Lanxess Opens Ion Exchanger Facility in India and Looks for Expansion

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The new plant—which, under the direction of experienced chemists and engineers, is to bring production up to full speed by mid- 2012—was erected over a total area of 30,000 m² by up to 1,800 workers. In the production building, some 40 m high, around 5,000 metric tons of steel and 400 km of electric cable were installed in five floors at a cost of nine million working hours. Uhde India was the main engineering contractor. The ion exchanger facility is reckoned to be the most modern of its kind in all of Asia. “We are setting new standards here for sustainable production”, explains Uwe Tegtmeier, Head of Engineering for the project, to PROCESS India. “Overall, about 20 percent of the total building cost was spent on sustainability projects,” adds the relevant project manager and Global Head of Production, Dr Michael Pies. The waste water will be pretreated in Lanxess’ own treatment plant before being led into the chemical park’s waste-water system.

The company has invested heavily in environmentally-friendly energy generation. The power required is being provided by a cutting- edge cogeneration system (combined heat and power) run on natural gas. The new production facility, which is to handle a good 20,000 cubic meters a year, allows the company to boost its production capacity and lower its production costs per unit. Jean-Marc Vesselle – Head of the Business Unit Ion Exchange Resin, sees the Jhagadiamanufactured products from the Lewatit range offering outstanding growth prospects not only in the cleaning of arsenic-contaminated ground and drinking water, but also in the food industry, in the production of ultrapure water for pharmaceutical and industrial production and as a valuable contribution to much cleaner mining processes and the processing of mineral resources. India and the markets in Asia offer the best sales opportunities for this. The water treatment products in the Lanxess portfolio also play an important role in its efforts to position itself internationally as a green company.

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