BASF awards Innovation Prize 2001

21-May-2001

BASF has awarded its Innovation Prize for the eighth time. The prize honors new developments at BASF that have already been implemented successfully. This year the prize was awarded to the researchers of three projects:

The "three-liter house," an excellent example of how to refurbish older buildings to provide low-energy, environmentally-friendly and cost-effective housing; Neopor®, a new class of thermal insulating materials; and the Clearfield® Production System, a combination of BASF herbicides and seeds that are tolerant to these herbicides.

The prizewinners each received DM15,000 (about €7,500) for their innovations.

"This year, we are once again honoring projects that promise to make a substantial contribution to BASF's future business success. The winning projects are novel, were put into practice in a professional manner and of course increase and maintain BASF's profitability," said Dr. Stefan Marcinowski, member of BASF's Board of Executive Directors and Research Executive Director.

A building full of cutting-edge technology

The equivalent of only three liters of heating oil per square meter and year and a more than 80 percent reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) - this is fact not fiction. And this is why BASF's ultramodern low-fuel-consumption apartment building is also called the "three-liter house." The completely refurbished older building has nine apartments with living space totaling 700 square meters (approximately 7,500 square feet). Tenants living in a 100 square meter (1,000 square feet) apartment pay annual heating costs of less than €150 instead of €1,000. This method of refurbishing older buildings makes sense from economic, social and ecological viewpoints: Energy is saved reducing heating costs and the level of emissions is lower.

Neopor insulates using air and graphite

The difference between the familiar insulating material Styropor and its new relative is immediately apparent: Neopor boards are gray, not white. In the raw state it exists as black granules which are then processed into a foam. Neopor uses the same principle as Styropor: It acts as an insulator because the air it contains does not conduct heat well. However, heat radiation also plays a part in thermal insulation. Previously, high-density Styropor boards made up of cells with thicker cell walls were necessary to combat this. In Neopor, tiny flakes of graphite reflect heat radiation and make the insulating boards almost impermeable to heat. A board made of Neopor can be up to 20 percent thinner than one of Styropor with the same density and insulates just as well. As a result, the new rigid foam is particularly interesting for use in areas where there is no room for a thick layer of insulation. Examples include older buildings that did not originally provide for insulation as well as insulation installed on the inside of external walls, where use of the new material means that less living space is lost.

Protecting crops and the environment

In order to obtain high yields in crops such as corn, wheat or rice, they must be protected from weeds, fungi and insect pests. Farmers treat plants with a variety of crop protection products that have to be applied at different times. This costs both time and money. The Clearfield Production System offers an alternative that makes both economic and ecological sense: The system is a combination of imidazolinone herbicide and seeds that are tolerant to these herbicides. The herbicide acts when it comes into direct contact with weeds and a single application prevents weeds from germinating again throughout the entire growing season.

The Innovation Prize was awarded on May 16 at a meeting of BASF's international senior executives in Wachenheim near Ludwigshafen.

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