The 850°C Challenge

BASF, the world's largest chemical company, needed to decarbonise 850°C steam-cracking furnaces and hydrogen supply chains inside a 160-year-old Verbund network, without compromising the cost efficiencies that architecture depends on.

From 2020, BASF wired Scope 1+2 CO2 reduction into executive pay, piloted electrified steam crackers with SABIC and Linde, built a Ludwigshafen green hydrogen electrolyser, and pushed Product Carbon Footprints for ~45,000 products onto the Catena-X network.

By 2024, Scope 1+2 emissions held at 17.0 Mt CO2e as production rose, renewable electricity reached 26%, and Sustainable-Future Solutions grew to 46.3% of revenue, up from 41.4% in 2023.