BASF to harvest waste heat in Germany

BASF plans to install what it describes as the world’s largest industrial heat pump at its flagship plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany, as a way to cut the carbon dioxide footprint of its products. The unit will salvage waste heat from an ethylene cracker at the site and use it to produce 500,000 metric tons (t) per year of steam, most of which will be directed to a nearby formic acid production line. BASF says the heat pump will reduce CO₂ emissions at the site by 100,000 t by displacing fossil fuel use. The project is set to get $337 million from the German government.