The plant has successfully been started up in May and is producing a wide range of PAG-based base stocks and finished lubricants for industrial applications such as gear oils, compressor oils as well as metalworking applications or fire-resistant hydraulic fluids, Alexander Heusener, BASF SE communications spokesman for fuel and lubricant solutions, told Lube Report.

BASFs new plant adds to BASFs established PAG capacity at its North American site in Geismar, Louisiana. The company said it also fits its verbund strategy of manufacturing efficiently through vertical integration and by making use of by-products. For example, the Ludwigshafen PAGs are made using ethylene and propylene oxides that are produced at the same site.

Consultant Geeta S. Agashe, president of Geeta Agashe & Associates LLC, told Lube Report that global demand for PAGs in lubricant applications is around 350,000 tons in 2016. PAG demand growth is expected to be quite robust at about 3 percent over the next five years primarily due to growth in severe industrial gear boxes, growth in industrial and automotive refrigeration systems and the availability of oil soluble PAGs as a lower cost option to polyol esters – not withstanding some compatibility issues that might incur, Agashe said. In addition, oil soluble PAGs are used as a blending component with PAOs.

She said leading PAG suppliers are chemical companies such as Dow Chemicals, BASFs Cognis division, Clariant, Huntsman, Croda and Pan Asian Chemicals.

Agashe noted that PAGs are used in a wide range of industrial lubricant applications where high performance, heat-tolerant lubricants are needed, including in hydraulics, gear boxes, compressors, refrigeration systems, heat transfer fluids and metalworking fluids. PAGs are considered environmentally friendly because they offer rapid biodegradation and low toxicity levels, she said, and are listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as approved Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants. Suppliers typically offer many different viscosity grades and water soluble as well as insoluble varieties, Agashe added.

PAG based lubricants are a significant pillar of the overall synthetic lubricant market and are strategic for BASFs fuel and lubricant solutions business, said Martin Widmann, BASF SEs senior vice president for fuel and lubricant solutions. The new PAG plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany, strengthens our position in existing markets and supports our ambition to build a leading lubricant solution provider.

The BASF range of polyalkylene glycols are marketed under the Breox, Plurasafe and Pluracol brands. With their increasing environmental and performance standards for lubricants, the North American and Asian markets represent growth opportunities for BASF and its Breox and Plurasafe portfolio. As of today, we supply this market from our plants in Europe and North America, said Douglas Brown, vice president for business management for North America, fuel and lubricant solutions, BASF Corp.

The European Commission ordered BASF to divest its PAG and PAG-based lubricants production plant in Hythe, England, in December 2010 following its acquisition of Cognis. In 2011, GEO Specialty Chemicals bought BASFs bisomer monomer business, including the former Cognis plant in Hythe.