BASF brings Antwerp butadiene plant into service

A new butadiene extraction plant at BASF’s Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium has entered operation, the company reported today. The plant is the second BASF butadiene extraction plant in Europe – the other being its 105,000 tonne per annum Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany – and its 155,000 tonne a year capacity more than doubles the firm’s butadiene production capacity in the region.

“This plant secures our internal supply with butadiene at competitive costs,” said Dr. Uwe Kirchgäßner, head of BASF’s Basic Petrochemicals Europe regional business unit. “In addition, it enables us to take advantage of opportunities on the external market and strengthens our market position in Europe.”

The tyre industry is one of the main consumers of butadiene, and at the Antwerp facility the butadiene will be extracted from crude C4, a product from the steam cracker. “With the new plant we are further developing the integration of the C4 value chain in Antwerp,” said Wouter de Geest, CEO of BASF Antwerpen NV. “This important investment strengthens the Verbund at the Antwerp site.”

Verbund, the German word for ‘networked’ or ‘integrated’, is the BASF philosophy of integrating various approaches and systems, a philosophy the company says covers entire interlocking value chains.