BASF has officially started construction on ‘one of the world’s largest’ industrial heat pump systems to give steam for formic acid manufacturing at its Ludwigshafen site in Germany, as a part of the corporation’s efforts to move toward climate-neutral chemical manufacturing.
The system is being developed in partnership with GIG Karasek and could be powered by using renewable electricity (allocated from BASF’s various renewable power agreements, which covered 26% of the firm’s total electricity consumption in 2024). With a thermal output of 50MW, or 500,000 tons of steam per year, BASF says the heat pump is anticipated to cut greenhouse gas emissions for the steam it supplies by as much as 98%, equivalent to approximately 100,000 metric tons of CO2 annually.
Because heat pumps move heat instead of producing it directly, they are able to offer the same amount of heat output for a fraction of the energy input in comparison to fossil fuel systems. ‘Emission-free steam from the heat pump will in part replace fossil-based totally steam, assisting us provide clients products with a lower carbon footprint,’ stated Helmut Winterling, BASF’s president of European Verbund sites. The Ludwigshafen site requires around 15 million metric tonnes of steam per year in total.
Jan Rosenow, professor of energy and climate policy at the University of Oxford, UK, stated the move is a completely extensive step. ‘BASF is the largest chemical enterprise within the world,’ he points out. ‘[Putting its] weight in the back of heat pumps at this scale alerts self belief within the technology in the chemicals sector and beyond.’
The heat pump will take in waste heat from one of the site’s 2-steam crackers. This is critical for heat pumps that deliver high temperature outputs, stated Rosenow, as the bigger the difference between heat input and output (the ‘temperature elevate’), the much less efficiently the heat pump operates. BASF says the system will ‘set new standards in terms of temperature raise and capacity’.
The football field-sized heat pump is scheduled for commissioning in mid-2027. The German government is helping the venture with as much as €310 million (£270 million) via its Carbon Contracts for Difference programme, targeted toward increasing the marketplace ramp-up of low-carbon technologies.
Rosenow explains that a whole lot of whether subsidies are required relies upon at the ratio of electricity to gas prices. The narrower this ratio, the more economically feasible warmth pumps become. ‘In the close to future, authorities guidance will be crucial in most countries,’ he stated. As supply chains grow and capital costs come down, less financial support will be needed.
Rosenow says that existing heat pump technology should already displace most low and medium temperature industrial heat demand. But how rapid and how far that trade change will ‘rely upon whether governments and industry are willing to take bold action.’
