Emerald to increase capacity at Netherlands plant

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio—Specialty chemical maker Emerald Kalama Chemical Ltd. plans to expand its Rotterdam, Netherlands, plant to boost capacity for benzoic acid and benzaldehyde to handle growing market demand.

A business group of Emerald Performance Materials L.L.C., based in Cuyahoga Falls, the company estimated the addition of a second benzoic acid purification and finishing process along with new equipment at the facility would cost about $40 million.

Emerald's latest expansion project technically was launched in April when engineering work on the project began and long lead time items were ordered, according to Julie Vaughn Biege, vice president of business development and marketing services for Emerald Performance Materials.

In July, the firm's board of directors approved the expansion project and additional planning, and procurement of equipment is now accelerating, she said. It expects to break ground on the expansion in January and complete the project in late 2016.

“Reassessing our long-term strategic plan for our key intermediates, our expectations for benzoic acid continue to show strong growth and track according to plan,” said Hubert Degens, vice president of the Emerald Kalama Chemical Benzoates and Intermediates business.

In addition, he said, “our recent acquisition of Innospec Widnes Ltd.'s aroma chemical business—and growth plans for that platform—are in line with our increased production capacity for benzaldehyde.”

Emerald completed the purchase of Widnes, England-based Innospec, a manufacturer of high purity aroma chemicals, in July and is merging the unit into its Emerald Kalama Chemical Flavor and Fragrance business.

The facility in Rotterdam sits on about 35 acres, but the relatively small size of the site is misleading. “It is our single largest facility in terms of production volume,” Biege said, “followed closely by our facility in Kalama, Wash.,” which also produces benzoic acid.

“Together, our Kalama and Rotterdam plants ship products to 70 countries around the world, and over half our sales are outside of the United States and the Benelux region where we manufacture,” she said.

Its new process will add an additional 100,000 metric tons per year of high purity benzoic acid capacity and also increase production capacity for benzaldehyde at the Rotterdam complex. Benzoic acid and benzaldehyde are key intermediates used for downstream products, primarily K-Flex plasticizers and the Kalama aroma chemical line.

“The purification process is one of several processes used in making our benzoates,” Biege said. “Last year, we expanded our totuene oxidation process by 75 kilo tons per annum with the restart of a second reactor.”

Additional capacity at the facility was needed “to meet demand for benzoic acid and benzoate products for our base business in food and beverage and industrial applications, and to support growth of our K-Flex plasticizers used in solvents, adhesives, vinyl and coatings applications, she said.

In addition, she added, the purification technology the firm is adding enables it to convert some portion of that process to produce high purity benzoic acid and benzaldehyde, which also serve as feedstocks for additional processes needed to manufacture other benzoates used in food and beverage, aroma chemicals and plasticizers.

Demand for the company's Kalama and Purox brands of benzoic acid flakes, sodium benzoate granules and liquid benzoic acid has been growing, Biege said.

Emerald has been running its facilities in the U.S. and Europe at close to capacity, and the expansion will allow it to keep up with the market growth for benzoates, benzoic acid and derivatives globally, she said.

It has been producing benzoic acid at its Rotterdam and U.S. operations—specifically its plant in Kalama, Wash.—for more than 50 years. Its portfolio of benzoic acid products is FDA approved and CRAS classified.

Biege said the plant has helped to expand the firm's reach in Europe and accelerate its transformation to a more global company. When Emerald was formed in 2006 from the divestiture of six specialty chemical businesses owned by Lubrizol Corp., Europe represented only 8 percent of the Kalama business group's sales.

At that time, she said, the majority of its revenues were in North America, followed by Asia.

With the acquisition of the Rotterdam operation in 2010 and other new product initiatives, she said, Europe now represents about 35 percent of the revenues of the Kalama business group.

One of the other key goals for the Rotterdam expansion project is to improve efficiency and reduce liquid waste—”a key sustainability initiative to reduce energy use by 10 percent and CO2 emissions by 30 percent by 2020, compared to the company's 2010 baseline,” Biege said.