Wacker's Expanded Cyclodextrin Facility at Eddyville Site Now on Stream
Wacker, the Munich-based chemical company, officially brought its expanded cyclodextrin facility in Eddyville (Iowa, USA) on stream. The new facility increases Wacker’s capacity for alpha and beta cyclodextrins by 50 percent, respectively, and doubles its capacity for gamma cyclodextrins. Investment in the entire facility totaled over $21 million. The extra capacity is needed to meet the worldwide rise in cyclodextrin demand. The expanded facility will enable Wacker to produce up to 7,500 metric tons of cyclodextrins a year. These biotech sugar molecules are used as stabilizers and excipients in the pharma, life-science, cosmetics, food and agri sectors.
“Eddyville’s expansion program is a further step toward strengthening our position as global market leader for cyclodextrins,” said Dr. Gerhard Schmid, president of Wacker Fine Chemicals, the Group’s biotechnology and fine chemicals division. He added that the investment aimed at ensuring sufficient future quantities of cyclodextrins for fast-growing application fields such as the food, food-supplement and agri sectors. “Thanks to the site’s expansion, we are now well positioned to not only reflect global market and demand trends, but also to meet growing customer needs.”
Aiming to boost capacity and streamline the production process, the investment program saw both the expansion of many existing parts of the facility, as well as the construction of entirely new buildings. A considerable part of Wacker’s investment was spent, for example, on the new byproduct-processing plant, which reduces the entire facility’s steam consumption by 35 percent.
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