Construction of Degussa's new DL-Methionine plant completed

29-Jul-2005

Since ground breaking in November 2003, a lot has happened at the Antwerp production site of the Feed Additives business unit of Degussa AG, Dusseldorf. Where open land had been only 18 months ago, the mechanical construction of the new DL-methionine is just about to be completed and expected to start up still within this year.

"We are fully on schedule with Degussa's biggest investment project ever", Dr. Hubert Wennemer, President of the Business Unit, emphasizes: "With the new fully integrated DL-Methionine plant, we have realized a series of innovative process improvements, which further improve our cost position, thus representing a central element of our long term growth plan", Wennemer continues.

With the new plant, Degussa will operate two world scale methionine production plants at their Antwerp harbor site. Both will have a combined capacity of 200,000 t per year, thus increasing Degussa's global methionine production capacity to 350,000 t annually.

This figure is somewhat lower than given in earlier statements. Due to the difficult economic environment, the methionine plant project was reviewed and scaled down from 150,000 to 120,000 tons annual capacity. Cost reductions were however only realized at those process steps, which can be easily upgraded at a later stage.

"Even more important to keep production capacities in line with demand, the older 80,000 tons plant will be taken out of production and only be restarted when required by the growing demand of our customers around the globe", Dr. Reiner Beste, Vice President Marketing, explains. "Besides operational cost savings, this allows us to run the new pant at a high initial plant load, which offers a series of advantages. The downtime period of the old plan will be utilized for an overhaul, during which we will realize a series of process improvements also in this plant. Thereafter, the old plant is ready for re-start, thus allowing us to react appropriately to changing market conditions", Beste continues.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/47948/construction-of-degussa-s-new-dl-methionine-plant-completed.html