A cracking job

BASF is investing 200 million Euros to expand the capacity of its naphtha steam cracker at its site in Antwerp, Belgium.

The 200 million Euros expansion, scheduled for 2007, will raise ethylene capacity from 800,000 metric tons per year to 1.08 million metric tons per year – making the plant the largest single-train steam cracker in Europe.

Mainly based on naphtha as feedstock, BASF’s steam crackers produce a wide range of petrochemical base products, such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene and aromatics.

These products are then used as raw materials in numerous downstream plants, where they are converted into intermediates for a vast array of industries and consumer products.

BASF operates other steam crackers in Ludwigshafen, Germany, Port Arthur, Texas and Nanjing, China.