Bayer MaterialScience planning world-scale TDI plant at Dormagen site
1 Mar 2010
Euro150m facility to use new production process offering energy savings of up to 60%
Dormagen, Germany – Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) is to invest around 150 million to establish a 300ktpa TDI (toluene diisocyanate) plant at its Chempark site in Dormagen. The unit will replace the existing TDI plants in Dormagen and Brunsbüttel and is part of a company strategy to optimise its European production for the isocyanate – a feedstock for the production of polyurethane flexible foam.
“This investment is a clear commitment to North Rhine-Westphalia as an industrial location. It is intended to strengthen Dormagen as a global TDI technology center and to provide long-term security for the competitiveness of Chempark Dormagen and the jobs at the plant and in the region,” said Dr. Tony Van Osselaer, member of the BMS board.
The BMS plant will use a patented TDI process technology, which is said to use 60% less energy and 80% less solvent than conventional plants of the same size. Subject to approvals being granted by the authorities, the plant will be built on the site of the coal-fired power plant, which will be torn down, and will go on stream in 2014.
The process technology has been successfully trialled over the last six years in a Dormagen pilot plant. BMS also has a large-scale plant based on this process under construction in Caojing, near Shanghai, China, which is scheduled to go on stream in mid-2011.
Dormagen will then be the sole BMS site in Europe for the production of TDI. Plans call for the production of raw materials for polyurethane rigid foams to be expanded in Brunsbüttel.
Chempark Dormagen was chosen as the site for the TDI plant in a Europe-wide selection process, with the availability of raw materials and precursors as well as the existing infrastructure being key factors in the decision, said a BMS statement.
The extra production capacity of the planned plant means that it will also require correspondingly greater quantities of raw materials. Whereas chlorine is already available in sufficient quantities in Dormagen, a new reformer is to be built to cover the increased demand for carbon monoxide. The starting materials required for this are also available in Dormagen. Furthermore, the hydrogen produced as a byproduct of carbon monoxide production can also be further processed directly on the site.
