Masdar City Selects BASF as Preferred Supplier

Masdar City, the futuristic green metropolis being built in Abu Dhabi, has selected BASF to be its preferred supplier for building materials.

BASF – familiar to middle aged Americans as a supplier of blank cassette tapes – is one of the world's big chemical and materials suppliers. Among its various building products are polystyrene insulation and chemicals for phase-change air conditioning.

Phase-change air conditioners essentially carry heat out of a room with the assistance of chemicals. The chemicals absorb energy (i.e., heat) in a room and in the process turn into a gas. The chemicals are then cycled through a series of pipes. The energy is dissipated, the gas turns into a solid, liquid or gel, and then re-enters the room that needs cooling. NREL has been testing this out for a while. Air conditioning can account for close to 70 percent of energy demand in hot locales like Abu Dhabi and nearby Dubai.

Phase-change materials could also conceivably be put into flooring and other materials.

Does the announcement mean that BASF gets every Masdar contract? No, but an inside track isn't bad. Abu Dhabi plans to spend billions on its various Masdar projects. Other ones include campuses created by NYU and MIT.

The emirate both wants to show how green construction can reduce energy demand through these projects, but also try to create local businesses that can compete in the new energy market.