TOTAL Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland and DOMO Chemicals have inaugurated a €60m ($70m) benzene production and extraction joint project at the Leuna refinery in Germany. The project involved constructing a new unit at the refinery to enrich an intermediate product from gasoline production, transporting the benzene-cut through a 1.6km pipeline and feeding it to a new DOMO unit to produce chemical products. The units began operation at the start of 2018 after a three-year construction period. The project strengthens the integration of the chemical park and enhances the companies' product portfolios.
Leuna - TOTAL Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland and DOMO Chemicals inaugurated the 60 million euro benzene production and extraction joint project in attendance of the Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Dr. Reiner Haseloff and around 120 other guests. This project consisted in constructing a new unit at the refinery that enriches an intermediate product from the gasoline production, transporting this benzene-cut through a 1.6 km pipeline and feeding a new DOMO's unit to produce chemical products. Both units started operation at the beginning of 2018, after a 3-years and accident free construction period.
For DOMO Chemicals, decisive advantages arise from the intensified cooperation with TOTAL. "This new unit will secure us an excellent competitive position in the global market in the long term. Access to benzene as a strategic raw material is crucial for our integrated polyamide 6 chain", says Luc De Raedt, Managing Director of DOMO Caproleuna GmbH.
DOMO and the TOTAL Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland have been working closely together for years. The refinery already supplies propylene, an important feedstock for the production of Caprolactam[1] and polyamide 6. Polyamide 6 is used, among others, for the production of flexible packaging films in the food and pharmaceutical industries, for injection molded parts in the automotive sector and for textile industry applications.
"This is a win-win development. It strengthens our integration in the more than 100-year-old chemical park as well as our partnership-based relationships with our neighbors by producing a new petrochemical product. At the end, we are making the complex more competitive. We are grateful for this enhancement of our product portfolio fully in line with our strategy and targeting sustainable market" says Dr. Willi Frantz, Managing Director of the TOTAL Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland.
"I am delighted that TOTAL and DOMO, two of the most well-known companies in Leuna and with a total of almost 1,200 employees, have inaugurated a benzene extraction plant. The project is also related to the synergy effects of a chemical park. It underscores the great success of this model, which we developed in Saxony-Anhalt" emphasizes Dr. Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt.
"The investment by TOTAL and DOMO is an important step towards further strengthening the network at our chemical site Leuna. The project impressively shows how successful synergy potentials can be tapped successfully in Leuna in close and trusting cooperation across company boundaries" says Christof Günther, Managing Director of InfraLeuna GmbH.
ABOUT TOTAL RAFFINERIE MITTELDEUTSCHLAND
TOTAL Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland GmbH is one of the most modern refineries in Europe. It employs around 630 people. It has a maximum processing capacity of 12 million tons of crude oil per year. In addition to gasoline, diesel and heating oil, the product range includes LPG, naphtha, aviation fuel, bitumen and methanol. The refinery covers the needs of approximately 1,300 service stations in central Germany. Total operates the fourth largest service stations network in Germany and is one of the leading suppliers of petroleum products.
Further information at: www.total-raffinerie.de