Clariant catalysts continue to shrink customer footprints: 45M tons of CO2e avoided in 2025
- Industrial customers using Clariant catalysts avoided greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 45 million tons of CO2e
- Emission reductions mainly due to use of catalysts for: direct reduced iron production, nitrous oxide abatement in nitric acid production, refinery off-gas purification and syngas production
- New carbon-neutral technologies leveraging advanced catalysts strengthened Clariant's contribution to the energy transition
Clariant, a sustainability-focused specialty chemical company, today announced that its catalysts had enabled significantly higher emission reductions in 2025 compared to the previous year. Avoided greenhouse gas emissions amounted to 45 million tons of CO2e, 5 million tons higher than in 2024. The emission reductions1 were made possible by the company's innovative technologies, such as reforming catalysts for producing direct reduced iron (DRI) and nitrous oxide abatement catalysts for nitric acid plants, as well as syngas catalysts for producing green methanol either through electrolytic hydrogen from renewable electricity or from bio-feedstocks.2 Additionally, Clariant's catalysts for refinery off-gas purification contributed to these avoided emissions, helping refineries and crude-to-chemical complexes reduce their environmental footprint. The DRI process, as one example, has only half of the CO2 intensity compared to conventional steel production.3
Jens Cuntze, President of Clariant Catalysts, commented, "Enabling a cleaner, more sustainable future remains one of our core focus areas as we support complex-to-abate industries through continuous innovation. Our sustainability efforts cover the full value chain—from reducing our own direct and indirect emissions to creating solutions that help our customers lower theirs.”
Richard Haldimann, Chief Strategy & Technology Officer at Clariant, added, “Ambitious climate goals can be greatly accelerated through collaborations with producers and industry partners. The success of these low carbon processes is based on leading edge technology allowing for economically attractive CO2 savings.”
While the majority of carbon savings come from established industrial processes, novel and unconventional applications are gaining increasing attention. Last year marked a significant milestone with the successful startup of two lighthouse green methanol projects: European Energy's e-methanol plant, which converts biogenic CO2 and green hydrogen using our MegaMax™ catalysts, and Shanghai Electric's bio-methanol facility that uses farm waste to produce methanol, both demonstrating the commercial viability of sustainable methanol production at scale. As frontrunners in this transformation, Clariant's catalysts are already enabling the production of greener chemicals today, paving the way for a lower-carbon future.
Green methanol is one of the many carbon-neutral technologies Clariant supports. In line with their philosophy of “Greater chemistry – between people and planet,” the company is committed to accelerating the energy transition by transforming its product portfolio and operations to solve global challenges. Through continuous investment in catalyst solutions, Clariant strives to advance decarbonization in the chemical and fuel industries.
Footnotes
1. The methodology used by Clariant to calculate carbon reductions achieved by its customers is based on internationally recognized standards.
2. Clariant calculates the emission savings per ton of product produced (DRI iron, methanol, HNO, etc.) relative to the benchmark processes and multiplies this by the annual production tonnage that the catalysts supported in 2025.
The benchmark processes are: conventional steel production using the Blast Furnace-Basic Oxygen Furnace (BF-BOF) route; conventional syngas processes through steam methane reforming without carbon capture; and nitric acid production without catalytic NO abatement.
3. Mission Possible Partnership, Net-Zero Steel Sector Transition Strategy, 2022
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