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German chemical company BASF is aiming to use electricity from a
Dutch offshore wind farm for hydrogen production and a greening of
operations at its Antwerp facility in Belgium.
BASF signed a €300 million ($357 million) contract with Swedish
diversified power company Vattenfall for the purchase of 49.5% of
the 1.4-GW Hollandse Kust Zuid (HKZ) offshore wind farm in Dutch
waters, the output of which will be use to supply its European
chemical production facilities, according to a 24 June statement.
The facility's co-owner, Vattenfall, is also retaining an
interest to supply wind power to its Dutch customers, having won a
2018 bid to supply power and assist
the energy transition in the Netherlands. The Dutch government has
pledged to reduce national GHG emissions by 49% by 2030 compared
with 1990 levels.
BASF is looking into CO2-free methods to produce green hydrogen,
which typically uses a large amount of renewable energy, it said in
the statement. Chemical refiners today tend to rely on grey
hydrogen, which is not CO2-emissions free; it is produced with
fossil fuels like green hydrogen's low-carbon feedstock rival, blue
hydrogen.
The chemical company is also looking to use renewable energy to
heat up feedstock in its steam crackers, which break down
hydrocarbons into olefins that can be used to make plastic, or
aromatics which can be used to make solvents.
Renewable electricity that replaces fossil fuel-based
electricity is an important lever in bringing down emissions, the
company said. "With this investment we are securing significant
volumes of electricity from renewable sources for BASF, which is a
key element of our transformation towards climate neutrality," said
Martin Brudermüller, chairman of the board of executive directors
of BASF SE.
BASF's Antwerp Verbund site in Belgium, the largest chemical
production site in the country, will use HKZ's renewable power "to
a significant extent."
Antwerp Verbund is BASF's second-largest production site after
Ludwigshafen in Germany. BASF and power generator RWE announced in
May their intention to develop an offshore wind farm in the North
Sea that would supply renewable electricity to that site.
For its part, Vattenfall's former CEO Magnus Hall in 2017 said
the company would be climate neutral by 2050.
In the shorter term, Vattenfall has also committed to reduce its
absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 20% by 2030, which would include
the electricity products it sells to customers. "Vattenfall and
BASF share a common objective of phasing out GHG emissions from our
operations," Anna Borg, Vattenfall's current CEO, said in the
statement.
