The new plant was opened by site director Peter Wormald; Councilor Joanne Dodds, the Lord Mayor of Bradford; Christian Fischer, president of BASF’s performance chemicals division; Judith Cummins, the Bradford south MP; and Richard Carter, managing director of BASF in UK & Ireland.
BRADFORD, UK: BASF said it has opened a new world-scale bio-acrylamide (BioACM) production facility at its site in Bradford, a major investment that will help ensure long-term future of one of the UK’s largest chemical manufacturing facilities, which employs
around 600 people.
Bradford is a BASF production hub for polyacrylamides, used as water-soluble flocculation aids in industrial and municipal wastewater treatment, enhanced oil recovery, mineral processing and papermaking.
The site was inaugurated by the city’s mayor, councillor Joanne Dodds. Guests at the event included local MP Judith Cummins and representatives from the Chemical Industries Association, UK Trade & Investment and Innovate UK.
“With the start-up of the BioACM plant at Bradford we will increase our operational efficiency and supply reliability for polyacrylamide whilst securing the location where we have a long history and strong relationships,” said Christian Fischer, president of BASF’s performance chemicals division.
The development of a biocatalytic manufacturing process for acrylamide started in Bradford with collaboration with Huddersfield University.
Subsequent work by scientists from Britain, Germany, South Africa and US, made significant improvements to the performance of the biocatalyzed conversion technology.
The new production plant in Bradford adds to BASF’s bio-acrylamide capacity globally. BASF will further pursue its activities within the extension of BioACM technology worldwide and is actively investigating potential BioACM projects at other locations including Asia Pacific, it said.
© Worldofchemicals News
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