Lanxess opens carbon dioxide concentration unit in Newcastle, South Africa

NEWCASTLE, SOUTH AFRICA: Specialty chemicals company Lanxess has commissioned a new carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration unit at its Newcastle production site in South Africa. Lanxess has invested €40 million to build the unit. The company operates a highly modern plant at the site for the production of sodium dichromate, which is mainly further processed into chrome tanning materials for the global leather industry. The plant is the only one of its kind in South Africa. The production technology requires a continuous supply of highly concentrated CO₂, which the new unit will provide.

The new concentration unit will capture exhaust air from the site’s steam production process, concentrate the CO₂ level up to 99 per cent and feed it into the sodium dichromate production process.

“This investment in South Africa is another element of our BRICS strategy. The new unit allows the best possible utilization of capacity at our plant and lays the foundation for future production expansion. With its own CO₂ concentration unit, Lanxess is no longer dependent on the delivery capacity of external suppliers, who have provided the CO₂ up to now. By using our own exhaust air to meet the CO₂ demand, we reduce the CO₂ emissions of our Newcastle plant by around 25 per cent,” said Rainier van Roessel, Member of the Board of Management, Lanxess.

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