Sustainability

BASF’s biomass balance approach

BASF's biomass balance approach

Approach

BASF has broken new ground with the development of the biomass balance process for the use of renewable raw materials in the chemical industry. This approach allows fossil fuels to be replaced by renewable raw materials in BASF's Production Verbund. In contrast, certificate trading completely separates the use of biomass from in-house product manufacture.

How does the biomass balance approach work?

Infographic describing BASF production approach. starting with feedstock which includes fossil and renewable feed-stock to verbund production site to products displayed in blue tube and green tube

Certified renewable feedstock

In the biomass balance approach, renewable resources such as bio-naphtha or biogas derived from organic waste or vegetable oils are used as feedstock in the very first steps of chemical production. The bio-based feedstock amount is then allocated to specific products sold by means of the certified method.

Independent certification

Biomass Balance

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BASF's Biomass Balance Approach brochure

プレビュー PDF (3.37 MB)

Resources and Documents

White Paper “Enabling a circular economy for chemicals with the mass balance approach” from the Ellen MacArthour Foundation Co-Project on Mass Balance (2019)
PlasticsEurope position paper on the "Mass balance approach to accelerate the use of renewable feedstocks in chemical processes" (29 January 2020)
Study “A methodology for integrating the biomass balance approach into life cycle assessment with an application in the chemicals sector” by Adisa Azapagic et al. in “Science of the total environment” (2019)