Green news: Braven to supply recycled feedstock to BASF in US; Agilyx’s Styrenyx reduces CO2 footprint of styrene manufacturing by up to 86%

German chemical firm BASF Corporation and recycling firm Braven Environmental have signed a supply agreement for Braven PyChem. This recycled feedstock, derived from mixed plastic waste, will partially replace fossil resources at the BASF TotalEnergies Petrochemical (BTP) facility in Port Arthur, Texas. Under the agreement, Braven will supply BASF from a multi-unit facility that Braven has announced it will build in Texarkana, Texas.

Braven PyChem is ISCC Plus-certified and manufactured using Braven’s proprietary pyrolysis technology, produced from plastic waste streams diverted from landfills and incineration.

BASF will use PyChem in its ChemCycling, which is a process where the share of recycled plastics is attributed to certain products manufactured in the value chain using a third-party audited mass balance approach. 

The products, which carry the Ccycled designation, have the same properties as those manufactured from fossil feedstock. Customers will be able to further process them in the same way as conventionally manufactured products and use them in demanding applications such as in the construction or automotive industries.

Christoph Gahn, Vice President of Circularity & Sustainable Raw Materials Petrochemicals at BASF said the offtake agreement with Braven is an important step toward the commercialisation of BASF’s Ccycled portfolio in North America.

In other news, Norway’s Agilyx ASA has announced that production of styrene via Styrenyx, its proprietary polystyrene recycling technology, significantly reduces carbon equivalent emissions compared to producing styrene from fossil resources. 

To better assess the carbon footprint of our advanced recycling, post-consumer waste circular styrene production, Agilyx commissioned Sphera Solutions Inc. to perform a cradle-to-gate product carbon footprint (PCF) and compare results to conventional production of styrene from fossil resources.

Results indicate that Agilyx’s process lowers carbon equivalent emissions by 38% using average grid electricity and 86% using wind electricity as compared to conventional styrene made from fossil resources. The study has been conducted according to the requirements of the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) 14067:2019-02 (ISO, 2019) and is currently undergoing independent critical review by 3rd party expert, in accordance with ISO/TS 14071:2014 (ISO, 2024). The expert review is expected to be complete in Q2 2025. 

For context, these results indicate that an Agilyx facility producing 18,000 tonnes/year of styrene and powered by grid electricity could reduce the equivalent of ~15,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions compared to conventional styrene. This is equivalent to removing ~3,500 gasoline cars off the road for a year (~6.4 million litres /1.7 million gallons of gasoline) or the amount of CO2 sequestered by 245,000 tree seedlings over a decade (US EPA, 2024).

Global production of styrene is projected to reach 16.75 million tonnes by 2026. If 10% of this volume were produced using Styrenyx, it would be the equivalent to removing 325,000 gasoline cars from the road annually, it adds.

Agilyx, through its Cyclyx joint venture, provides tailored feedstock solutions to global plastic producers.

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