44 | Coatings World www.coatingsworld.com June 2014
and wall covering industry.
With its excellent toxicological
profile and low migration rate
Hexamoll DINCH has set high
quality standards and is the ideal choice
for a wide range of applications. Several
leading brand owners and market players put their trust in Hexamoll DINCH.
“In the last few years we have been experiencing a strong customer demand for
alternatives to traditional phthalates and
a market change to non-phthalate plasticizers,” said Prof. Dr.ß Rainer Diercks,
president of BASF’s Petrochemicals
Division. “With our second Hexamoll
DINCH plant and the doubled capacity we support our customers in managing this change and making the move to
Hexamoll DINCH.”
AkzoNobel Opens New
Membrane Electrolysis
Plant in Germany
AkzoNobel inaugurated its new, highly
efficient chlorine membrane electrolysis
plant in the Rhein-Main area, Germany.
The Frankfurt-based plant is the result of
a major conversion and expansion project
begun in 2011 and involving a €140 million investment by the company. Capacity
has been increased by 50 percent while at
the same time reducing the plant’s overall
ecological footprint by some 20 percent.
“This investment in our Specialty
Chemicals business highlights the steps
we are taking to strengthen our market
positions and further improve our perfor-
mance as a company,” said AkzoNobel
CEO Ton Büchner. “We are constantly
looking for new and innovative ways to
improve our operational efficiency, drive
our sustainability agenda and improve
our service to customers.”
Added Werner Fuhrmann, the com-
pany’s executive committee member re-
sponsible for Specialty Chemicals: “This
plant produces building blocks for the
manufacture of products we all use on
a daily basis ranging from pharmaceuti-
cals and tooth paste to door and window
frames. By radically improving our effi-
ciency and increasing our use of renew-
able energy, we can take significant steps
in making these everyday essentials even
more sustainable.”
Tarek Al-Wazir, Minister for Economy,
Energy, Transport and Regional
Development for the federal state of
Hessen said: “The new chlorine produc-
tion facility of AkzoNobel Industrial
Chemicals is a good example that econ-
omy and ecology are compatible; and it
is a strong signal for the strengthening of
the chemical cluster Hessen.”
The facility has been converted to
the latest generation membrane technol-
ogy. Radical efficiency improvements
will reduce energy consumption by 30
percent per ton of product. Boosting
chlorine production capacity up to 250
kilotons per year will also reinforce the
company’s leading positions in Europe’s
chlor-alkali markets. Work at Frankfurt
started in 2011, with commercial pro-
duction from the new plant expected to
come on stream in the next few weeks.
The site is one of three chlorine plants
operated by AkzoNobel in Germany, the
other two being located in Bitterfeld and
Ibbenbüren. Products from the salt-chlo-
rine chain, including chlorine, caustic lye,
and derivatives including MCA and chlo-
romethanes, are essential basic chemicals
and are used in a large variety of products
and processes, ranging from water disin-
fection to clothing, amongst other things
in the manufacture of epoxies, polyure-
thanes, polycarbonates, PVC and tita-
nium dioxide. They are also used in the
manufacture of more than two thirds of
all pharmaceuticals.
BASF and Yara Plan to Build
Ammonia Plant in Freeport,
Texas
BASF and Yara have progressd with
their plan to jointly build a world-scale
ammonia plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The proposed plant would be located at
the existing BASF site in Freeport, Texas,
have an annual capacity of 750,000 metric tons and be based on a hydrogen-syn-thesis process.
Further details of the planned joint
venture are currently under discussion
between the parties. The project is sub-
ject to final approval from the respective
boards of directors of BASF and Yara.
BASF, which has a strong presence in the
U.S. is currently a major user of ammonia
for its U.S. downstream activities and in-
tends to further strengthen its backward
integration. Yara, with its global ammo-
nia network and market expertise, seeks
to strengthen its presence in the U.S.
Evonik Commences
Isophorone Facilities in
China
Evonik Industries has commenced an integrated production complex for isophorone and isophorone diamine in Shanghai,
China. The company has invested more
than €100 million in the facilities, which
will have an annual output capacity of
50,000 metric tons. Construction in the
Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP)
took less than two years. Evonik primarily plans to use the output of the new
plants to serve customers in the coatings
and paint, construction, adhesives, and
composite industry in Asia.
“The new plant continues our successful growth story in isophorone chemistry. We are now represented in the three
major economic zones, Europe, NAFTA,
and Asia, with fully backwards integrated production facilities to tap into
attractive new growth opportunities,”
said Patrik Wohlhauser, member of the
Evonik Industries executive board and
chief operating officer. Evonik has fifty
years of experience with isophorone
chemistry and continuously improves
its process technologies. So far products
based on isophorone (crosslinkers) were
being manufactured in Marl and Herne,
Germany, and in Mobile, Alabama, U.S.
“Evonik is the only company worldwide to cover the entire supply chain of
isophorone and its derivatives. We now
are in a position to quickly and reliably
supply our customers in China and other
Asian countries from our regional production, consistently offering products
of high quality and purity,” explained
Ulrich Küsthardt, head of the Coatings
and Additives Business Unit. In addition
to the new production complex, Evonik
built an application technology service
center with state-of-the-art laboratories
at the Xinzhuang site in Shanghai. The
custom-tailored isophorone solutions
will strengthen the competitiveness of
Asian customers. CW
