BASF to increase capacity for butanediol at its Geismar site
Global capacity to increase to 670,000 metric tons of butanediol per year
BASF will increase its production capacities for the chemical intermediate 1,4-butanediol (BDO) by 10% at its site in Geismar/Louisiana as of 2016. The company will then have a global capacity of BDO of 670,000 metric tons per year. Additionally, BASF looks into further measures to strengthen and to expand its BDO value chain at the Geismar site. To increase the capacities of BDO according to the steadily growing customer demand, BASF continuously implements measures to boost efficiency and improve infrastructure at all its sites.
Besides its Geismar site BASF is producing BDO at its sites in Ludwigshafen/Germany, Kuantan/Malaysia, Caojing/China and Chiba/Japan. In addition, a new BDO site of a joint venture of BASF and the Chinese company Xinjiang Markor is expected to commence operations of 100,000 metric tons BDO per year by 2015.
BDO is used for producing plastics, solvents, electronic chemicals and elastic fibers. Depending on the production technology, the starting materials for the production of conventional BDO are natural gas, coal, butane, butadiene and propylene.
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