After a two-year construction phase, BASF started up a new plant complex for the production of the chemical intermediates cyclopentanone (CPon) and cyclododecanone (CDon) at its Ludwigshafen Verbund site. Kurt Beck, the prime minister of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, attended the inauguration ceremony. The company has invested more than 100 million euros in the facility, which has a total production capacity of approximately 30,000 t/a. The complex will create 48 new jobs in Ludwigshafen.
“The new facility is a very positive event for us – especially in the currently difficult economic climate,” said Board member Dr. Harald Schwager. “A plant startup like this shows that we have a long-term perspective at BASF and take well-founded decisions,” Schwager added.
The new facility will be the first to use nitrous oxide for industrialscale oxidation. This greenhouse gas, which is a by-product from another production process, serves as a starting material in the new plant.
The new technology was tailored to the needs of BASF’s Verbund system. Along with nitrous oxide, other raw materials from BASF are also used as ingredients. As a result the process is cost-efficient as well as sustainable and easy on the environment.
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