For the first time in the plastics industry, fossil raw materials have been completely replaced through a gasification process using a combined waste stream of purely automotive waste and biomass.
29 Sep 2025 | 1964 Views | By Arunima Pal
BASF SE, Porsche AG, and technology partner BEST - Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH have successfully completed a groundbreaking pilot project that transforms end-of-life vehicle waste into high-quality raw materials for new automotive components, marking a significant advance in circular economy solutions for the automotive industry.
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BASF SE, Porsche AG, and technology partner BEST - Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH have successfully completed a groundbreaking pilot project that transforms end-of-life vehicle waste into high-quality raw materials for new automotive components, marking a significant advance in circular economy solutions for the automotive industry.
The pilot project demonstrates that complex waste streams from automotive shredder residues (ASR)—including mixed plastics, films, paints, and foam residues—can be processed through gasification, a specialized form of chemical recycling. These materials, previously only suitable for thermal recycling due to their complexity, can now be converted into synthesis gas and returned to the automotive production cycle. The recycled material was successfully used in manufacturing steering wheel foam components.
For the first time in the plastics industry, fossil raw materials have been completely replaced through a gasification process using a combined waste stream of purely automotive waste and biomass. The resulting synthesis gas and its derivatives replaced fossil feedstocks in BASF's integrated production network, where the company produced polyurethane formulations for steering wheels using a mass balance approach.
According to Dr. Robert Kallenberg, Head of Sustainability at Porsche AG, "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."
Porsche has committed to increasing the proportion of verifiable secondary materials in its vehicle production, and this pilot project validates automotive shredder residues as a viable future recycling source and complementary alternative to mechanical recycling.
BEST GmbH's gasification technology converts plastic waste and other residues into synthesis gas at high temperatures. Dr. Matthias Kuba, Area Manager Syngas Platform Technologies at BEST, explains: "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. Martin Jung, President of BASF's Performance Materials division, emphasizes the company's holistic recycling strategy: "At BASF, we coordinate our sustainability efforts on our plastics journey which consists of three key steps in the product lifecycle: make, use and recycle. For the latter, we offer a wide range of recycling solutions because we are convinced that many methods need to complement each other to achieve recycling goals. We prioritize mechanical recycling and continuously improve its efficiency. At the same time, the type of waste and the degree of sorting determine which technology is best suited."
Dr. Jung notes that complementary technologies including chemical recycling methods such as pyrolysis, depolymerization, and gasification are essential to advancing the circular economy and reducing plastic waste currently destined for landfills or incineration. He stresses that appropriate regulatory frameworks are crucial to optimally utilize various waste recovery options and develop all technologies in parallel.
The project utilizes chemical recycling with a mass balance approach, where circular raw materials from gasification are integrated into BASF's Verbund production system alongside conventional feedstocks. The secondary raw materials are attributed through internationally recognized certification systems such as ISCC PLUS or REDcert², verified by independent auditors. This process ensures the resulting products maintain the quality standards of virgin materials and meet the demanding requirements for safety-relevant automotive components.
The pilot project demonstrates that demand-driven scaling is possible in the future, opening new pathways for utilizing previously unrecyclable automotive waste streams and advancing sustainability goals across the automotive sector.