incurring losses for some time now.
(1 crore=10 M, 1 lakh=100,000).
Chemical Business (India), Sep 2010, 24 (9), 24
Aveneer key to Evonik's future
German speciality chemical firm Evonik Industries is planning to build a global-scale plant based on its Aveneer technology, following the recovery of the global methyl methacrylate market (MMA). Evonik intends to lead growth of the global MMA market, estimated at about 5-6%/y. The company projects the market to reach 4 M tonnes in the near term, from an estimated 3.6 M tonnes at present. Slated to start up in 2014, Evonik's new plant will have the capacity to produce 150-200,000 tonne/y. Candidate locations include all production units in Europe, North America, and Asia, and a greenfield site near consumer industries. Like the sulfo technology, Aveneer is based on ammonia, methane, acetone, and methanol but it does not yield sulfuric acid as a by-product, resulting in significantly lower manufacturing costs and higher flexibility. The Aveneer technology, which Evonik sees as key to securing its market leader position in the future, offers a yield of 95% for MMA and methacrylic acid. Evonik is the second biggest maker of MMA under the brand name Visiomer, and the largest maker of polymethyl methacrylate carrying the brand name Plexiglas in the world.