BASF, RWE, Linde extend carbon capture

The chemical industry continues to show it can provide solutions to the problem or global warming. In Germany, BASF and Linde have been working with RWE Power to develop carbon capture technology to remove carbon dioxide from the exhaust gases of a lignite-fed power station at Niederaussem.

Already underway for four years, the project has just been extended, with another 6m euros invested, to optimise the scrubbing agents and equipment.

Different scrubbing agents have been tested since the pilot plant was commissioned in 2009, in three test phases of six months each, to identify an optimum solvent developed by BASF. Compared with processes commonly used, the energy input can be reduced by about 20% when using the new chemical solvent for CO₂ capture.

The new scrubbing agent also comes with increased stability and resistance to oxygen. This reduces the solvent consumption substantially.

In the test phase starting now and lasting to 2013, the structure of the CO₂ absorber will be optimised by Linde so that carbon dioxide can be removed more effectively from the flue gas.

BASF boosts innovation spend

News released today shows BASF, the world's biggest chemical company, increased its research and development (R&D) spend in 2010 to a record level of nearly €1.5bn ($2.1bn). Spending will be even higher in 2011, it added. In 2009, the company spent €1.40bn on R&D, up from €1.35bn in 2008, and had an R&D to sales ratio of 2.76%.

“The company attaches great importance to continuity in R&D and has further increased its commitment even in tough times,” said Andreas Kreimeyer, research executive director and member of BASF's board of executive directors. “Research and development are the foundations to secure our future. BASF will therefore also be increasing its R&D spending in 2011."

BASF currently has 9,600 employees engaged in R&D work.

BASF scales up eco-polymer, finally

BASF this week starts up added capacity for Ecoflex biodegradable polymer at its main Ludwigshafen site in Germany. It is raising output from 14,000 to 74,000 tonnes/year, which it says should meet market demands to 2020, assuming 20%/year growth as BASF is doing.

The expanded Ecoflex plant

I thought it might be interesting to look back over the development of this innovation, and indeed it was. It shows just how long - over a decade - chemical companies have to persevere to get new products into the market, especially when they are up against established, high-volume products such as polyethylene.

Ecoflex has the properties of conventional polyethylene but is fully biodegradable under industrial composting conditions. It is thus competing purely on a green agenda, but with higher price given the new technology and much lower economies of scale.

BASF first started selling Ecoflex over 10 years ago, from a small 8,000 tonne/year plant in Ludwigshafen. This capacity increased to the current 14,000 tonnes/year after an additional plant was built in Schwarzheide in 2006. The announcement for the plant that has just been built was made in April 2008.

At the same time as it added new base capacity, BASF is also upping compounding capacity for its Ecovio offering - which is a blend of Ecoflex - based on petrochemical feedstocks - and a polylactic acid polymer, derived from corn starch. This, it says, is also doing well, on the back of its 75% or so renewable bio-based content.

Doubtless ever-growing concerns over the green agenda, renewable feedstocks and recycling will spur further interest in the material - but I wonder how much BASF has committed to developing Ecoflex and the market for it over the past 10 years - just how long is the pay-back period, and how many other companies without BASF's resources can stay the course?

Key patent activity rises in 2010

Patent activity is often taken as a proxy to measure innovation, at the company, sector or country level. So the recent findings from Thomson Reuters Derwent in its World Patents Index for 2010 makes interesting reading.

Not only does the report show who is most active in 12 key technology areas, but it offers an insight to chemical producers as to where development is fastest in key end use sectors, such as aerospace and automotive. In the automotive industry, for instance, although patent filings were flat in 2010 compared with 2009, at around 89,000, the number of patents filed for alternative powered vehicles leaped 21%, to nearly 16,000, while all other sub-categories in the report showed a slight decline.

In terms of where this innovation is taking place, Japan is by far and away the power house driving the advance. The table shows this clearly:

Patents filed in 2010 for alternative powered vehicles, by company
1 Toyota              Japan         2179
2 Nissan              Japan           639
3 Honda              Japan           467
4 Nippon Denso  Japan           340
5 Matsushita        Japan           287
6 Hyundai           S Korea       284
7 General Motors US              243
8 Robert Bosch  Germany       217
9 Daimler            Germany      209
10 Aisin              Japan           166

Source: Thomson Reuters Derwent

In aerospace, patent filing were up 25% in 2010, with one sector in particular leading the way: space vehicles and satellite technologies, which saw patent numbers double to close to 10,500. Again, Japanese companies lead the way, with South Korean and the US firms running a distant second.

In terms of innovation in the chemicals sector, the report singles out four key areas: agrochemicals and agriculture, with filings up 11%; petroleum and chemical engineering, up 9%; pharmaceuticals (flat); and cosmetics, down 3% in terms of patents filed in 2010 over 2009.