As already announced at the end of 2018, BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will proceed with expanding global capacities for methane sulfonic acid (MSA) to 50,000 metric tons per year. This involves a higher double-digit-million euro investment in constructing a new methane sulfonic acid plant at the Ludwigshafen site. The construction works started recently. The volumes from the additional capacity are expected to be available from the end of 2021 and are dedicated to mainly serve European customers as well as the rapidly growing Asian market.
“We want to meet our customers’ growing demand for high-quality, sustainable and high-performance technologies in the best possible way now and in future. To achieve that, we continuously invest in expanding our capacities and production technologies. To this end, we acquired an innovative process approach for producing MSA from Grillo-Werke AG in mid 2019 to strengthen our own R&D activities and to accelerate the development of a new manufacturing process for methane sulfonic acid. In doing so, we support as reliable partner the growth of our customers across the world,” says Ralph Schweens, president Care Chemicals, BASF.
Methane sulfonic acid is a strong organic acid used in numerous applications ranging from chemical and biofuel synthesis to industrial cleaning and metal surface treatment in the electronics industry. BASF’s high-purity methane sulfonic acid – sold under the brand name Lutropur MSA – is a sustainable alternative to other acids such as sulfuric, phosphoric or acetic acid. As part of the natural sulfur cycle, Lutropur MSA is readily biodegradable. Further benefits of using methane sulfonic acid come from its non-oxidizing character, the high solubility of its salts and the absence of color and odor.