Using Red Hook, Brooklyn, as a case
study, participants examined the dynamics within the neighborhood, including
single and multi-family residences, commercial structures, public spaces, civic
infrastructure and green space. The concepts of habitat, citizenship, and resilience
were explored and mined for inspiration during a two-day summit guided,
among others, by Professor Alexandros
Washburn, founding director of the
Center for Coastal Resilience and Urban
Xcellence (CRUX) at Stevens Institute of
Technology in New Jersey.
“Our Red Hook neighborhood is
uniquely Brooklyn: diverse and creative,”
said Washburn, who is a Red Hook
resident. “But we’re not unique when it
comes to flood risk and sea level rise be-
cause we live right on the waterfront, like
a billion other people around the world.
If we can find a way to make Red Hook
resilient, we can find a way to make all
coastal cities resilient.”
Throughout its anniversary year,
BASF is collaborating with multiple
stakeholders in an approach known as
‘co-creation’ to focus on smart energy,
food and urban living. The cornerstone
of BASF’s 150th anniversary celebra-
tion is the Creator Space tour, a series
of six, week-long programs occurring
in: Mumbai, India; Shanghai, China;
São Paulo, Brazil; Barcelona, Spain;
New York and BASF’s hometown,
Ludwigshafen, Germany. Other key ele-
ments include Creator Space online, a
global, collaborative internet platform,
and three science symposia to drive inno-
vative solutions in Ludwigshafen (smart
energy), Chicago (food), and Shanghai
(urban living).
Perstorp Opens New
Oxo Plant to Strengthen
Position in PVC Plasticizers,
Chemical Intermediates
Perstorp officially opened a major extension to its capacity to produce PVC
plasticizers and key chemical intermediates. The new Oxo plant in Stenungsund,
Sweden, began producing material soon
after its start-up in January, and is now
running at full regime and delivering high
quality material according to plan.
“The new production platform is the
single largest investment in Perstorp’s his-
tory and clearly demonstrates Perstorp’s
commitment to the PVC industry,” says
Perstorp CEO Jan Secher. “It significant-
ly boosts our output of valeraldehyde
and 2-propyl heptanol (2-PH), two key
raw materials for Perstorp’s innova-
tive general purpose PVC plasticizers,
Emoltene T 100 and Pevalen T. It is a tes-
timony to our commitment to the PVC
industry, and puts us in a very strong
competitive position.”
Perstorp now has one of the few ful-
ly integrated platforms in Europe pro-
viding customers with ready access to
high performance, sustainable and cost-
effective plasticizers. The Oxo plant
is also a source of products for other
key markets: 2-propyl heptanol is used
in production of lubricants, adhesives
and surfactants, for example. While n-
valeric acid, which is also made in the
plant directly from valeraldehyde, is an
important raw material for lubricants,
pharmaceuticals and fragrances.
Jerker Olsson, vice president Business
Unit Oxo, said: “The upstream integra-
tion into essential raw materials greatly
strengthens Perstorp’s position as a reli-
able supplier of innovative plasticizers to
the PVC market. We have raised our total
Oxo capacity by 150,000 tons per year
and become one of the few fully integrat-
ed suppliers of plasticizers.”
“This improved production position,
in combination with logistics centres in
several countries, now provides our cus-
tomers with improved access to market-
leading high performance, sustainable
and cost effective plasticizers. We can
offer our customers a level of reliability,
consistency and customization that our
customers need.”
Olsson added: “Our new Oxo plant is
a great example of Swedish innovation in
sustainable process solutions. It has been
built to the highest environmental and
safety standards.”
Perstorp offers two ranges of general
purpose plasticizers, EmolteneT 100 and
Pevalen T. Emoltene T 100, a C10 plasti-
cizer (di-propyl heptyl phthalate, DPHP),
is one of the thoroughly tested phthalate
plasticizers on the market. It is intended
for outdoor durable applica-
tions, most notably cables, wires
and roofing membranes, where
it contributes to extra durability
under harsh conditions.
PevalenT is an innovative non-phthalate plasticizer, partially derived
from renewable resources, that meets
the safety and performance requirements of “close-to-consumer” PVC applications such as flooring and coated
fabrics. It provides unbeatable softness
and UV stability, and presents processors and users with a highly sustainable
solution for a large number of high-vol-ume applications.
PevalenT further reduces the carbon
footprint of flexible PVC, it has no VOC
(volatile organic compound) emissions
and its high durability helps extend the
useful life of finished products. PevalenT
is registered according to REACH.
Lubrizol Expands Solvent
Acrylics Production Facility
for Coatings
The Lubrizol Corporation’s Performance
Coatings business has completed a significant project to expand capacity and
increase manufacturing efficiencies at
its solvent acrylics production facility in
Sant Cugat (Barcelona), Spain.
Solvent acrylic resin technology for
topcoats and primers is critical to the
success of specialty packaging requirements related to vacuum metallization,
hot stamp foil and holographic printing
applications. Each of these technologies
is playing an increasing role in packaging innovation for security, aesthetics and
functional properties of substrates, according to the company.
Over the past two years, Lubrizol
made significant investments to automate
two independent production lines for the
highly specialized solvent acrylic resin.
This automation helped achieve the goal
of creating efficiency and flexibility while
also improving quality and increasing
capacity. This investment included a new
loading system for monomers and solvents, new premix and initiator tanks and
their related dosing systems, new filters,
two new bulk resins pipelines and a semiautomatic packaging machine.
