Specialty chemicals company Lanxess (Leverkusen / Germany; www.lanxess.com) has invested EUR 3m in expanding its dichlorobenzene capacity by over 15% through the installation of an additional crystalliser at its Leverkusen site, allowing it to increase production of high-purity para-dichlorobenzene, an intermediate in the manufacture of high performance plastics.

The company’s advanced industrial intermediates business unit at Leverkusen converts toluene and benzene into chloroaromatics through the addition of chlorine, producing a range of chlorinated aromatics including dichlorobenzene (DCB). The DCB production process involves isolation of the isomer para-dichlorobenzene (p-DCB) from a melt in a crystallisation process downstream of distillation based on cooling and solidification that takes place in crystallisers. This in turn is used to produce the high performance plastic polyphenylene sulphide (PPS).

Lanxess estimates that the market for PPS will continue to grow by 6 - 8% annually. Dirk Möckel, Lanxess’ global marketing director chlorobenzenes, derivatives and monoisocyanates, said: “We have expanded our capacity for dichlorobenzene, a very important starting material for PPS production, to grow along with our customers and ensure we are even better able to meet their requirements when it comes to reliability of supplies.”