Extrusion International USA 1-2019

55 Extrusion International 1/2019 promises when it comes to quality.” As a next step, BASF plans to make the first products from the ChemCycling project commercial- ly available. BASF Verbund offers ideal conditions for ChemCycling At the beginning of the production chain, BASF feeds oil derived from plastic waste by an oiling process into the Production Ver- bund. BASF gets this feedstock for the pilot products from the partner Recenso GmbH, Germany. As an alternative, syngas made from plastic waste can also be used. The first batch of this oil was fed into the steam cracker at BASF’s site in Ludwigshafen in October. The steam cracker is the starting point for Verbund produc- tion. It breaks down or “cracks” this raw material at temperatures of around 850 degrees Celsius. The primary outputs of the process are ethylene and propylene. These ba- sic chemicals are used in the Ver- bund to make numerous chemical products. Under the mass balance approach, the share of recycled raw material can be mathemati- cally allocated to the final certified product. Each customer can select the allocated percentage of recy- cled material. Technological and regulatory challenges Both the market and society expect industry to come up with construc- tive solutions to deal with plastic waste. Chemical recycling is an in- novative complement to other re- cycling and waste management processes. “We need a wide range of recovery options for plastic waste, since not every solution is suitable for each type of waste or possible for each product applica- tion. The first choice should always be the solution that performs best in a life cycle assessment,” ex- plained Andreas Kicherer, sustain- ability expert at BASF. However, technological and regu- latory conditions must be met be- fore the project is market-ready. For one thing, the existing tech- nologies to transform plastic waste into recycled raw materials such as pyrolysis oil or syngas must be further developed and adapted so that consistently high quality is assured. Furthermore, regional regulatory frameworks will con- siderably influence to what extent this approach can be established in each market. For example, it is es- sential that chemical recycling and the mass balance approach are recognized as contributing to the fulfillment of product and applica- tion-specific recycling targets. Responsible handling of plastic waste is crucial Plastics offer many benefits in technical applications, medicine and everyday life and they are of- ten a better alternative to other materials. The challenge lies in re- sponsibly managing post-consum- er plastics. Functioning waste man- agement systems and responsible consumer behavior with regard to plastics are crucial to solving prob- lems such as pollution from plastic litter. To this end, BASF is involved in various projects at the associa- tion level and internationally. For example, the company is member of the World Plastics Council and participates in two programs of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Furthermore, BASF has implement- ed Operation Clean Sweep®, an international initiative of the plas- tics industry to prevent the loss of plastic pellets, flakes and powder in the environment. BASF’s new ChemCycling project is another milestone in the responsible use of resources. BASF SE 67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany www.basf.com