Dow acrylic acid plant at Bohlen down until 24 Jul

21 June 2000 17:08  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--The Dow Chemical acrylic acid plant at Bohlen near Leipzig in eastern Germany is likely to remain out of action until late July, CNI learned on Wednesday.

Operated by Celanese on behalf of the Dow subsidiary Buna Sow Leuna Olefinverbund (BSL), the newly-commissioned 80 000 tonne plant was forced offline about two weeks ago by a power outage at Dow's approximately 450 000-500 000 tonne/year Bohlen cracker. The outage also affected a butyl acrylate plant at Bohlen.

Although the cracker was restarted after about a couple of days and the butyl acrylate plant is also back online, the crude acrylic acid plant remains out of action.

Sources close to the acrylic acid market in Germany indicated that the plant and an associated pure acrylic unit would remain down until around 24 July while a major maintenance programme is carried out. The plant was only brought into commercial production at the beginning of this year. It is modelled on Celanese technology used at the German company's acrylic acid units in Clear Lake, Texas.

Half the crude acrylic acid plant's output is taken by Dow for its downstream derivatives such as superabsorbents and emulsion polymers. Celanese is responsible for the other half which it sells into the merchant market.

By: Neil Sinclair
+44 20 8652 3214

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly