gas or biogas, which produces no CO2 emissions. While the process steps of methanol synthesis and distillation could be adopted almost unchanged, inventiveness was required when it came to combining and processing the waste gas streams generated here. They are first burned with pure oxygen (oxyfuel combustion). Gas washing using BASF's OASE® gas washing process then completely removes CO2 from the flue gas. To ensure that its carbon is not lost but is available again for methanol synthesis, the captured CO2 is fed back into the process. Additional hydrogen is required as a supplement, which should also be produced without CO2 emissions.