BASF opens new research centre

BASF

BASF has opened a new research centre for catalyst and process development.

The centre is located at BASF’s Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and will be operated by the global research unit Process Research & Chemical Engineering. The aim of the research centre is to discover new solutions for process development and catalysis using automated pilot plants. The new lab has opened on the ground floor of a renovated building, while renovations are continuing on the floor above. BASF is investing a single-digit million euro sum each year in the project. When the upgrade is completed, the building will become a central hub for experimental work.

Modular construction was used for some of the pilot plant facilities. The pilot facilities are automated and use digital technologies for better management meaning that they can be controlled from separate workspaces via computer, tablet, or smartphone. Measurement and analysis data will be collected automatically resulting in a continuous data supply and the data management system will simplify the planning and analysis of experiments.

“With the increasing importance of the BASF segments Chemicals and Industrial Solutions, there is a growing need for product research and especially process research,” said Detlef Kratz, Head of Process Research & Chemical Engineering. “In our pilot plant facility, we are using state-of-the-art infrastructure to carry out experiments. This enables us to pursue new research approaches and reduce the length of research and development projects, while also continuing to improve the quality of the data collected. We are thus systematically pursuing our goal of increasing the likelihood of success of our projects.”