German chemical producer Evonik has expanded capacity for its Vestamid PA 12 at Marl by 5,000 t/y and at the same time begun preparations for increasing output of its PA powder, sold under the name Vestosint.

The German group said the expanded PA 12 capacity will use an improved conventional process, but it also has made progress in developing a new production route that bypass butadiene and cyclododecatriene (CDT) a feedstock for laurolactam, which is a key ingredient in the production of PA 12.

Evonik operates a fully integrated PA 12 production site at Marl that it says has been successively upgraded since the year 2000 to keep up with market developments. In April 2012, however, an explosion that destroyed the Marl CDT plant and killed one worker kept the plant offline for nearly a year.

Due to the long shutdown, certain of the company's related products could not be supplied, said Michael Pack, who took over as head of Evonik's Performance Polymers business on June 1, 2014. "We see it as our responsibility to offer the greatest possible security of supply, especially to automotive customers," he added.