Lanxess has begun the expansion of its menthol facility at its Krefeld-Uerdingen site; the company said it will double its capacity.

Completion of the project is scheduled for the first half of 2012. The company said the additional quantities of thymol, crude menthol and D,I-menthol will allow contact parnter Symrise, manufacturer of synthetic menthol and thymol, to enter into long-term supply agreements.

As part of the construction project, three large distillation columns will be erected this fall. The largest will be about 50 meters tall and it was designed by Lanxess engineers specifically for this purpose.

"A column of such dimension is special for our plant," said production manager Dr. Lutz Heuer.

Assembly of the enormous structural elements will begin once they have been delivered to their destination in Uerdingen - an operation that will require special transportation as a heavy load.

"We will use three cranes, one of which has a lifting capacity of 900 metric tons and is the largest available in Germany. It will also enable us to lift the heaviest single element, which weighs 90 metric tons," said Heuer.