BASF set to restart China THF plant

Ludwigshafen, Germany - BASF AG is set to restart its tetrahydrofuran (THF) plant at the group's Caojing site near Shanghai, China. The unit was shut down following a malfunction in 2006 and subsequently mothballed due, said the group, "to persistently high prices for the raw material butane, to allow better use of BASF's global production network, and to take account of emerging capacities in China."

According to BASF, the plant is now equipped with a new production unit enabling the alternative use of butane diol (BDO) as a raw material for THF production in addition to butane. The move, it said, improves the reliability of local industrial raw material supply for the neighboring PolyTHF plant, which has been in operation since the first quarter of 2005.

"The new production unit improves our flexibility in three respects," said Dr. Walter Gramlich, president, head of the Operating Division Intermediates of the BASF-Group. "First, we can extract MSA as a market product starting in 2009/10 and thus develop new growth markets in China. Second, we can also choose the most favorable raw material and so improve our competitiveness. And third, our new flexibility on the raw material side considerably increases the security of supply for our PolyTHF customers."

BASF is now involved in several cooperations with leading Spandex (polyurethane-based) fibre producers in the Asia Pacific region who use PolyTHF as a feedstock as well as exploring potential for further expansion of PolyTHF capacity. The group has a global network of integrated production plants for THF and PolyTHF located close to the customers. These are the Asian sites in Ulsan, Korea) and Caojing (China) as well as Ludwigshafen and Geismar, Louisiana.

PolyTHF is also an intermediate for thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU), which are used for example in the manufacture of highly abrasion-resistant, yet flexible hoses, films and cable sheathing. THFis used both as a precursor of PolyTHFand a special solvent, for example, in the production of pharmaceutical products.

BASF is also  planning the production of maleic anhydride (MAN) as a commercial product alongside THF from early 2010. MAN serves mainly as a building block to produce unsaturated polyester resins and for producing water-soluble polymers and lubricants.