BASF has increased its global production capacity for the Higher Carboxylic Acids  (HCA) Isononanoic Acid (INA) and 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid (2-EHA) from 55,000  metric tons to 68,000 metric tons per year. With world-scale and highly flexible production facilities at its Verbund sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Kuantan,  Malaysia, BASF is among the leading producers of HCA worldwide.

“We continue supporting our customers’ growing global demand for the high-quality chemical intermediates HCA. Our products are adding value in high-performance formulations for synthetic lubricants for example in the refrigeration industry,” said  Andrea Frenzel, president, BASF Intermediates Division.

“This expansion is the consequent next step to increase the availability of HCA at our regional Verbund sites. With this, we are following our investment in 2-EHA in Kuantan from 2016,  particularly for INA to complement our European production. With our flexible and  reliable production and supply network for HCA we can respond quickly to the  demand from the market.”

INA is used as a building block in several high-performance formulations. Examples for such formulations are synthetic refrigeration lubricants for air conditioners using more environmentally friendly refrigerant technologies to address sustainability needs. Another example of an INA application is synthetic lubricants for the aviation industry. Furthermore, INA is used in many other applications such as pharma, cosmetics, agrochemicals, and coatings.  2-EHA is also used as a building block in certain formulations in the production of plasticizers, PVC stabilizers, lubricants, cosmetics and drying additives for coatings.