BASF and Trinseo partner on circular styrene enterprise using mass balance approaches

31 Mar 2021 --- BASF and Trinseo are partnering on the production of styrene based on circular feedstock. The collaboration aims to boost both companies’ environmental sustainability profiles. 

Trinseo has recently been procuring synthetic chemical styrene supplies based on circular feedstock from BASF for use in its Solution-Styrene Butadiene Rubber (S-SBR) and polystyrene (PS) products.

Trinseo supplies S-SBR to major tire manufacturers while its PS products are used in applications such as food packaging and appliances, with the first customers having already processed the material.

Dr. Sabine Phillipp, head of industry affairs & public relations styrenics at BASF, tells PackagingInsights the collaboration ties into its longer-term sustainability plans. 

“In the field of styrenic polymers for packaging, we as a raw material producer and part of a chemical company are strongly focusing on two mass balance approaches that enable fossil-resource savings and CO2 emission reduction,” she details. 

“On the one side, we foster the concept of chemical recycling based on plastic waste. On the other side, we rely on biomass balance, where renewable resources replace fossil resources like naphtha and biogas.”

The mass balance approach
Mass balance is a chain of custody model designed to keep track of the total input (circular feedstock) throughout the production cycle and ensure an appropriate allocation to finished goods.

BASF currently operates six Verbund production sites worldwide: two in Europe, two in North America and two in Asia.The two mass balance approaches complement classical mechanical recycling processes, say the collaboration, which is being implemented in industry for many plastic types.

This includes styrenic packaging polymers like PS and expandable polystyrene (EPS). 

The specific advantage of mass balance-based products stemming from chemical recycling or biomass balance is the end products do not differ in their properties from those produced from virgin plastic materials.

Peggy Sung, global marketing communications director at Trinseo, tells PackagingInsights how this translates into packaging materials. 

“One potential packaging application is to use sustainable styrene from BASF to create recycled polystyrene (rPS) resins. The rPS resins produced are with the same properties as virgin PS resins.”

“PS is one of the commonly used packaging for food contact applications, such as yogurt containers with the ‘snapability’ feature, frozen meat trays, beverage cups and utensils.”

Producing styrene 
Styrene is a monomer used for the production of a variety of styrenic plastics. 

“Styrene itself is manufactured via even more basic raw materials coming from the fossil feedstocks naphtha and biogas,” explains Phillip. 

“By replacing these fossil feedstocks with alternative feedstocks, the same basic chemical raw materials, and therefore the same styrene (chemically speaking) is gained.” 

Styrene is then transformed chemically into styrenic polymers like PS or EPS. In a third step, processors convert the plastic material to finished products.

BASF manufactures styrene and different styrenic polymers at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

“By creating synergy across the value chain, the Trinseo-BASF collaboration is an important move toward helping our customers reach their sustainability goals as well as the development of a truly circular economy,” says Nicolas Joly, vice president of plastics & feedstocks at Trinseo. 

By Louis Gore-Langton