BASF to expand 1,4-butanediol capacity by 10% from Louisiana plant
1/21/2015 12:00:00 AM
BASF will increase its production capacity for the chemical intermediate 1,4-butanediol (BDO) by 10% at its site in Geismar, Louisiana, the company announced on Wednesday.
The expansion is expected to be complete in 2016.
The company will then have a global capacity of BDO of 670,000 tpy. Additionally, BASF says it is looking into further measures to strengthen and to expand its BDO value chain at the Geismar site.
Besides its Geismar site, BASF is also producing BDO at its sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany, Kuantan, Malaysia, Caojing, China and Chiba, Japan.
In addition, a new BDO site of a joint venture of BASF and the Chinese company Xinjiang Markor is expected to commence operations of 100,000 tpy by 2015.
“Being the leading producer of BDO globally, we continue to expand our production capacity step wise to support the growth of our customers as a reliable partner”, said Stefan Blank, president of BASF's intermediates division.
BDO is used for producing plastics, solvents, electronic chemicals and elastic fibers. Depending on the production technology, the starting materials for the production of conventional BDO are natural gas, coal, butane, butadiene and propylene.
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