The German government is giving chemicals giant BASF €310m to build the world’s largest industrial heat pump.
The Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is funding the project at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site on the Baltic Sea.
Markus Kamieth, BASF’s chair, said the pump would be the first of its kind to be used for steam generation.
He said: “There are no comparable industrial pilot projects anywhere in the world. That’s why we are thrilled that the federal ministry is supporting our project and thus investing in new processes that play an important role in the development of sustainable value chains in the chemical industry.”
The pump will use waste heat from a petrochemical works to create electricity, which will in turn be used to generate up to 500,000 tonnes of steam a year.
Most of this steam will be used in chemical processes, for example to dry products, heat reactors and for distillation.
In the past year, BASF used about 14 million tonnes of steam at Ludwigshafen.
In total, the heat pump is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the company’s headquarters by up to 100,000 metric tons a year.
Uwe Liebelt, president of BASF in Europe, commented: “Electrifying steam generation is a crucial step towards generating the energy we so urgently need in the chemical industry in a more sustainable way.”
The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in 2027.
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