By Patrick Raleigh ERJ On-line news editor
Nünchritz, Germany-Wacker Silicones has installed a fluidised bed reactor for production of methylchlorosilanes, at its Nünchritz silicones production site in Saxony. The unit is part of a Euro400-million expansion plan to boost the site's siloxanes capacity to 100 kilotonnes per annum by the end of 2005.
Wacker has also started construction of a new hydrolysis facility in Nünchritz, to convert dimethyldichlorosilane into siloxane precursors for silicone production, according to an 8 April company statement. The expansion, it said, will create over 200 new jobs.
When completed, the Nünchritz expansion will take the company's siloxanes capacity to 170 ktpa, including its 90-ktpa facility at Burghausen, Germany. Wacker is world's third largest silicones supplier behind Dow Corning and GE Bayer Silicones.
Wacker's Nünchritz site produces fumed silica, chlorosilanes, silicone fluids, silicone emulsions, antifoam agents and silicone rubber grades, as well as related precursor products.
