Covestro (Leverkusen, Germany; www.covestro.com) said it has begun construction of an aniline production facility in Antwerp, Belgium, which will harness new energy-efficient technology and save up to 27,000 t of CO₂ emissions per year.

Aniline is a building block of rigid foam component MDI, a material used in the production of insulation materials for buildings and refrigeration equipment.

Part of a EUR 300 mn investment programme across Covestro’s European production network for MDI, the new plant is scheduled to be operational in early 2025 and will create around 40 new jobs, the company said.

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Currently, around 20% of the steam required on site is covered by using process heat generated during production, with fossil resources accounting for the rest. The new plant will see the share of steam generated from process heat doubling to 40% of local demand, which will bring a subsequent decline in the use of fossil fuel-derived steam, the company noted.

Welcoming the investment, Jan Jambon, minister president of the Flanders region, said chemistry and life sciences were the leading sectors in the area, with investment last year totalling EUR 2.6 bn, or more than half of all the industrial investments in innovation in the area.