NEWS
Wipag invests in recycled carbon fibre compounds
German compounder Wipag has broken ground on a new facility to produce high-quality recycled carbon fibre compounds at its location at Gardelegen in Saxony-Anhalt. Parent company Otto
Krahn Group is investing €10m in the 39,000m² site, which is expected to be completed by the spring of 2024. “We will start with an extruder line and the equipment [required] for preparing the carbon fibres for compounding. The building is sized to accom- modate further extruder lines,” said Wipag CEO Jens Kaatze.
When running at full
IN BRIEF...
US trade association The Vinyl Institute has awarded a total of more than $460,000 of funding to six organisations through the first round of its Viability recycling grant initiative. The programme, launched earlier this year, will make up to $1m in funds available annually over the next three years. It is funded by Formosa, Oxy, Shintech, and Westlake.
www.vinylinfo.org
From left: Wipag Head of Production Norbert Scheinert, Director of Operations Olaf Fröde, CEO Jens Kaatze and Senior Advisor Technology Frank Kriebisch
capacity the new facility will be able to produce more than 3,000 tonnes of high-quality carbon fibre compounds annually, the company said.
Wipag employs more than 100 people at two loca- tions in Germany and has been part of the Otto Krahn Group since 2018. �
www.wipag.com
LG to double CNT capacity
LG Chem, which has been operating carbon nanotube (CNT) production plants since 2017, has started construction of a fourth facil- ity at its Daesan Complex, 80km southwest of Seoul in Korea. The CNT 4 Plant is scheduled to commence operation in 2025 and will contribute to doubling the
company’s CNT production capability to 5,534 tonnes/ yr. The prime driver for the investment is to supply the growing market for EV battery anodes. However, the company said it plans to target a broader range of industries, including polymer compounding applications. “With the nation’s largest
CNT production capacity, we will continue building a strong competitive advan- tage in the battery materials sector and actively explore new business opportunities by moving faster than our competitors,” said Noh Kug-lae, President of LG Chem’s Petrochemical Business. �
www.lgchem.com
Trinseo has inaugurated a polycarbonate (PC) dissolution pilot recycling facility at Terneuzen in the Netherlands. Dissolution recycling uses solvents to selectively dissolve and extract the resin from end-of-life waste materials. The company describes the pilot plant as a major step in its commitment to sustainability.
www.trinseo.com
Specialty chemicals firm Vertellus has acquired US-based Centauri Technologies and is to change the name of the merged group to Auro- rium. The company said the deal provides it with a complementary portfolio of technologies.
www.aurorium.com
Corbion halts plans for French PLA plant
Following a review of the investment case, Corbion said last month it would not go ahead with a planned PLA bioplastics plant at Grandpuits, France. TotalEnergies had announced plans to invest more than €500m to convert its Grandpuits refinery into a zero-
6 COMPOUNDING WORLD | July 2023
crude platform back in September 2020. As part of the project, Total Corbion PLA was to build a 100,000 tpa PLA plant, which would have been the first PLA production site in Europe. TotalEnergies Corbion says it
remains committed to the growth of its
Luminy PLA bioplastics. It said the project cancellation will not have an impact on its global sales and marketing network, or the 75,000 Tonnes/yr PLA production plant it opened in Thailand in 2018. �
www.totalenergies-corbion.com
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: OTTO KRAHN GROUP
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