On November 26th, Dr. Uwe Brunk, President of WeylChem Group of Companies (WCGC), announced the larger scale investment in a new production facility for aromatic ring chlorination to be built at the Group’s site in Frankfurt-Höchst. With this step, WCGC will also strengthen the existing side-chain chlorination technology and establish a sustainable production cycle. Customers will benefit from the increased capacity as well as high flexibility under European production standards. The start of production is planned for the first quarter of 2022.
WeylChem Höchst in Frankfurt, Germany, has many decades of experience in the field of side-chain chlorination. Building on that, the new production facility will strengthen the existing capabilities and expand them to aromatic ring chlorination for the speciality chemicals market, meeting the growing demand in Europe for local and resilient supply chains. By doing so, WeylChem will optimize the efficient use of resources towards a forward integration of its VP3 plant in the strive for a circular economy.
4-Chlorobenzotrichloride (p-TRI), a by-product of side-chain chlorination, can be refined to 2,3,4,5-Tetrachlorobenzoyl chloride (TCBC) in the new plant, and therefore will not need to be disposed of anymore. As all the other by-products are already being refined or sold, the side-chain chlorination will reduce the waste footprint significantly. This underlines the efforts of the Group towards increased sustainability.
Thereby, the WeylChem Group will also backward integrate and install its own proprietary supply chain to use these products in the HALEX plant at Allessa in Frankfurt-Fechenheim.
Furthermore, the implementation of the new production facility meets the market demand for flexible, continental European side-chain chlorination governed by European regulations.
This strategic step is advancing the repositioning of the Group. With the side-chain chlorination as a solid component of the Group`s Advanced Intermediates business, the new production facility enables WeylChem to exploit new markets in Custom Manufacturing and to bring its performance to the next level.
About WeylChem Höchst:
WeylChem Höchst is specialized in continuous photo chlorination of the methyl side-chain of chlorotoluenes, and continuous clean catalytic oxidation reactions. The one key technology of WeylChem Höchst is side-chain chlorination which is performed by four chlorination lines, two hydrolysis lines and various distillation units for agrochemical, pharma or specialty chemical customers. The second key technology is the oxidation process which is performed in a continuous process e.g. in bubble column reactors.
About WeylChem Group of Companies:
WeylChem Group of Companies is the fine chemicals platform of International Chemicals Investors Group. With nine companies in Europe and North America, WeylChem employs more than 1,380 people. The Group is a global leader in Custom Manufacturing of Specialty Chemicals and supplies its customers with a wide range of advanced intermediates and reagents for diverse applications.
https://www.weylchem.com
https://www.ic-investors.com
Contact:
Teresa Hirth
teresa.hirth@weylchem.com
WeylChem International GmbH
Alt-Fechenheim 34
60386 Frankfurt, Germany
