Ionic Liquid-Based Processes May Improve Plastics

Seattle, WA, USA-- Ionic liquid technology holds great promise for improvements in the plastics, paper, textile, and oil & gas industries.

Dr. Calvin Emanuel of BASF's Intermediates New Business Development unit in North America will discuss the eco-efficiency of the company's BASIL ionic liquids processing technology at the American Chemical Society's 2nd International Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry in Washington, D.C.

The conference will be held from June 20 - 24, 2004, at the Hotel Washington, Washington, D.C.

" BASF sees great potential for commercial application of ionic liquid technology to increase operating efficiencies in a number of key industries, " said Dr. Emanuel. "It enables dramatic improvements in operating efficiency of many chemical production operations including highly selective, high yielding and previously unavailable intermediate synthesis and energy efficient azeotropic distillations. We also think it holds great promise for improvements in the textile, paper, plastics and oil & gas industries."

Dr. Emanuel also will provide an update of BASF's experience with the company's own ionic liquids production unit as well as discuss recent developments of toxicological data for selected ionic liquids from the BASIONICS line of 19 ionic liquids.

BASF's BASILTM (Biphasic Acid Scavenging utilizing Ionic Liquids) technology offers manufacturers substantial benefits such as faster processing, resulting from improved heat transfer and nucleophilic catalysis, which in turn delivers higher yields per volume and time. It simplifies processing, making separation easier by eliminating handling of solids. In addition, kinetic control allows higher selectivity, enabling lower variable costs. It can easily be used in existing plants, to achieve debottlenecking without major capital investment.

BASF was the first company to establish an industrial process utilizing ionic liquids, gaining experience with ionic liquids on a multi-ton-scale. BASF offers complete customized solutions for implementing ionic liquid-based processes, including support in the design of the ionic liquids and the process based on BASF‘s broad expertise in chemical processing (including licensing of BASF processes). BASF can also provide recycling concepts, and supply the ionic liquids in commercial quantities at reasonable prices.