World's First! BASF Achieves Three Major Breakthroughs

Recently, BASF has launched the world's first high water vapor permeable thermoplastic polyamide, Ultramid H, to the market. Until now, such casings have typically been made from materials like collagen or cellulose. Ultramid H's excellent strength can be used to produce significantly thinner-walled artificial casings, making it an innovative material for artificial casings used for smoking and drying sausages. Its hydrophilicity allows the desired smokiness to penetrate the purely polyamide-made artificial casing during the smoking process and enter the sausage product. Its high water vapor permeability enables subsequent drying directly within the casing.

In addition to this new product, BASF has already launched several polyamide products this year, such as:

Ultramid® Advanced N3U42G6 is a polyamide 9T material that uses halogen-free flame retardants to minimize electrical corrosion of metal contacts in electric vehicle electrical and electronic (E&E) components, enhancing the safety and durability of high-voltage (HV) connectors.

Ultramid® T6000 is a high-temperature resistant polyamide material that offers mechanical and dielectric properties superior to PA66, and ensures good dimensional stability with lower moisture absorption. It fills the product gap between traditional PA66 and PA6T, especially exhibiting excellent mechanical and dielectric performance in humid and high-temperature environments. This material is an improved PA66/6T compound developed by BASF after acquiring Solvay's polyamide business in 2020.

Ultrason® D 1010 G6 U40, a blend developed based on polyethersulfone (PESU), has a high Relative Temperature Index (RTI) and a Comparative Tracking Index (CTI) value that surpasses that of polyetherimide (PEI) and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS). It can meet the special injection molding requirements for efficient energy-saving components used in data and energy transmission, smart electronic products, and electric vehicles.

The new hydrolysis-resistant Ultramid® Advanced T1300HG7 HR product exhibits excellent chemical and dimensional stability even when exposed to various media such as glycol, heat transfer oil, and water at temperatures of 130°C and higher, extending its applications in automotive cooling systems, construction, and other fields.

Pure Ultramid® Advanced T1300EG7 EQ contains almost no electrically active components and has a thermal stability temperature range from -40°C to 100°C. It is particularly suitable for applications in electric vehicles and fuel cell components, such as end plates, media distribution components, and humidifiers.

Specifically, for circular solutions, BASF has also launched Ultramid Ccycled, which contains pyrolysis oil derived from post-consumer plastic waste in Asia using chemical recycling technologies. Through the mass balance approach, Ultramid Ccycled can deliver the same high performance as products made from virgin fossil materials. Additionally, in March this year, BASF announced the official start-up of its world's first commercial loopamid® production facility. Located at the Shanghai Caojing site, this facility has an annual capacity of 500 tons of recycled polyamide 6, marking an important milestone in the development of sustainable products for the textile industry.

In addition, BASF is actively expanding its entire nylon value chain. In May, it acquired a 49% stake in the Alsachimie joint venture of Dow Chemical to strengthen the core precursors of polyamide, including KA oil, adipic acid, and adipic acid hexamethylene diamine salt (AH salt). In June, the new world-class hexamethylene diamine (HMD) plant in Chalampé, France, successfully started operations, increasing the company's production capacity to 260,000 tons.

(2) First batch of solid-state battery materials delivered

In September, the core ethylene complex of BASF’s integrated site in Zhanjiang was successfully mechanically completed, marking the official transition of this €10 billion project—the world’s third largest chemical complex—from the construction phase to the operation preparation phase.

It is reported that the ethylene complex is designed with an annual production capacity of 1 million tons, fully integrating more than 10 downstream production units, and can directly supply basic chemical raw materials such as ethylene and propylene to production lines for acrylic acid, polyethylene, butanol, and others. Among them, the synthesis gas unit innovatively utilizes the CO by-product from ethylene oxide production and excess fuel gas from steam cracking. Through catalytic reforming technology, these are converted into synthesis gas, marking the first such application in China.

In August, the base's butyl acrylate plant was put into production three months ahead of schedule and completed the delivery of its first batch of products to Youyi Group. At the same time, it signed supply agreements with Bardford for butyl acrylate (BA) and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA). The world's largest TPU production line, launched simultaneously, has its products applied in the battery pack seals of new energy vehicles from BYD and CATL, with an annual capacity of 120,000 tons.