BASF puts money into new furnace tube coating technology

04 February 2010 16:58  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--BASF is investing C$3m ($2.8m, €2.1m) of seed capital into a technology that could help it save costs and maintenance time de-coking its crackers worldwide.

The chemical giant’s venture capital arm is putting the money into Canadian firm Quantiam Technologies as part of a current C$6m investment round. The second investor is privately held Ursataur capital.

Quantiam intends to develop further catalytic surface coatings particularly for steam cracker furnace tubes, BASF said.

The coatings reduce carbon formation in furnace tubes, or coking, and help cut maintenance times, energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, BASF said.

“Quantiam offers us a cutting-edge technology that is fully developed and ready for immediate use,” said Matthias Baum, investment manager at BASF Venture Capital. “That’s really rare and definitely has tremendous growth potential for BASF and the petrochemical industry,”

($1 = C$1.06, €1 = C$1.46)

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By: Nigel Davis
+44 20 8652 3214

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