Compass for the defossilization of the petrochemical industry in Germany

The research project "Green Feedstock for a Sustainable Chemistry" has come to a successful conclusion after three years of intensive research. The focus was on the development of long-term scenarios for a fossil-free polymer industry and the comprehensive transformation of the petrochemical industry towards a circular system based on renewable raw materials.

The technology roadmap that has now been published condenses the key findings of the project and is intended as a compass for the defossilization of the German petrochemical industry. It shows concrete paths to a climate-neutral future, evaluates the role of the technologies required for this and provides recommendations for action for industry, politics and science.

"The transformation of the petrochemical industry is of central importance for climate neutrality. With GreenFeed, we now have scenarios for the first time that show in a very differentiated way how a complete move away from fossil raw materials can succeed not only technically but also economically," emphasizes Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Fischedick, President and Scientific Director of the Wuppertal Institute.

In order to map different development directions, two different transformation paths were developed in GreenFeed: the "Carbon Looping" scenario, which focuses very strongly on the use of domestic resources such as plastic waste and biomass and benefits from an ambitious expansion of green electricity generation, and the "Open Carbon Economy" scenario, which relies more heavily on raw material imports from outside Europe. "Despite their different orientations, the two scenarios have clear similarities, such as the great future importance of methanol as a platform chemical or the relevance of recycling plastic waste in a defossilized system," says Dr. Clemens Schneider from the Kassel Institute for Sustainability, who was responsible for and supported the project from the University of Kassel. The roadmap that has now been published shows several such robust strategy elements with the help of the scenario comparison, but also identifies where there are still uncertainties and where implementation-oriented framework conditions are still lacking.

An industry advisory board accompanied the work of the GreenFeed team. Research approaches and interim results were also discussed and validated in a total of seven workshops with stakeholders from the chemical industry.

Final event and presentation of the roadmap

The technology roadmap and the other project results will be presented at a free online closing event on April 29, 2025. Experts from science, industry and politics are invited to find out about the most important findings and recommendations for action. Registration is possible via the following link.

Further information:

GreenFeed project incl. link to the final report
https://wupperinst.org/p/wi/p/s/pd/1993

Registration for the GreenFeed final event
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6262993500236179797

Press contact:
Sebastian Mense, Press Spokesman
Tel: +49 561 804-1961
E-Mail:presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Scientific contact persons:
Dr. Clemens Schneider
Kassel Institute for Sustainability
Tel: +49 561 804-7090
E-Mail:clemens.schneider[at]uni-kassel[dot]de