German chemical giant BASF SE on Monday said it would invest €16 million ($18.8 million) into Pyrum Innovations AG to expand production capacities for pyrolysis oil. Pyrum’s plant in Dillingen, Germany currently can process up to 10,000 tons of tires annually to produce pyrolysis oil. BASF’s investment will be used to fund the construction of two new production lines to expand the capacity to 100,000 tons of pyrolysis oil.
In return, BASF will take the majority of the pyrolysis oil output. The pyrolysis oil will be blended with oil from mixed plastic waste to produce chemicals by using a mass balance technique under the company’s ChemCyclingTM project. The chemicals are expected to meet growing demand from the plastic industry for high-quality and functional plastics based on recycled materials.
BASF claims that products made from pyrolysis oil by using a mass balance approach have lower carbon footprint but on par characteristics compared to products made of fossil-based feedstock. A life cycle assessment by Sphera showed that producing a ton of polyamide 6 (PA6) from pyrolysis oil by using a mass balance approach emitted 1.3 tons less CO2 compared to a ton of PA6 made from fossil-based material.
