BASF's Belgium Facility Announces Expansion: Alkyl Ethanolamine Capacity Set to Increase by 30%, Market Volatility Expected?

On September 12, BASF officially announced that its world-class alkyl ethanolamine production facility at its integrated site in Antwerp, Belgium, has been successfully completed and is now operational. The launch of the project began in March 2022. The commissioning of this production facility will significantly increase BASF's annual production capacity of alkylethanolamines worldwide by nearly 30% to more than 140,000 tons. The new capacity is mainly related to the production of dimethylethanolamine (DMEOA) and methyldiethanolamine (MDEOA).

Basf's alkylethanolamines production facilities are located in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Nanjing, China; Louisiana, USA; and Antwerp, Belgium. As early as mid-2009, BASF responded to the increase in market demand by doubling the production capacity of some alkyl ethanolamine products. In September of the same year, the second phase of the Yangzi BASF Integrated Petrochemical Base in Nanjing, China, was started, including a 10,000-ton ethylene amine and dimethylethanolamine combined plant.

In 2019, BASF further plans to increase its alkylethanolamine production capacity in Ludwigshafen, Germany, by 20%, and has already come on stream in 2020, bringing the total production capacity to more than 110,000 tons. The latest major capacity expansion, a new production facility in Belgium, is expected to have an annual capacity of 25,000 to 30,000 tons. As an important chemical raw material, alkyl ethanolamine is widely used in many fields such as water treatment, paint, gas purification, fabric softening, metal processing and polyurethane materials.