New internet site for Bayer's largest pilot plant

10-Feb-2003

With its new internet site www.zeto.com, Bayer Chemicals, a division of Bayer AG, provides a detailed overview of the technologies, services and equipment of the Central organics Pilot Plant in Leverkusen. With a useful area of 15,000 square meters and a permitted production volume of 20,000 metric tons, the ZeTOTM is not only the largest pilot plant, in the Bayer Group, it is also one of the largest in the world. The 130 reaction vessels with a capacity of up to 12,000 liters are operated and monitored by 320 employees, of which 18 are graduate chemists and 14 graduate engineers. The tasks carried out range from the optimization of laboratory and production processes, scale-up, piloting and initial manufacture to the planning and engineering of new pilot facilities, the development of new process technologies, calculation and technology evaluation and the realization of nearly all reaction types and methods encountered in organic and relevant inorganic chemistry.

Modern processes on offer include nitration, hydrogenation (pressure to 200 bar, enantioselective hydrogenation), halogenation, phosgenation and oxidation (H2O2, HNO3, oxygen). Other important methods applied include halex reactions, cyanide chemistry, addition reactions (including Diels-Alder), the Friedel-Crafts reaction, methyl nitrite chemistry, reduction with complex hydrides and organometallic reactions down to - 100 °C. An SMB unit for the continuous recovery of high-purity optically active substances is also available. For the production of volumes of several kilograms, as is required for example in phases 1 and 2 of clinical testing, Bayer has recently set up the ZeTOTM GMP KiloLab.

Qualified facilities and a quality management system meeting current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) standards are in place for the production of life science intermediates and pharmaceutical active ingredients.

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