Chemistry





The chemistry is right here

Sore and chafed baby bottoms in wet nappies are a thing of the past since the superabsorbent Favor was developed and made in Krefeld. CD‘s and DVD‘s also started their triumphant march round the world in the Lower Rhine region. They are made of Makrolon, the chemical composition of which was worked out by chemists in Uerdingen. This synthetic can be used for many different purposes: the roof of Berlin‘s Olympic stadium and Krefeld’s central station, for racing cyclists’ glasses and automobile headlights, in coffee machines and mobile phone casings. Further developments include Firesorb for putting out forest fires and Xenon as an anesthetic gas. The spirit of invention is very present in the Lower Rhine region.

From the very beginning, research and development were the nuts and bolts of the chemicals industry, which initially worked primarily for the textiles industry. In 1877, in Uerdingen, the first synthetic textile dyes were made from coal tar by Edmundter Meer. This evolved into the Uerdingen Chemical Park, where the Bayer Group now has important production sites, as well as in the Dormagen Chemical Park. A third chemical park on the Lower Rhine is being built round the Solvay plants in Rheinberg. All the chemical parks are situated on the Rhine and use the waterway as a key transport path for raw materials and finished products. There are also rail lines and an extensive Autobahn network – the transport infrastructure leaves no wishes unfulfilled.

The chemicals industry can rely on its suppliers. Air Liquide, which supplies gases to industry, runs a 500-km pipeline network from Krefeld to the Rhine and Ruhr regions supplying hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, and is also represented at chemical parks with its air separation units. Electricity comes from brown coal reserves or is generated on site when needed. Gas flows from the East. Suppliers, service providers and processing companies with industry expertise emerged over the years, meaning conditions for the chemicals industry are perfect in the Lower Rhine region.

It is therefore not surprising that it has grown to be the largest industrial sector in the region – a third of the entire industry turnover comes from chemical products: 11 billion euros, of which a good 60 percent is generated abroad. But even within North-Rhine Westphalia, which accounts for 31.6 percent of turnover and is thus the biggest chemicals region in Germany, the Lower Rhine region is extremely well represented with 50 companies: they contribute almost 20 percent of the North-Rhine Westphalia chemicals revenue. Out of the 20 German companies with the highest revenue, five have located their main sites in the Lower Rhine region. A third of the chemicals sales market in the European region is located within a radius of 500 kilometers.

The chemicals giants Bayer, Lanxess and Deutsche Solvay mostly produce base materials which are then often processed into other materials. Bayer AG is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of polymers and synthetics. These include coatings, paints, adhesives, insulating materials and sealants such as polycarbonate and polyurethane. These products are mostly used in the automobile industry, but also in the construction, electrical and electronics industries, in sport and leisure articles as well as packaging materials.

The main products from Lanxess are in the fields of special, basic and fine chemicals as well as synthetics and rubbers. In the Solvay plant in Rheinberg, the Swiss company’s largest production site in Germany, soda, sodium bicarbonate, sodium lye, hydrochloric acid, glycerin and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are all manufactured.

The range of products in the chemicals industry in the Lower Rhine region is enormous. These are just a few examples: castor oil plant and linseed oil derivatives, dispersions, binding agents (Alberdingk Boley in Krefeld), special paints for electronics (Lackwerke Peters in Kempen), skin protecting agents and water-storing soil granulate (Evonik Stockhausen in Krefeld), additives for car paint, printing inks or wood and architectural coatings (Altana/Byk in Kleve), cooling lubricants and high-performance lubricants (Rhenus Lub in Mönchengladbach), salts and brines (Esco in Rheinberg).

The chemicals industry in the Lower Rhine region is proud of its high safety standards in its production operations; there are barely any of the typical chemicals-industry industrial accidents. It also attaches great importance to high environmental standards. In Dormagen Chemical Park it even led to all the gates to the Rhine being closed when sensors in the waste water picked up on a substance unknown to them. It turned out to be beer, which had leaked out of some smashed bottles into the canal. The chemistry is right here, too.

In good company

Contact

Bertram Gaiser
Geschäftsführer
Standort Niederrhein GmbH
02131 / 92 68 592
gaiser@standort-niederrhein.de

Did you know that ...

... the shirt manufacturer Van Laack has been producing in Mönchengladbach since 1953?

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