Sustainability

Mechanical Recycling

As part of its ChemCyclingTM project, BASF invested €20 million into Quantafuel, a start-up headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Quantafuel is specialized in the pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste and the purification of the resulting oil. BASF feeds the pyrolysis oil from Quatanfuel’s plant in Skive in its production Verbund in Ludwigshafen and further processes it into new chemical products by using a mass balance approach. The products have the same quality as products from fossil raw materials. BASF and Quantafuel are also working closely together to further develop and optimize Quantafuel’s technology.

Mechanical recycling moves the circular economy

Mechanical recycling is an essential component of the circular economy. It can be applied to various material classes like plastics, lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, or metals. End-of-life materials can be processed via collecting, sorting, shredding, melting and transforming it into secondary raw materials for a new application. Manufactured from recycled material, the article enters its new use-phase before the next end-of-life management. 

For plastic waste, mechanical recycling is the preferred recycling solution if ecologically most beneficial, technologically possible, and economically attractive. Chemical recycling will complement mechanical recycling.

But there is more than plastics: BASF also engages in the recycling of precious metals and lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Find out more below. 

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Mechanical recycling of plastics

Recycling of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and catalytic converters

Complementary solutions for circularity of plastics