Specialty chemicals company LANXESS (Cologne, Germany) has expanded its capacity
for black synthetic iron oxide pigments by more than 5.511.6 tons (5,000 metric
tons) at its Krefeld-Uerdingen site. As the only supplier worldwide to produce
these pigments using the Laux process, the company says it is responding to a
“bottleneck” stemming from a demand for pigments used to color concrete.
“The increased demand from the
construction industry, in particular for our unique black pigments to color
concrete, can be even better met with the debottlenecking measures that have
now been completed,” says Holger Hüppeler, head of the inorganic pigments
business unit at LANXESS.
The black coloration of concrete
is a popular trend in the architecture and landscaping industries because it
provides a variety of aesthetic possibilities. “Thanks to their up to 15
percent higher tinting strength and reliable color consistency, our Bayferrox
330 and Bayferrox 340 black pigments are the preferred choice for coloring
high-quality cement-based building materials—for example not only in
manufacturing concrete paving stones and roof tiles, but also in architecture,”
Hüppeler explains.
In addition, these special iron
oxides are specially certified by an independent testing institute for safe use
in ultra-high-strength concretes (UHPC) used in specialty construction
projects. In terms of their sustainability credentials, LANXESS pigments are
certified for their high content of recycled raw materials by SCS Global
Services, a global leader for audits and independent certifications.
At its Krefeld- Uerdingen site,
LANXESS operates the world’s largest plant for manufacturing synthetic iron
oxide pigments. According to the company, the site has “an excellent carbon
footprint” due to a chemical process that uses heat generated during the
reaction to create steam, which is in turn used in the subsequent process
steps.
“Our goal is to use targeted
measures to continuously reduce the CO2 footprint of our pigments.
In the future the energetic use of hydrogen, which is produced during the
production process of our pigments and can be used as a substitute for fossil
fuels, will also play an important role,” says Hüppeler.
The company has set 2040 as its
climate protection date for when it aims to become climate-neutral and reduce
its greenhouse gas emissions from the current level of around 3.5 million tons
(3.2 million metric tons) of CO2.