BASF Shanghai base puts into operation the world's first recycled polyamide 6 factory to open a new era of circular economy in the textile industry

BASF's wholly-owned subsidiary in China officially opened the world's first commercial recycled polyamide 6(PA6) production base, marking the first time that the textile industry has realized the closed-loop conversion of industrial-grade waste fibers to high-performance materials. The factory in Caojing, Shanghai, uses the original "molecular cracking-recombination" technology, with an annual processing capacity of 500 tons, which is equivalent to recycling 15 million polyamide garments every year. Its product performance index is exactly the same as that of the original material, and its carbon emission is reduced by 67%.

Technical Breakthrough: Overcoming the Recycling Problem of

Blended Materials
Traditional Textile Waste Containing Spandex, Polyester and Other Blended Fibers and Dye Auxiliaries, Recycling Rate Less than 10%. BASF's R & D team took five years to develop a "three-stage separation and purification" process: first, 98% of organic dyes were removed by supercritical fluid, then nano-molecular sieves were used to separate different polymer chains, and finally directional polymerization was carried out in a vacuum environment. After third-party testing, the Loopamid® recycled PA6 produced by this process has reached 99.8 percent of the standard for primary materials in key indicators such as fracture strength and melt index, and can replace 100 percent of traditional materials for sportswear, automotive interiors and other fields.

Industry collaboration: From laboratory to commercial cross-
projects are certified by the Global Recycling Standard (GRS)4.0, and their production processes are fully traceable through blockchain technology.

. BASF has jointly established the "Recycled Material Application Alliance" with Inditex Group, the world's largest clothing retailer, China Textile Research Institute and other industrial chain partners, and has completed three scenarios of verification: in ZARA brand sports series, recycled PA6 and spandex blended fabrics have passed 30 water washing tests, and the color fastness remains above 4.5; The VOC emission of seat fabrics developed for automobile supplier Faurecia is 42% lower than that of original materials; the recycled Lycra fabric jointly developed with a fabric manufacturer in Zhejiang has passed the OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 ecological textile certification.

Strategic upgrading of building a "city mine" system for the textile industry
the current factory mainly deals with industrial leftover materials, BASF has launched a "blueprint for 2030 recycling": it plans to increase the proportion of waste textiles after consumption to 40% within three years, including old clothes and carpets recycled from the garbage sorting system. To this end, the company cooperated with Shanghai City Investment Group to develop intelligent sorting equipment, and achieved 92% polyamide fiber recognition accuracy through near-infrared spectroscopy technology. The longer-term goal is to establish a supply chain of recycled materials covering the Yangtze River Delta region. It is estimated that by 2028, the energy consumption per ton of recycled PA6 production will be reduced by 2.3 tons of standard coal compared with that of primary materials, and to promote the formation of a trillion-level circular economy ecology of "raw material recovery-material regeneration-product application.

"This is not only a technological victory, but also an innovation in business models." The chairman of BASF Greater China said that the commissioning of the plant enabled the company's circular economy solution sales to reach 1.2 billion euros two years ahead of schedule, injecting strong impetus into achieving the goal of 17 billion euros by 2030. With the promotion of EU's "Eco-design Regulations for Sustainable Products" and other policies, recycled PA6 is becoming a key material for the low-carbon transformation of the textile industry. Its market price is 15%-20% higher than that of primary materials, and the supply has been in short supply for 18 months.