Encina, a manufacturer of circular chemicals, and global chemical company BASF have announced a long-term supply agreement for chemically recycled circular benzene derived from post-consumer end-of-life plastics.
According to the companies, BASF will use the chemically recycled benzene for its Ccycled® product portfolio. BASF’s objective to move towards achieving circularity includes increasing the use of recycled and renewable feedstocks, shaping new material cycles, and creating new business models. According to the joint press release, the use of circular benzene supports a more sustainable product offering to BASF’s customers; using Encina’s proprietary catalytic technology will produce drop-in quality and high yield circular feedstocks.
“The use of benzene derived from post-consumer plastics as raw material in BASF’s value chains underscores our ongoing commitment to transition towards non-fossil and circular alternatives,” stated Thomas Ohlinger, Vice President Traded Products at BASF. “Through our partnership with Encina, we drive BASF’s transformation by increasing recycling-based feedstocks to offer more Ccycled products to our customers, for example in the packaging, textile and automotive industries.”
In the production of Ccycled® products, conventional fossil raw materials required to manufacture BASF products are replaced with recycled feedstock from the chemical recycling of plastic waste along BASF’s integrated production chain, according the company. The company reports that the corresponding share of recycled feedstock, e.g., benzene, is attributed to the specific Ccycled product via a certified mass balance approach. BASF sites and Ccycled products are third-party certified according to internationally recognized certification schemes like REDcert2 and ISCC PLUS and meet the definitions by ISO 22095:2020.