GERMAN specialty chemicals company Lanxess, led by Werner Breuers, the member of the Board of Management of Lanxess AG, and Günther Weymans, head of the Lanxess Keltan Elastomers business unit, has inaugurated the new headquarters of its Keltan Elastomers business unit in Sittard-Geleen in the Netherlands. The company is managing its global business for ethylene-propylene-diene monomer high-performance rubber (EPDM rubber), marketed under the Keltan brand, from the Chemelot Campus.
Breuers said that with the acquisition of the elastomer business from Royal DSM N.V. two years ago and the creation of the new Lanxess Keltan Elastomers business unit, Lanxess will be positioned in the lead of EPDM rubber producing key players.
According to the press release of Lanxess, the company has invested EUR12 million in the EPDM headquarters site , which has been completed in 12 months time, to convert 50% of its EPDM production capacity to the innovative Keltan ACE technology. With ACE (Advanced Catalyst Elastomers) the amount of energy required for the production process can be significantly reduced compared to conventional technologies. The process also makes new types of EPDM possible. The expansion is proceeding on schedule.
The bio-based EPDM rubber produced in Sittard-Geleen is used mainly in the automotive industry, as well as in the construction sector and in industrial and electronic articles. In vehicles, the synthetic rubber – which is characterised primarily by its resistance to heat, oxidation, chemicals and weathering, as well as good insulation properties – is used for everything from seals in auto bodies to coolant hoses under the hood.
In the construction sector, EPDM rubber is also used primarily as a sealing material – in profile seals for windows and doors, as a material to seal joints, for rubber sheets to cover flat roofs or in gaskets for roof structures made of plastic sheeting. EPDM is also integral in the home: for example, the gaskets on washing machines, bathroom fixtures and garden hoses are fabricated from high-performance rubber.
The Keltan Elastomers business unit employs approximately a total 700 people at its sites in the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil and the US. Some 270 of them are based in Sittard-Geleen.
The company is currently investing EUR235 million in the construction of what it claims as the world’s largest plant for the production of EPDM rubber in Changzhou, China. The plant is scheduled to begin operation in 2015, after which this plant alone will manufacture 160,000 metric tonnes of EPDM high-performance rubber annually and is expected to create up to 200 new jobs.
Since late 2011 Lanxess has been producing sugarcane based ethylene, Keltan Eco, the world’s first bio-based EPDM rubber, from its Brazilian site in Triunfo. Lanxess accomplishes that by using ethylene produced entirely from the renewable raw material sugar cane. The company is therefore one of the first to respond to the growing demand for sustainably produced synthetic rubber and is also contributing to a reduction of CO2 emissions.
The Keltan Elastomers business unit is under to the Lanxess Performance Polymers segment, which achieved total sales of EUR5.2 billion in fiscal 2012.