The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected BASF to begin award negotiations to receive up to $75 million — funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — for an investment project to introduce low-carbon syngas production from recycled chemical byproduct streams at BASF’s Freeport, Texas site.
With this project, BASF intends to recycle liquid byproducts from existing production processes into low-carbon syngas through electrically powered reformation. By employing energy from renewable resources, this technology aims to decrease CO2 emissions and support circular value creation at BASF's Freeport Verbund site. The low-carbon syngas would be used as feedstock in Freeport’s downstream production.
“We are excited that the U.S. Department of Energy sees value in working together to advance the syngas project at our Freeport site, recognizing our efforts toward a low-carbon and more circular production of chemicals,” said Marc Ehrhardt, President BASF North America in a press release. “With alignment and support from the DOE, this project would help achieve our global commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 and represent an important investment in sustainable manufacturing in the region. We look forward to continuing our work with the DOE as we move to the next phase of this process.”
To reach its net-zero emissions goal, BASF says it's improving efficiency in production and energy use, switching from fossil-based to renewable energies where possible, and accelerating the development and deployment of new CO2-free processes for the production of chemicals.