Domo Chemicals and TOTAL announce joint project in Leuna site

Domo  Chemicals, a  leading chemical company with headquarters in Leuna, Germany, and TOTAL Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland GmbH, one of the most modern refineries in Europe, plan  to  invest  EUR  30 million (USD 34 million) each  in  the  production  of  benzene  feedstock  for  caprolactam manufacture,  as  well  as  a  pipeline  that  will  ensure  its  transport within  eastern  Germany.

Domo and the TOTAL Raffinerie have been closely working together for years. The refinery is already supplying propylene, an important raw material of caprolactam and polyamide 6 production. Among other applications, polyamide 6 serves to manufacture packaging films in food and pharmaceutical industries and is used for injection moulding in the automotive sector as well as spinning of textiles.

“Our deepened cooperation does not only strengthen us, but also the Leuna chemical site. This and other investments are opening up a new chapter in our longstanding history,“ said TOTAL Raffinerie Managing Director Willi Frantz.

“Moreover, this further development is to be considered our reaction on the long-term decline in the European demand of gasoline, as we are adapting our yield patterns respectively,” Frantz said.

The  facilities  are  due  to  start  up  in  the autumn of 2017.

TOTAL  will  initially produce  70,000  tonnes per year of  the  feedstock,  and  is  planning  to  build  facilities  to  further  concentrate  the  production  of  the chemical. The  entire  output  will  be  sent  via  pipeline  to  Domo,  which  currently  has  demand  for  180,000  tonnes per year of benzene.

For Domo, decisive advantages result from an intensified cooperation with TOTAL. “This investment ensures our long-term access to a strategic feedstock for our integrated polyamide 6 production sequence,” said Luc De Raedt, managing director of DOMO Caproleuna GmbH.

“TOTAL’s and Domo’s investment represents an important step to further consolidate our networking at our Leuna chemical site. This project impressively demonstrates how potential synergies are successfully developed in Leuna, in close and trustful cooperation across corporate boundaries. I am especially pleased that, in the 100th year of Leuna’s existence, Domo and TOTAL, key customers of InfraLeuna, send out this strong positive signal for the future of this chemical site,” said Christof Günther, managing director of InfraLeuna GmbH.