Attracting Industry Interest
Priority Factor - One of the key drivers for almost all companies in the chemical industry is to continuously seek opportunities to optimize the value chain of their portfolio of products, starting from the feedstock all the way to the final products. Be it in commodities or specialty products, the challenge is to deliver products to the customers that not only satisfy their specific needs but to achieve this goal in the most competitive way feasible.
In the exponential industrial growth that we have witnessed over the recent decades, sustainability has become one of the prime concerns for chemical producers. Indeed the pricing and availability of feedstock are crucial, as well as carbon footprint, water and land usage. Recent studies have shown that senior executives in the chemical industry are concerned about sustainable processes, feedstock availability and its price fluctuations as well as the need to invest in new or retrofitted facilities.
Site Management Model
At the Leuna chemical site, the Infraleuna Group, headed up by their CEO Andreas Hiltermann, was quick to spot the importance of optimizing the chemical value chain for companies already on the site and for new companies that are considering relocation. Infraleuna is the on-site provider of quality, cost optimized and highly integrated utilities (steam, electricity, water supply and waste water treatment), logistics (freight forwarding and rail services) and services (lab, health and safety). It serves over 100 companies on-site and with this critical mass of business Infraleuna is in a position to offer new entrants attractive operating costs. With its experience over the last 10 years, Infraleuna has adapted its business models to cater for large units, such as the Linde Group, as well as smaller specialty chemicals facilities. As a result, over €5.5 billion of investment have been attracted to the site over the last 20 years.
To complete all the above attributes of this vast industrial site (1,300 ha) it was felt that the uniqueness of establishing an R&D facility on the site to study renewable feeds as an economical and sustainable alternative to fossil feeds and fuels would boost sustainability of the existing on-site producers as well as attract new chemical industry partners.
As a result, Infraleuna, together with Germany's Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and several other partners has developed the concept of the Chemical-Biotechnological Process Centre (CBP). Dr. Markus Wolperdinger, head of industrial biotechnology at the Leuna site, explained that the CBP that was announced in April this year is sponsored by local and federal authorities as well as industry partners who in a first phase will invest more than €50 million in a brand new facility in Leuna. The CBP will help to develop and scale-up processes to utilize renewable resources for the manufacture of chemical intermediates and a wide range of products. The concept was recently presented to an international audience at the Montreal 6th Annual World Congress on industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing conference in July. It received an overwhelming endorsement for its uniqueness and novel approach.
Design of the CBP is underway with groundbreaking expected in 2010 and commissioning of the laboratories and pilot plants scheduled for 2011. Its expansion from the present six product streams may be necessary sooner than later as there have already been a large number of enquiries for participation in new projects.
The CBP will be owned and operated by Fraunhofer who will also be a principal partner with several of its institutes in projects carried out on the CBP platform. A number of product-driven multi-partner projects are currently under way focusing on biogenic resources like lignocellulose, vegetable oils and algae. "These projects will explore a broad range of renewables transformations: ethanol to olefins, utilisation of oil seeds to fatty acids to bio-lubricants and surfactants, non-toxic epoxydes and amines to name some," says Prof. Thomas Hirth, head of the Fraunhofer IGB in Stuttgart, who will soon be starting a new research group in Leuna to further support activities at the CBP.
Sustainable Chemical Value Chain Optimization
The Infraleuna site development team is highly motivated in helping its industrial partners to optimize all steps of the chemical industry value chain starting from sustainable feedstock production and delivery, followed by its transformation by developing new technologies at the CBP, to building new or retrofitting existing facilities for the manufacture of new and existing products and their distribution to customers. With the large variety of products manufactured on the site there are many potential "connecting points" for new investors especially in the C2 to C5 value-chains. Being located in an agricultural-rich area, a palette of commodity and specialty products might well be made from non food-chain feedstock at the Leuna site in the not too distant future.
Industrial partners on the Leuna site are strongly supporting this work and outside third parties have reserved capacity for R&D work at the CBP. The latter are also motivated by the availability of spare land at the Leuna site and the excellent technical and financial support available to expand existing or build new facilities. Completing the value chain at Leuna provides a unique product distribution infrastructure that offers an attractive supply chain to customers in Eastern and Western Europe. It can be expected that the future growth and development of the Leuna chemical site and the CBP will make a significant contribution to sustainable chemical manufacturing.
