Chemistry and Sustainability: A Perfect Match

At today’s research press conference, we showed how chemistry and sustainability go together and why they are a perfect match. I was delighted to be able to engage with the journalists who joined us in Ludwigshafen and our LinkedIn community. Our experts Dag Wiebelhaus , Sebastian Hartwig , Torsten Clarius, Konstantin Kretschun and Heiko Urtel presented how we develop innovative products and thus pave the way for more sustainability in many areas of life. Curious to find out more? I will share more details in this article.

Chemistry is the solution

It’s clear to all of us that humanity is facing major challenges: climate change, ever-scarcer resources, increasing pressure on ecosystems and a growing global population. Chemistry is the solution to many of these challenges.

As the world’s leading chemical company, we provide innovative solutions that make an important contribution to supporting the sustainable transformation of society and the optimal use of limited resources. This is possible thanks to our unique innovation power, the success of which is evident in numerous indicators: We generated sales of around €12 billion in 2022 with BASF products launched on the market in the past five years that stemmed from research and development activities. With annual research expenditures of €2.3 billion, we are the leader in our industry. Last year, we had more than 500 scientific publications and 1,000 patent applications, of which 40 percent had a particular focus on sustainability and a further 20 percent were related to digitalization. Around 10,000 employees in research and development worldwide have contributed to these successes. In the past 12 months, we have entered into around 400 new agreements with academic partners because even the strongest R&D team needs additional scientific expertise and access to talent and new technologies.

Making sustainability transparent

To support our customers on the journey to greater sustainability, we co-developed an internationally recognized method that we use to continuously evaluate our product portfolio: Sustainable Solution Steering, also known as TripleS. With this evaluation method, we analyze the sustainability contribution of our products and classify them in five categories: Pioneer, Contributor, Standard, Monitored and Challenged. If products are found to have a considerable deficit in terms of sustainability (Challenged), we take them off the market within five years. In 2023, we launched a revised TripleS method that will make our product portfolio even more aligned with climate protection, resource efficiency and the circular economy. As you can see: With TripleS we are transparently measuring the sustainability of our activities and how we are improving. Today, our experts demonstrated with examples of five innovative products and technologies how customers from a variety of industries can better reach their sustainability goals.

Building better roads

Roads worldwide are subject to intensifying stress, including increased heavy-duty traffic and more extreme climate conditions. As a result, roads usually need to be replaced after 10 to 12 years. With B2Last? (Bitumen to Last), BASF has developed an innovative bitumen additive that improves the durability of roads and reduces the carbon footprint during construction.

Flying with improved aerodynamics

When an airplane has lower friction resistance in the air, its fuel consumption and therefore its CO2 emissions also decrease. Since the 1980s, researchers have been looking for solutions to reduce aerodynamic drag. Now researchers from BASF and Lufthansa Technik have achieved a breakthrough with the development of NovaFlex SharkSkin. This functional film reduces drag on surfaces, is UV-resistant and can withstand rapid temperature changes and mechanical stress.

Bringing cosmetics to life

Numerous different bacteria live on human skin and are important for the health of our largest organ. Until now, however, not much was known about their exact function. A study conducted by BASF researchers has now shown that Lactobacillus crispatus bacteria are very abundant on the skin of younger people around their eyes. In vitro studies demonstrated that these live bacteria stimulate the production of collagen in skin cells. Based on these findings, BASF developed Probiolift?. It is the first cosmetic active ingredient that contains a living probiotic – Lactobacillus crispatus bacteria – found on human skin. The process is particularly sustainable because BASF also uses the fermentation supernatant to produce a second active ingredient: Postbiolift?. This contains the metabolites produced by Lactobacillus crispatus. Postbiolift helps to improve skin elasticity and reduce the appearance of wrinkles around the eyes.

Protecting crops more precisely

Weeds on agricultural land can lead to crop losses of 30 percent or more. Farmers usually control weeds by spraying the entire field with herbicides at a standard dose rate. To enable more precise and sustainable weed control, BASF and Bosch developed ONE SMART SPRAY in a joint venture. ONE SMART SPRAY is an innovative, integrated hardware and software solution. Using BASF’s digital agronomic platform xarvio?, it offers real-time automated weed detection and treatment in row crops.

Driving battery materials into the future

Electric vehicles charged with green electricity do not produce any emissions when they are driven. However, manufacturing these vehicles is resource-intensive, as is the production of the cathode active materials (CAM) that are needed for their batteries. BASF therefore aims to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of its battery materials throughout the entire value chain. The focus is on three areas: the CAM itself, the production process and the recycling of battery materials from end-of-life batteries.

We continue to accelerate change

These current innovation projects show what our concrete contribution to the sustainable transformation of our industry and society looks like. The chemical industry is at the beginning of most value chains and the CO2 savings we achieve carry through processes in all other industries and all the way to end consumers. One thing is certain: We will continue to make significant contributions toward the sustainable transformation! Want to learn more? The recording of the event and related materials are available here.