European chemicals majors unveil factory of the future

Leverkusen, Germany  –  EU chemicals companies and research institutes have launched a project to develop a new approach to chemicals production that addresses concerns over climate change and the global downturn, as well reducing raw materials and production costs.

The F3 (flexible, fast and future factory) Factory initative brings together 25 partners (see below) to collaborate both on technologies for process intensification and on production concepts. They aim to reduce industry costs by about Euro3.75 billion by switching existing production facilities,  while also opening up new markets.

The consortium is to design and develop a modular continuous plant, to standardise processes and their interfaces and also to demonstrate the capabilities of the F3 Factory with existing products. The partners also aim to apply the efficiency and scalability of world-scale continuous plants to batch production facilities.

"Strategies for process intensification will also be developed, such that raw materials and energies are employed more economically – since the latter represent about 70 to 80% of manufacturing costs and therefore usually much more than labour costs," said a statement from the consortium.

Another target is to develop products such as solvent-free polymers, customised surfactants, high value-added building blocks and intermediates for pharmaceuticals and innovative materials based on renewable materials. A demonstration and development centre is to be constructed in the Chempark at Bayer's Leverkusen HQ by early 2011.

All partners met for the F3 Factory launch on 8 June at Bayer Technology Services  GmbH - the Bayer technology subgroup that will coordinate the EU project throughout its four-year period. The project is to run for four years at a cost of about Euro30 million, Euro18 million of which is being provided by the EU through its 7th Framework Program (FP7).

“Today we are at the beginning of a trendsetting – and perhaps even revolutionary – cooperation within the European chemical industry, since F3 Factory combines the enormous process know-how of industry and research units in a to date unique consortium across competitors," said Achim Noack, managing director of Bayer Technology Services.

The F3 Factory consortium includes: Arkema, AstraZeneca, BASF, Bayer Technology Services, Britest, Buss-SMS-Canzler, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNRS, Coatex, Technical University of Denmark, Ehrfeld Mikrotechnik BTS, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine - ENSIC, Evonik Degussa, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institute of Catalysis & Surface Chemistry PAS, Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Process Design Center, Rhodia, RWTH Aachen University, Technische Universität Dortmund, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Newcastle, University of Paderborn, Procter & Gamble, Ruhr-University Bochum.