• 120 visitors from local community join Open Day at BASF-YPC Company Limited
  
• Guided site tour helps community understand site safety, production systems, environmental protection measures
  
• BASF Kids’ Lab back in Nanjing with fun, hands-on chemistry experiments

Nanjing, China – October 22, 2017 – BASF-YPC Company Limited (BASF-YPC) today invited more than 120 representatives from 60 households in the Changlu sub-district and Dachang sub-district of Luhe District to a site Open Day. The theme of the Open Day was “Love and Growth". Through a guided tour around the production site, the community were able to gain a clearer understanding of BASF-YPC’s rigorous, safe production systems, as well as its advanced energy saving and waste treatment measures for environmental protection.

“The petrochemical industry is fundamental to the development of society, and is closely related to our daily livelihood. Our site plays an important role in supporting local and national industries, such as automotive, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods,” said Uwe Kirchgaessner, President of BASF-YPC. “As public awareness about environmental protection grows, maintaining an open and constant dialog with the community is the key. Through the open day, we hope the community can better understand our safe operation and contribution to environmental protection, in an easy-to-understand way.”

During the tour, guided by BASF-YPC representatives, residents visited the production facilities including the power plant, which uses natural gas as its main raw material, and the superabsorbent polymer plant, which produces materials used in baby diapers. “We are committed to safe and sustainable production. For example, our site applies high quality catalysts to reduce emissions of exhaust gas from incinerators and energy recovery boilers. We take every step to minimize our environmental impact, especially to the neighboring community,” Kirchgaessner added.

Visitors also learned about the company’s processes for treating various kinds of waste at the site. BASF-YPC has strict guidelines for treating all kinds of waste, from waste water and solid general waste, to inflammable and non-hazardous solid waste. The means of treatment, as well as the treated waste, meet the safety and environmental standards of The Nanjing Chemical Industry Park, the industry and the government.

“Water is a valuable resource. It needs to be handled responsibly. At our site, all the devices are installed with online monitoring meters for waste water discharge. The waste water from the site will only flow into the Yangtze Sewage Treatment Plant for refining if it meets the required standards of the sewage plant after pretreatment. The online monitoring system connected with the Environmental Protection Department will monitor the discharge process and make sure the water reaches the national discharge standards,” Kirchgaessner explained.

During the open day, the residents learned about BASF-YPC and how chemistry is closely related to daily life through a range of fun filled activities. BASF Kids’ Lab, a free and interactive science education program, was also part of the Open Day. This program helps children aged 6-12 to discover the world of chemistry through simple, safe hands-on experiments. Celebrating its 20th anniversary globally, this year also marks 15 years of Kids’ Lab in China. BASF Kids’ lab was held in Nanjing previously.

Since its establishment, BASF-YPC has held environmental discussions every year with community representatives, government officials and environmental experts. The company has also invited local residents, college students, customers and employees’ families to visit the site. As well as this, BASF-YPC company has also organized sustainable development forums with Nanjing Environmental Protection Bureau and the Nanjing Branch of European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, to advocate the development of sustainable chemistry and share experience and knowledge of energy conservation and resource recycling. BASF-YPC also makes donations to educational institutions, charitable organizations, and cultural institutions.

About BASF-YPC Company Limited
BASF-YPC Company Limited (BASF-YPC), a 50:50 joint venture between BASF and SINOPEC founded in 2000, is an integrated petrochemical site with an investment amounting to USD 4.5 billion. Every year, the site produces three million tons of high-quality chemicals and polymers for the Chinese market to meet the rapidly-growing needs of the agriculture, construction, electronics, pharmaceutical, health, automotive and chemical industries there.

Phase I of BASF-YPC Integrated Petrochemical Site started commercial operation in 2005. In 2012, BASF-YPC initiated the formal production of its Phase II project which aimed at expanding product value chain and increasing the capacity of fine chemicals. In 2014, BASF-YPC successfully expanded its acrylic acid value chain with additional acrylic acid and butyl acrylate plants, and the newly-built superabsorbent polymer plant. One year later, BASF-YPC expanded the existing ethylene glycol plant, and also built a new neopentyl glycol plant.

To make use of the products, by-products and energy in a highly-efficient manner, save cost and minimize their impact on the environment, all the facilities of BASF-YPC are interconnected. BASF-YPC achieved the sales of up to RMB 17.3 billion in 2016, with a total of 1,881 employees by the end of that year.