BUSINESS IN THE PIPELINE New citral plant brings petrochemical dimensions to fine chemicals production.
INTERNATIONAL
CITRAL MOVES FRONT AND CENTER AT BASF New plant key to 'Verbund5 strategy of integrated production of fine chemicals, vitamins
T
HE PHRASE "FINE CHEMICALS"
conjures up small quantities of product made in batches in liter vessels and flasks. BASF, howev er, has just opened a petrochem ical-sized answer to its need for addition al fine chemicals capacity: its new citral plant, where the heaviest reactor weighs 300 metric tons and the tallest distillation column rises 45 meters above the ground. Inauguration festivities at the compa ny's massive Ludwigshafen complex were led recently by BASF Chairman Jurgen Hambrecht and joined by the governor of the German state of Rhineland-Palatine and the mayor of the city of Ludwigshafen. They celebrated the company's nearly $370 million investment in the site. The largest portion of that investment was earmarked for the citral plant. At 40,000 metric tons per year of capacity, the plant replaces an older unit of onequarter the size, which will be scrapped. Starting from the isobutene and meth anol produced by BASF's commodity chemical operations, citral and its family of derivatives carry out the firm's "Ver bund" philosophy of complete integration. And with the additional supply citral be comes an even more important building block for BASF. The firm already uses cit ral to make vitamin A and a variety of carotenoids. In the future, citral will be the firm's starting point for vitamin Ε and for 30
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the aroma chemicals geraniol and linalool. Although the new plant has four times the capacity of the old one, it still uses the same number of employees: 30. Indicative of the central role citral will play in the company's fine chemicals operations, how ever, more than 500 Ludwigshafen-based jobs depend on citral's derivatives. The products find their way into ani mal and human nutrition and in the health and cosmetics sectors, all fast-growing mar kets, according to Peter Oakley the BASF board director responsible for agricultur al products and nutrition. "Customers are interested in living healthier, longer, and without wrinkles," Oakley said at the plant opening. Conse quently "we expect fine chemicals markets to grow by about 6% on average through 2010. By comparison, experts are fore casting the world economy to grow annu ally by 3.1% in the same period." BASF'S REENGINEERED citral process is a multistep, continuous technique. Special catalysts developed by the company are em ployed in two reactors to cope with the spe cific synthesis conditions, explained An dreas Henne, group vice president for fine chemicals production and technology It produces the two citral isomers—geranial andneral—inroughly 1:1 proportions. Both isomers are used in downstream processes. Reaction conditions, with pressures of
300 bar in the first step and temperatures ofmore than 300 °C in another, "constitute high technical entry barriers," Henne ar gued. In fact, he said, BASF has only one competitor for synthetic citral worldwide: Japan's Kuraray with significantly less ca pacity Prior to BASF's development of the original synthesis in 1969, and still to a lim ited extent, citral—which has a strong lem ony odor—was derived from essential oils, including lemongrass and various citrus oils. Other fine chemicals projects are part of the investment package, pointed out Martin Laudenbach, head of the fine chem icals division. For example, in the works are a doubling of capacity, to 20,000 metric tons per year, for vitamin Ε and increases in production of carotenoids and other hu man and animal nutrition additives. "The new citral plant not only offers a guarantee that we can reliably supply our customers with the products they require, but also marks an important step toward ensuring our competitiveness," Lauden bach said, because the simplified process reduces production costs. With the pro duction integration, he said, BASF will be better placed to withstand the increasing pressure on fine chemicals margins world wide, as new suppliers—particularly in Asia—make their presence felt. The investment also signals BASF's commitment to its new logo (C&EN, Dec. 15,2003, page 7), Oakley said. In a some what barbed comment alluding to the re-
DOUBLE'.DUTY Both citral isomers are valuable
Geranial
Neral cent ins and outs of chemical companies from various businesses, he noted: "We are assuring customers that we want to be the chemical company with a broad technol ogy portfolio and staying power that no body else has. It is our commitment to still exist as a chemical supplierfiveyears from now"-PATRICIA SHORT HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
