Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Germany: BASF is developing a pilot project to make insulation panels from plastics waste as part of its ChemCycling project. The company is making ethylene and propylene from the waste to use as raw material for further chemical manufacturing. Other projects the company is testing using waste plastics with include mozzarella packaging and refrigerator components.

“With our ChemCycling project, we are using plastic waste as a resource. In this way, we create value for the environment, society and the economy. We have joined forces with partners throughout the value chain to establish a working circular model,” said Martin Brudermüller, chairman of the board of executive directors and chief technology officer of BASF.

BASF feeds oil derived from plastic waste by an oiling process into the Production Verbund process. BASF gets this feedstock for the pilot products from Recenso in 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 2018. The steam cracker is the starting point for Verbund production. It breaks down or ‘cracks’ this raw material at temperatures of around 850°C. The primary outputs of the process are ethylene and propylene. Under the mass balance approach, the share of recycled raw material can be mathematically allocated to the final certified product. Each customer can select the allocated percentage of recycled material.

BASF is working with its customers and partners, which range from waste management companies to technology providers and packaging producers, to build a circular value chain. Its next step is to make the first products from the ChemCycling project commercially available. However, technological and regulatory conditions need to be met on a regional basis before the project is market-ready.