Amoco technology slated for use in DSM's first PP expans
15 Jan 2000
DSM is beginning to take advantage of its recent acquisition of the Vestolen Group by signing an agreement to license Amoco's gas-phase polypropylene process. The company intends to use the process in an expansion of one of its new polypropylene units, at Gelsenkirchen in Germany.
The new plant, with a capacity of 250000 tpa, will produce homopolymers and random copolymers. The process uses a proprietary high-activity cadmium catalyst, and has a horizontal reactor configuration which allows rapid product transitions and gives consistent, high-quality products.
DSM paid Fls1 billion for Vestolen, part of the German conglomerate Veba, last September. The acquisition the first of a round of major mergers and acquisitions in the polyolefin industry made it the largest polypropylene producer in Europe, ahead of Borealis (see PE September 1997, p5).
