Eight months after a deadly explosion rocked Evonik Industries’ (Essen / Germany; www.evonik.com) PA 12 feedstock plant in Marl / Germany – see Plasteurope.com of 01.04.2012 – the company has been given the official approval to resume CDT production. Evonik said the repair works on the affected facility had been completed, adding that the district government in Münster had granted it an operating permit to resume production. This means CDT output will once again commence in December, and Evonik expects to deliver the first shipments of PA 12 to its customers in January 2013.

The German group said the investigation into the incident by the attorney general’s office in Essen is still ongoing. An independent expert hired by Evonik, however, reportedly found that the blast was caused by an overdosage of a catalyst. To prevent any such accident from happening again, during the repair works Evonik said it implemented additional safety measures that were previously established by an independent institute.