BASF Launches Butadiene Extraction Plant in Belgium

Germany-based chemical giant, BASF, has announced the launch of its new butadiene extraction plant at its Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium.

The company states that the plant has an annual production capacity of 155,000 tonnes.

The new plant more than doubles BASF’s current production capacity for butadiene in Europe, when combined with the output from BASF’s other butadiene extraction plant at its Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, which has an annual production capacity of 105,000 tonnes.

“This plant secures our internal supply with butadiene at competitive costs,” said Uwe Kirchgäßner, head of BASF’s regional business unit Basic Petrochemicals Europe.

“In addition, it enables us to take advantage of opportunities on the external market and strengthens our market position in Europe.”

Butadiene is a feedstock for polybutadiene, a synthetic rubber (with an application in tyres). Other applications for butadiene include plastics production and paper chemicals.