BASF is to invest in a new citral plant at its verbund site in Zhanjiang, China. This will bring its global capacity to 118,000 tonnes/year when it comes onstream in 2026 onwards. The company is also expanding its downstream menthol and linalool plants at Ludwigshafen. This all comes in response to growing demand for aroma ingredients in the flavours and fragrances markets.

In its 2022 result presentation, BASF announced measures that are expected to yield cost savings of €500 million/year, mainly in Europe and about half of them at the largest verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. These will be implemented in 2023 and 2024, focusing mainly on the service, operational and R&D divisions and corporate functions. All this will lead to a net loss of about 2,600 jobs and a €200 million/year reduction in fixed costs by the end of 2026.

Non-profit organisation CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) has issued its rankings for 2022. These rate about 15,000 companies in multiple industries from about 18,700 who submitted data about their emissions on a scale from A to D- in three categories. In all, 283 received an A for Climate Change, 25 for Forests and 103 for Water Security.

Clariant opened two new facilities at the Dubai Science Park in late October. The company said that the EMEA region technical centre for its Oil Services business, which it said “will leverage the latest technologies and more sustainable oilfield chemicals” in both oil and gas production.

BASF has signed a partnership, including a strategic equity investment, in Chinese firm Ingredi. Precise details were not disclosed but BASF said that this will enable Ingredi to extend its production facilities and that the two companies will work together to “identify new solutions and commercialise these to the global personal care market”.

Marko Lange, product manager for SAP, looks at the need to measure the carbon footprint of your entire supply chain

Amid a global push for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and more responsible resource stewardship, newcomers like German data analytics start-up Carbon Minds, along with some of the biggest names in the chemicals business, are mobilising to meet that challenge.

Umicore has agreed to develop high-performance catholyte materials for solid-state batteries with Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan, combining its expertise in cathode active materials (CAMs) for lithium-ion batteries with that of Idemitsu Kosan in high-purity lithium sulfide. Catholytes combine CAMs and solid electrolytes, enabling solid-state batteries to achieve better performance.