Bayer MaterialScience plans to invest roughly €150 million in a new high-tech production plant for TDI (toluene diisocyanate) at Chempark Dormagen. TDI is a precursor for the production of polyurethane flexible foam. The new plant will have a capacity of 300,000 tons per year and will replace the existing plants in Dormagen and Brunsbüttel. The background behind the project is the company's European-wide optimization of isocyanate production.

The company first presented plans to erect a new TDI production plant in Dormagen in December 2008. The second phase of the project is scheduled to begin in April with the "scoping" hearing, to which the Cologne regional government is invited as the regulatory authority. Subject to political acceptance and approval being granted by the authorities, the world-scale plant will be built on the site of the coal-fired power plant, which will be torn down. The new TDI production plant is currently scheduled to go on stream in 2014. Dormagen will then be the sole Bayer MaterialScience site in Europe for the production of TDI. Plans call for the production of raw materials for polyurethane rigid foams to be expanded in Brunsbüttel.