BASF has started production in its €25 million excellence centre for superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) at its verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium, with €1.4 million in support from the Government of Flanders. This features a pilot plant equipped with advanced data collection and sensor technology to increase innovation capabilities in SAPs and accelerate scale-up from product development to production scale at the nearby commercial plant.

Japan’s Nippon Shokubai has officially opened a 100,000 tonnes/year acrylic acid (AA) plant that was built at a cost of about $200 million at Cilegon, Banten, Indonesia. This takes its global capacity to 980,000 tonnes, of which 540,000 are in Japan itself.

AA is a key raw material in superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) for disposable diapers, the application that is mainly driving continuing demand growth. SAPs are also used in paints and adhesives. Nippon Shokubai claims to be the world’s largest SAP producer and has integrated AA and SAP facilities across the globe.

Together with Algo Artis, Japan’s Nippon Shokubai has developed an algorithm-based means for the production planning of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) based on acrylic acid, and has started operations at its plant in Himeji following all the necessary validations and modifications. This is in line with its ‘TechnoAmenity for the future’ strategy, which was unveiled in April 2021 and will be extended to other products.