Carbon Management

Climate protection is firmly embedded in BASF’s new corporate strategy. A central goal of this strategy is to achieve CO₂-neutral growth until 2030. To accomplish this, BASF is continuously optimizing existing processes, gradually replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources and developing radically new low-emission production processes. The company is bundling all of this work in an ambitious Carbon Management program.

Innovations for a climate-friendly chemical production

Because energy is needed to perform chemical reactions, fossil fuels are the largest source of CO₂ in the chemical industry. BASF’s steam crackers, for example, must reach a temperature of 850°C in order to break down naphtha into olefins and aromatics for further processing. If this energy could come from renewable electricity instead of the natural gas typically used now,
CO₂ emissions could be dramatically reduced by as much as 90%.