Turning scrap into something new BASF presents two new recycling processes for polyamides from end-of-life vehicles

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At K 2025, BASF will present two novel recycling processes for polyamide 6 from end-of-life vehicles: depolymerization and solvent-based recycling. Together with partners such as ZF, Pöppelmann and Mercedes-Benz, the chemical company will demonstrate how previously difficult-to-recycle plastic streams can be returned to high-quality compounds.

BASF, together with its cooperation partners, has developed two pioneering technologies designed to enable the recycling of polyamides from end-of-life vehicles. While the recovery of metals from decommissioned vehicles has been standard practice for decades, around 200 kilograms of plastics per vehicle still often end up being incinerated. The new technologies are intended to change this, particularly in light of upcoming regulatory requirements under the EU End-of-Life Vehicle Regulation (ELVR). Pilot projects demonstrate how automotive waste can be materially recycled and fed back into a closed loop for the automotive industry.

As part of one pilot project, BASF has developed a chemical recycling process that makes it possible to efficiently and sustainably recycle even heavily used and contaminated plastic parts — in this case, used oil pans from end-of-life vehicles provided by ZF Group. The core of the process is so-called depolymerization, in which the long polyamide chains are deliberately broken down at their inherent weak points into their repeating structural unit, the monomer. In the next step, the monomer caprolactam obtained from the depolymerization of PA6 is purified. This allows potentially disruptive contaminants from the material’s prior use to be completely removed. Such impurities would remain in the material during mechanical recycling and impair the quality of the recyclate. The process is followed by repolymerization into high-quality polyamide, which is then processed into a virgin-quality polyamide compound in line with application requirements. This compound meets the highest quality standards and is suitable for demanding automotive components.

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Proof of the practical viability is provided by the successful processing of the recycled material by project partner ZF Group into a complex, technically demanding chassis component — the so-called stabilizer link — for Mercedes-Benz. Tests carried out on specimens as well as on the manufactured components themselves showed that depolymerization enables polyamide compounds that can be used without compromise in terms of performance or other chemical and physical properties.

Solvent-based polyamide recycling from automotive shredder residue

The second pilot project focuses on recycling shredder residues from end-of-life vehicles (Automotive Shredder Residue, ASR) — a complex mixture of different materials that remains after the removal of mainly metals and glass. According to BASF, close cooperation with a recycling company has now made it possible to largely recover polyamides from this mixture in a highly pure form using newly available sorting and processing technologies.

The polyamide fraction obtained in this way was used in the pilot project as feedstock for a new solvent-based recycling process. In this method, the polymer chains are not broken down, but selectively dissolved with the help of a solvent, then purified and finally reprocessed into usable PA6 compounds.

Validation of this technology was carried out using a timing chain guide rail already in series production at Mercedes-Benz. Within the pilot project, the components were manufactured by project partner Pöppelmann under near-series conditions and successfully tested.

Alongside the pilot projects, life cycle assessments (LCA) were carried out by an external partner. According to the results, both the solvent-based technology and recycling by depolymerization show significant reductions in CO₂ emissions — both compared with the use of fossil raw materials for the production of equivalent polyamide compounds and compared with conventional plastic recovery methods (thermal recovery). Both processes could therefore make an important contribution to the circular economy and the sustainable transformation of the plastics industry in the future.

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