- BASF invested over €100M in the new Ludwigshafen plant.
- The facility has a production capacity of 30,000 metric tons per year.
- The plant produces cyclopentanone (CPon) and cyclododecanone (CDon).
- The new technology uses nitrous oxide for industrial-scale oxidation.
New Production Facility
After a two-year construction phase, BASF started up a new plant complex for producing cyclopentanone (CPon) and cyclododecanone (CDon) at its Ludwigshafen Verbund site on November 30, 2009. The company invested more than €100M in the facility, which has a total production capacity of approximately 30,000 metric tons per year. The complex will create 48 new jobs in Ludwigshafen.
Innovative Technology
The new facility is the first to use nitrous oxide for industrial-scale oxidation. This greenhouse gas, a by-product from another production process, serves as a starting material in the new process. The technology was tailored to the needs of BASF's Verbund system, making the process cost-efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.
Production Process
BASF needed only five and a half years from the initial idea to plant startup, despite using a novel three-stage production process that had never before been used on an industrial scale. The new products, CDon and CPon, fit well into BASF's intermediates portfolio, benefiting from the company's integrated research, process technology, and engineering capabilities.
Applications
CDon is a key raw material for producing laurolactam, an intermediate for the high-performance plastic polyamide 12, used in automotive and engineering components. Additionally, CDon is used in the synthesis of musk fragrances and UV stabilizers. CPon serves as a building block in the synthesis of crop protection products, active ingredients for pharmaceuticals and fragrances, and as a solvent in wafer production.
