Dr. Thomas Narbeshuber

Head Country Clusters Austria, Czech Republik, Slovakia and South East Europe

BASF SE

Our unique Verbund concept is one of BASF’s greatest assets.

Verbund (circular economy)

Industry: Pharmaceutical industry

Date: since 1865

Sustainable Lifestyles


Solutions of the macro-sustainability challenges

Provide an adequate variety of sustainable products and services which are affordable and available for the majority of the population

Further targets:

What´s the solution?

Our unique Verbund concept is one of BASF’s greatest assets. The Verbund principle enables us to add value as one company through the efficient use of resources. At our Verbund sites, production plants, energy and material flows, logistics, and site infrastructure are all integrated (Production Verbund, Infrastructure Verbund, Energy Verbund, Logistics Verbund). BASF operates six Verbund sites worldwide: two in Europe, two in North America and two in Asia.

 

The largest Verbund site in BASF Group is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany, established in 1865. The Verbund concept was developed and optimized here and later applied to other sites around the world.

 

The Production Verbund is BASF’s traditional core competency and starting point for multiple value chains, from basic chemicals right through to consumer products and system solutions.

 

Logistics Verbund

Production plants are connected by an extensive network of pipes, which provides an environmentally friendly method of transporting raw materials and energy quickly and safely. As a result, BASF significantly reduces its need to use transport by road, rail, river and sea. This provides not only a significant cost saving for BASF, but also reduces fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Energy Verbund

Our Verbund system makes a major contribution to energy efficiency. Waste heat from production processes is not discharged into the environment, but is captured and converted into steam to be used as an energy source at other production plants.

 

Infrastructure Verbund

At our Verbund sites, we achieve critical mass to run world scale utility plants (heat and power generation, waste incineration, water treatment, and more). These plants use resources very efficiently and are highly cost competitive.

Business connection

  • Our production activities are more cost-effective, safer and environmentally compatible
  • We save energy through efficient processes
  • We reduce transport impact

The BASF Verbund is a one-source system, helping us to control production, respond flexibly and act independently. Effective networks facilitate rapid, overarching decision-making.

Results

The Verbund creates opportunities to reduce emissions and waste and lower resource consumption. It also minimizes transport distances. With the Energy Verbund, we avoid around 6 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, and the Logistics Verbund results in the equivalent of approximately 280,000 fewer truckloads per year.

 

The Verbund system resulted in a reduction in carbon emissions of 3.9 million metric tons in 2017. In addition, BASF is continuously investing in highly efficient energy generation technologies such as combined heat and power (CHP) plants. The use of these environmentally friendly CHP plants further reduced carbon emissions by 2.6 million metric tons in 2017.

 

On a global scale, BASF realizes annual savings of more than €1 billion through its Verbund concept. Hence, the Verbund is not just a major economic asset but generates ecological benefits at the same time.

 

Globális szinten a BASF a Verbund-koncepciója révén évente több mint 1 milliárd eurós megtakarítást valósít meg. Ezért a Verbund nem csak egy nagy gazdasági érték, hanem ugyanakkor ökológiai előnyöket is termel.