First electric cars. Next, electric factories?

BASF is in the business of molecules. As the world’s biggest chemicals firm, with operations in more than 90 countries, it makes a lot of them. When those molecules contain carbon atoms (and a great many do—they are a wonderfully versatile resource) those carbon atoms tend to come from fossil fuels. When their manufacture requires high temperatures, which is also often the case, that heat comes from burning fossil fuels. Until recently BASF’s massive plant in Ludwigshafen in Germany accounted for 4% of the country’s entire consumption of natural gas.