Mass
Benefits
How BASF supports a circular economy by using the mass balance approach in chemical manufacturing.
Thousands of products that are essential to modern living are made from chemical compounds – from plastics that make electric vehicles safer and more energy efficient to medical equipment that saves lives. While its products contribute to efficiency, safety and convenience, the chemical sector has a high demand for resources.
According to one consultancy,1 the industry embeds approximately 450 megatons of fossil carbon feedstock into its offerings each year.
BASF offers over 40,000 products used in dozens of industries across the United States. These products are derived from finite resources such as petroleum oil, naphtha, natural gas and other feedstocks.
To reduce its consumption of these feedstocks, BASF is increasingly sourcing alternative raw materials from recycled or renewable sources. They are fed into BASF’s large and interlinked production network at the beginning of the value chain, and processed alongside the fossil feedstock using a mass balance chain of custody approach.
“Because mass balance allows us to use existing supply chains and assets, it offers an option, at the lowest possible cost and with the fewest barriers, to create circular pathways compared to other chain of custody methods,” says Thomas McKay, Senior Program Manager for Circular Economy Solutions at BASF North America, headquartered in Florham Park, N.J.
This requires the use of the mass balance chain of custody method to ensure that the quantity of the recycled or renewable feedstock is correctly attributed to final products.
“Mass balance helps us transition away from predominantly fossil carbon to more sustainable options.”
Audio Insight
Dr. Kerron Gabriel, BASF NA Product Manager, explains ChemCycling®.
The approach has been used successfully in other industries – including sugar and cotton production – and could help BASF, which has pledged to double its sales of circular products, known as Loop Solutions, from $5.25 billion in 2023 to $10.5 billion by 2030 while increasing the volumes of renewable and recycled feedstocks. Circular products are based on renewable or recycled materials, or are products that support the recycling process, as well as products that increase the durability or prolong the lifespan of materials.
BASF is also establishing a dedicated unit for renewable carbon, which will oversee sourcing and trading of renewable feedstocks and biomass and define the right entry points for specific renewable value chains.
“Mass balance is scalable. The more demand we have for mass-balanced products, the more circular and renewable feedstocks we can use and the more fossil we can keep in the ground,” says Jordan Keller, BASF North America's Senior Manager for Biomass Balance Solutions.
“We talk a lot about decarbonization, but it’s important to remember that carbon is essential to make chemicals. Mass balance helps us transition away from predominantly fossil carbon to more sustainable options,” says Keller.
Certified sustainable renewable feedstocks derived from sources like organic waste, crops and vegetable oils replace fossil carbon with new carbon in biomass balance products.
“Some non-biogenic, or circular, waste streams that were destined for the landfill can be used to support the circular economy,” says Dr. Kerron Gabriel, Product Manager for Standard Amines at BASF. “It’s important for BASF to identify feedstock sources that can be sustainably sourced.” BASF is casting a wide net to source sustainable inputs, working with numerous suppliers to secure materials.
Chemicals themselves remain vitally important to the economy, contributing to the manufacture of clothing, furniture, cosmetics, medicines, electrical components and many other staples of everyday life.
Only a small percentage of BASF’s products are currently mass balanced but when demand for circular products picks up, the company will apply the method to a wider range of the portfolio. “It creates a ripple effect throughout the value chain as more alternative feedstocks are attributed to downstream products,” says Luiziana Ribeiro, Sustainability Director at BASF NA.
Through a separate process called ChemCycling®, BASF uses recycled feedstock, such as pyrolysis oil derived from mixed polyolefin plastic waste, to replace fossil-based inputs.
Processes like pyrolysis break down the waste into basic chemical building blocks. The recycled feedstock can be used as an alternative to fossil raw materials in BASF's production system. Through the mass balance approach, the recycled feedstock is attributed to certified customer products.
Audio Insight
Luiziana Ribeiro, BASF NA Sustainability Director, on the origins of mass balance.
BASF has been audited and certified by third-party and independent certification bodies according to REDcert2 and ISCC PLUS sustainability certification scheme requirements. BASF also works with standards bodies like the International Standards Organization to ensure consistency around the methodology.
“Achieving mass balance site certifications in North America marks a significant milestone, and collaboration with our partners is essential in this journey. Our certified sites can help meet the evolving demands of our customers along the value chain, helping them achieve their sustainability goals and keeping the fossil feedstocks in the ground,” says Marc Ehrhardt, President and CEO, BASF Corporation.
"We need to be working with those certification bodies to make sure that everything that we're claiming and the quantity of circular or renewable raw materials that we're processing is attributed and accounted for accurately," adds Ribeiro.
Mass balancing not only helps BASF operate more sustainably, it helps its customers do the same.
Crucially, BASF ensures its customers that mass-balanced products will have the same properties and performance profile as conventional products. This assures customers that they will not have to adjust their own manufacturing methods or equipment to accommodate mass balance inputs in their final products.
“As the sustainable feedstocks are mixed with the conventional feedstocks, they’re broken down into their basic molecular form and are indistinguishable in the final product,” says Dr. Gabriel.
Audio Insight
Thomas McKay, Senior Program Manager for Circular Economy Solutions at BASF North America, on why mass balance products can be easily incorporated into customers’ existing production lines.
Mass balancing not only helps BASF operate more sustainably, it helps its customers do the same. Consumer and industrial product manufacturers can make their offerings more circular by including inputs made via the mass balance approach. That’s becoming more important, as research shows that consumers and commercial buyers are increasingly factoring sustainability into their purchasing decisions.
That rings true with officials at Iowa-based Future Foam, which worked with BASF to source biomass-balanced raw materials for its Sustain™ line of sustainably made foam products for bedding and furniture. “Consumers today are increasingly showing interest in sustainable mattresses and bedding products, as they prioritize not only their personal comfort, but also the well-being of the planet,” says Mike Urquhart, National Accounts Manager.
Another company that is taking advantage of mass balance is office furniture manufacturer Steelcase. The Michigan-based company collaborated with BASF to source sustainable inputs for its Flex Perch stool.
"Mechanical recycling is critical to reducing waste and achieving circular solutions for end-of-life plastics."
BASF came through with its Ultramid® B3EG6 Ccycled® product, an injection moldable polyamide that is made using feedstock derived from a diverted waste stream generated during electronics production in a mass balance approach.
"Mechanical recycling is critical to reducing waste and achieving circular solutions for end-of-life plastics. However, in some cases, the properties of mechanically recycled plastics can't meet that of the same virgin plastic. Steelcase needed virgin-like quality and was able to meet their sustainability goal and performance criteria with our mass-balanced product," says McKay.
Meanwhile, Georgia-based Southern Chemical & Textiles partnered with BASF to source mass-balanced products for its line of chemical ingredients for personal care products like shampoo, soaps and body washes.
“By integrating this new mass-balanced material, we uphold the high quality of our products while introducing essential supply chain traceability, which was previously unavailable,” says Jason Marti, Vice President at SCT. “These materials help us to procure lower carbon footprint products and contribute to a more sustainable supply chain.”
As of early 2024, 25 states have formally recognized chemical recycling as a manufacturing process that can contribute to the circular economy and provide a pathway for multiple waste streams, including plastic.
To continue the momentum around mass balancing, BASF officials say that the federal government must step up with formal recognition of the process and establish national recycling standards to increase plastics recycling and the supply of sustainable inputs. This will help to boost mass balance adoption while making it more efficient and economical. “We have to make sure that support for mass balance becomes mainstream,” says Ribeiro.
