Clariant plans new crotonic acid plant

Clariant GmbH will build a new plant to produce more than 1000 mt/yr of crotonic acid and derivatives by the first quarter of 2001. The unit should reach full production within one to two months of startup.

Clariant will site at its Frankfurt-Hoechst, Germany, facility, where the company now makes carboxylic acids by oxidation with oxygen, an environmentally sustainable process. The site also produces crotonaldehyde, the feedstock for crotonic acid.

"We have extensive experience in various processes involving catalytic oxidation with oxygen," says Clariant Life Science Molecules Business Unit product manager Bernd Wolf.

"As crotonic acid was already part of our portfolio in the past, we have taken another look at the entire process and realized that we are in a position to supply a high-quality product with improved bulk handling properties. The product will be available in pellets with very little dusting or caking properties'.

Edited by Alan S. Brown
Managing Editor, Chemical Online
abrown@vertical.net

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