Bayer AG is expanding its production capacity for TDA (toluene diamine)

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Bayer AG is expanding its production capacity for TDA (toluene diamine), an intermediate in the production of polyurethanes. Approximately € 170 million is being invested in a new plant at Bayer ’s Dormagen site.The world-scale plant is one of the largest production facilities of its type in the world. Production should start during the second half of 2003 when the new facility, which has a capacity of approximately 200,000 metric tons of TDA per year, will replace the current plants.

Dormagen is already one of the most important polyurethanes sites in the world: in addition to production units, one of the polyurethane research and development centers is also located there. This center developed a new process that enables much more cost-effective TDA production than before. This process will now be used in the new plant following its successful application in a similar plant at Bayer ’s Baytown site in the United States.

A new € 110 million multi-purpose facility that came on stream at the end of June will be used to manufacture newly developed crop protection products and will serve as an international crop science process development center.

The highly modern facility is flexible and very quickly convertible, allowing cost-effective production of a wide range of different active substances and intermediates. It also brings together process development and manufacturing under one roof and contains a “miniplant ”, or a highly automated small-scale production plant. This facility can be used to simulate production processes that will be scaled up in the future.