BEM Recycling Process to reduce wastage in plastic resin production

27-Jun-08

In a bid to continue its aggressive focus on sustainable business practices, Albemarle Corporation plans to invest in a new process that is expected to eliminate more than 80% of the process-related waste at it's main organometallics plant, located in Pasadena, Texas, USA. The waste is associated with the production of BEM. BEM, or n-Butylethylmagnesium, is a magnesium alkyl catalyst component used in the manufacture of Ziegler-Natta catalysts that are critical in making the plastic resins polyethylene and polypropylene. The new process, which is expected to be operational in Q1-09, will significantly reduce waste by recycling solvent from the process waste slurry and making it available for reuse, and by converting the residual solids to a material suitable for onsite disposal. Created by Albemarle process engineers at the company's Pasadena plant site, the new, proprietary BEM production method also eliminates hundreds of loading operations per year involving the waste, leading to a cleaner, safer manufacturing process and manufacturing site. In 2007, Albemarle invested in a similar new process in the manufacturing plant of its joint venture in Osaka, Japan, Nippon Aluminum Alkyls, where the plant celebrated its first-ever, zero-emissions year of operation. In 2005, Albemarle financed a new incinerator at its aluminum alkyls manufacturing plant in Feluy, Belgium.