BASF invests in HDO capacity at its Ludwigshafen site

BASF intends to increase the production capacity of 1.6-Hexanediol (HDO) at its Ludwigshafen Verbund site by more than 50%.

After the start-up in 2021, BASF’s global annual nameplate capacity of HDO will be more than 70,000t/yr at its production facilities in Ludwigshafen, Germany and Freeport, Texas, USA.

"By increasing our HDO production capacity, we will continue to support the fast-growing customer demand for high-quality HDO formulations globally.

"The expansion is in line with the general trend for high performance and environmentally friendly technologies in the automotive, furniture and packaging industry,” said Dr Andrea Frenzel, President, BASF Intermediates Division.

"As one of the leading global producers of HDO with decades of experience, we have highly efficient manufacturing processes and are supplying HDO to our customers across all regions.”

Michael Britt, Senior Vice President, BASF Intermediates Europe, added: "With the investment we provide our customers more flexibility and reliability of supply than we did before.

"The volumes from the additional capacity in Ludwigshafen will mainly serve the strong European customer base as well as the fast growing Asian market.”

HDO adds value in many applications by giving hydrolysis resistance, flexibility, adhesion and weather-ability to the end-products.

Due to its superior performance compared to other materials, BASF’s customers use the intermediate to formulate high quality industrial, automotive, wood or leather coatings, polyurethane plastics, adhesives and cosmetics.

HDO also serves as a raw material for environmentally-friendly applications including low volatile organic compound formulations for coatings and adhesives.

In addition, there is the production of reactive thinners in the formulation of epoxy systems, which are used for the efficient production of rotor blades for modern wind turbines and many other applications.