BASF, Porsche, and BEST announce the successful completion of a pilot project focused on chemical recycling

Porsche AG, in partnership with BASF SE and technology collaborator BEST – Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH, has successfully completed a pilot project focused on recycling mixed waste from end-of-life vehicles. This initiative highlights the recyclability of high-performance plastics derived from automotive shredder residues (ASR) combined with renewable raw materials.

Source: BASF

Given the complexity of this mixture, which includes plastic, film, paint, and foam residues, it has been primarily processed through thermal recycling until now. The pilot project reveals that these automotive wastes can be effectively recycled through gasification, a specialized form of chemical recycling, enabling their reintegration into the automotive lifecycle.

Validating New Plastic Sources and Recycling Applications

This pilot project confirms the potential for new plastic sources and the application of chemical recycling in automotive components. The overarching objective is to reduce reliance on primary materials in the future and to enhance the incorporation of recycled materials in vehicles. As part of the initiative, the chemically recycled material was utilized in the production of steering wheels.

Pilot projects like these allow us to evaluate how we can further develop the circular economy as a sustainability field at Porsche and how we can anchor chemical recycling in our strategy in the long term. We are testing new recycling technologies with our direct partners in order to increase recyclate quotas, gain access to previously unusable recyclate sources and evaluate new processes for waste streams that are currently being thermally utilized.

^{Dr. Robert Kallenberg, Head of Sustainability at Porsche AG}

Porsche is committed to integrating recycled materials into its vehicles and closing resource loops. The company aims to elevate the share of verifiable secondary materials in its vehicle manufacturing. The pilot project serves to assess the viability of automotive shredder residues as a future source of recycling, positioning them as a valuable secondary raw material. This method acts as a complementary alternative to mechanical recycling, which often fails to achieve the required quality. Furthermore, future demand-driven scaling is feasible through the mass balance approach.

Innovative Recycling Process

In a pioneering effort, this project recycled a combined waste stream consisting solely of automotive waste and biomass using a gasification process for the first time. The resulting recycled raw material—synthesis gas and its derivatives—replaced fossil raw materials within BASF’s integrated value chain. BASF subsequently produces the polyurethane formulation necessary for the steering wheel using a mass balance approach within its production network.

In our plant, we have previously converted biomass such as wood or straw into chemical raw materials. In this pilot project together with BASF and Porsche, we have now used this gasification technology for the first time to convert complex plastic waste streams together with biomass into synthetic crude oil, known as syncrude. This form of chemical recycling has great potential for converting complex, mixed waste streams into new, valuable raw materials. It thus represents a sensible alternative to waste incineration.

^{Dr. Matthias Kuba, Area Manager Syngas Platform Technologies at BEST – Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH in Vienna}

This recycling innovation employs advanced gasification technology from BEST GmbH to convert plastic waste and other residues into synthesis gas at elevated temperatures.

Chemical recycling enables the processing of plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled for various technical, economic, or ecological reasons. Gasification, a variant of chemical recycling, transforms particularly mixed waste streams into valuable new raw materials for plastic production. When introduced into large, complex, and continuously operated production facilities like the BASF Verbund, these new circular raw materials are blended with conventional fossil resources and converted into plastic precursors. The attribution of these new (secondary) raw materials is managed using the mass balance approach. Products and facilities receive certification from independent auditors based on internationally recognized systems such as ISCC PLUS or REDcert². Thanks to the superior quality of these new raw materials, the resulting products meet the stringent demands for high-performance plastics, particularly crucial for safety-sensitive automotive components.