LANXESS to invest EUR 40 million at Newcastle site in South Africa

New CO2 concentration unit supports future growth of Sodium Dichromate production

27-Feb-2012 - South Africa

German specialties chemicals group LANXESS is investing EUR 40 million to build a CO₂ concentration unit at its South African site in Newcastle. At this site, the group operates a highly modern plant, that mainly produces sodium dichromate which is further processed into chrome tanning materials for the global leather industry. It is the only site of its kind in South Africa. The production technology requires permanent supply of highly concentrated CO₂.

“This investment in South Africa marks another step within our BRICS strategy,” says Rainier van Roessel, Member of the Board of Management at LANXESS. “It allows the best possible capacity utilization of our Newcastle plant and sets the basis for future expansion of our production.”

With its own CO₂ concentration unit, LANXESS will become independent of the delivery capacity of external suppliers who provided the CO₂ up to now. Construction of the new unit will start in the first quarter of 2012, and commissioning of the unit is planned for the second half of 2013. The investment will create up to 10 new jobs at the site.

LANXESS’ Sodium Dichromate production is based on CO₂ pressure saturation, in which CO₂ is used to convert Sodium Monochromate into Sodium Dichromate. The new unit will capture and filter exhaust air from the sites’ steam production process, concentrate the CO₂ level up to 99 percent and feed it into the production process.

“By using our own exhaust air to cater for the CO₂ demand we cut down the CO₂ emissions of our Newcastle plant by around 25 percent,” says van Roessel. The overall capacity of the Newcastle plant is around 70.000 tonnes of Sodium Dichromate per year.

Complete value creation chain for chrome-based leather chemicals in South Africa

LANXESS is the world’s only company to cover the entire value creation chain for chrome-based leather chemicals. LANXESS operates a chrome ore mine in Rustenburg, making the company independent of external raw material suppliers. The chrome ore is processed in Newcastle into chrome chemicals, out of which high-grade tanning raw materials are made at the LANXESS site in Merebank, Durban, to serve the global leather industry.

“This investment further strengthens our unique value creation chain for chrome-based specialty chemicals here in South Africa and underlines our strong commitment to the country and the community of Newcastle,” says Karl Gassen, Managing Director of LANXESS (Pty) Ltd. in South Africa. Additionally, LANXESS runs a production site for rubber chemicals in Isithebe, north of Durban.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/136676/lanxess-to-invest-eur-40-million-at-newcastle-site-in-south-africa.html