InterviewBayer in €300m German isocyanates plan

10 September 2008 13:50  [Source: ICIS news]

By Dede Williams

FRANKFURT (ICIS news)--Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) plans a massive €300m ($423m) upgrade to isocyanates production in Germany on the back of a new technology, the company told ICIS in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

Sparked by breakthrough technology, BMS has revealed plans for a major restructuring of isocyanates production at two key European sites - both in Germany.

The company will invest in consolidating and expanding production at Brunsbuttel and Dormagen/Uerdingen up to 2013, polyurethanes business unit head Peter Vanacker said.

Bayer’s “innovative” gas phase phosgenation (GPP) technology is key to the plans, he added.

As part of the project, the existing 60,000 tonne/year toluene diisocyanate (TDI) plant, operated as part of the Dormagen/Uerdingen integrated production network, will be replaced with a state-of-the-art 300,000 tonne/year worldscale TDI facility.

This will complete the backward integration of the TDI chain at the site. A 200,000 tonne/year worldscale plant for base product toluene diamine (TDA) is already in place at Dormagen.

At Brunsbuttel, the 125,000 tonne/year TDI plant will be closed, and the infrastructure and the existing 160,000 tonne/year capacity at the site for methyl di-p-phenylene isocyanate (MDI) will be upgraded into a worldscale, 400,000 tonne/year MDI plant.

Crucial to the upgrade of Bayer’s sites is the implementation of new technology.

The restructuring of the German facilities “will allow us to introduce GPP technology at one of our most important locations, where we benefit from excellent facilities, a highly skilled workforce and the continued support of local authorities”, said Vanacker.

He points to the new GPP process as “a major breakthrough” which improves the company’s position as lowest-cost producer, and “significantly enhances its environmental performance”.

BMS has been examining opportunities to incorporate this technology into the production set-up at other existing sites, in addition to the new TDI facility now being built at Shanghai, China, with an initial capacity of 250,000 tonnes/year.

The BMS executive says the GPP technology “offers huge benefits” both from a cost-saving and environmental perspective.

Energy consumption is reduced by some 60%, solvent consumption by 80% and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by around 60,000 tonnes/year, compared with a conventional plant of the same capacity.

“Our aim,” said Vanacker, “is to continuously improve our cost and environmental position through the introduction of new technologies at all our European plants when the opportunities arise.

"But in the meantime," he added, "we will continue to debottleneck at our other locations in Tarragona, Spain, and Antwerp, Belgium, to meet rising demand.”

Plans are also afoot for upgrading polycarbonate (PC) production at the Uerdingen site.

Depending on the development of the market, Vanacker said BMS intends to further expand the 330,000 tonne/year PC plant, claimed to be the world’s largest, as well as MDI specialties, while at the same time improving the integration with the Dormagen site.

The Bayer polymers arm has invested more than €1bn in its sites along the lower Rhine river over the past several years, and Vanacker said the company is “confident” that this network of integrated production sites will strengthen its position as cost-leader in polyurethanes in particular.

Realising the full rewards of the company’s investment in the integration of its German sites will necessitate not only careful planning of energy and raw materials input, but also acceptance of the projects by authorities as well as residents of the surrounding local communities, Vanacker added.

($1 = €0.71)

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By: Dede Williams
+44 20 8652 3214

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