With a broader portfolio and efficient process, BASF is bringing its biomass balance approach back to the flooring adhesives segment.

Low effort, high impact  

BASF was a pioneer in the chemical industry to certify its biomass balanced (BMB) products according to the REDcert² standard. It allows fossil fuels to be replaced with renewable raw materials. As something that saves fossil resources, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and drives the use of renewable resources, it’s currently applied to many BASF products, including superabsorbents, dispersions, and plastics in the form of a BMBcert™ portfolio.  

It makes use of BASF’s Verbund concept, which has a driving principle to add value through the efficient use of resources across production plants, energy and material flows, logistics, and site infrastructure. Verbund creates efficient value chains that extend from basic chemicals to consumer products.  

By applying BMB, customers benefit from an improved CO2 footprint and savings on fossil resources without compromising product quality and performance.  

A solution for the flooring adhesive market 

Now, we’re bringing BMB back to the flooring adhesives market in North America.  

“It was accepted in 2014 but, at the time, it had a higher cost premium,” says Chris Hummel, Marketing Manager of Building Materials, Dispersions & Resins North America. “We wanted to come back to the industry with local manufacturing. It fits right into our Verbund and sustainability drive, so it’s not an additional piece. It’s an on-purpose initiative, not outside of what we’re currently doing as far as raw material shifts between regions.”  

Flooring adhesives don’t wait for government regulations. The industry pushes to be sustainable because all these products are going into your home or office. They want to make sure they’re pushing to be as friendly as possible in both their use and application.

Chris Hummel

Marketing Manager of Building Materials, Dispersions & Resins North America.

As a sector where sustainability and carbon footprint are constant drivers, it’s a good fit.  

“Flooring adhesives don’t wait for government regulations,” Hummel continues. “The industry pushes to be sustainable because all these products are going into your home or office. They want to make sure they’re pushing to be as friendly as possible in both their use and application.”  

Samane Mehravar, Global Sustainability Manager at BASF, emphasizes that the move is efficient in terms of carbon footprint reduction and, as raw material isn’t being unnecessarily shipped from Europe to the US, it’s “connecting the US with the current established value chain that exists between the two. We’re using capacity in Europe to bring sustainable attributes to the US. That’s how we can prove the connectivity and get certification for products produced in the US.” 

Building a better future  

Currently, BASF has two products leading in this industry: Acronal A 280 and Acronal 4810.  

While both are new, APEO-free products, BMB-certified versions of these products can be offered, with an estimated timeline of having the manufacturing facilities and processes put in place by early 2024 if you apply for certification in November 2023.  

“The standards are not a 100% fix, but everything is developing in a good direction,” Mehravar continues. “The basic mass balance rules in the chain-of-custody model have always been the same: the mass of sustainable attribute out shall not be higher than the mass in. The process has been revised and modified in the details to have it more transparent from both chemical companies and certification bodies.”  

Hummel notes that it’s “a much more efficient process. There are options to how much of the fossil-based version you could mix this product with if you wanted to reduce your overall costs. BASF is bringing this new version to light, and having manufacturing done within the regions has done a great job of reducing the overall cost to minimum standards. There is an additional cost, but we’ve come a long way since where we were in 2014.”  

Learn more about how BASF is breaking new ground with its BMB process.

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