World’s first biomass-balanced polyethersulfone launched by BASF

Golabl chemical conglomerate BASF has announced that its now offering the world’s first biomass-balanced polyethersulfone (PESU) to all industries relying on high-performance thermoplastics. Ultrason E 2010 BMB contributes to substituting fossil resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing the use of renewable feedstock. This unique PESU enables customers in industries as diverse as household and catering, automotive, electrics and electronics (E&E), healthcare as well as water and sanitary to differentiate their products from the competition.

BASF said that the new polyethersulfone also helps them to achieve their sustainability goals – all without compromising on the material’s performance, quality or the need to invest extra money into new processing lines.

For biomass-balanced (BMB) Ultrason E 2010, fossil raw materials are replaced by renewable feedstock at the beginning of production. The renewable feedstock comes from organic waste: the corresponding amount is attributed to the Ultrason grade via a mass balance approach which is certified according to ISCC PLUS.

The resulting BMB grade has a lower product carbon footprint (PCF) compared to the standard BASF material by using renewable feedstock and 100% green electricity in a resource-efficient process in the production plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF also offers its Ultrason customers transparency by providing PCF data to support them in evaluating the PCF of their own products. This benefits many applications used in daily life like reusable bottles for adults and babies, microwave dishes and appliances, but also automotive fuel parts, medical devices, E&E connectors and consumer electronics.

The BASF PESU is identical to the standard grade in properties, quality, and certification for e.g., food and water contact. As a result, customers do not have to re-qualify their applications made of Ultrason E 2010 BMB or adapt their existing manufacturing processes for injection molding or extrusion; they can rely on the same high performance to which they are accustomed to.

Erik Gubbels from Global Business Development Ultrason at BASF, says, “With this addition to our innovative Ultrason portfolio we want to enable our customers’ green transformation towards more circular solutions – and this as early as possible on their journey to meet their sustainability targets.”

50% of the fossil raw materials required for the manufacturing of Ultrason® E 2010 are replaced by ISCC PLUS certified bio-circular feedstocks which results in an attributed amount of 39% to the final Ultrason® E 2010 BMB grade.