History

Expansion of production capacity for mild Metaupon® surfactants in response to growing demand for natural personal care products.

New owner of LEUNA-Tenside GmbH is Vantage Specialty Chemicals Holdings Inc. (Chicago/Illinois), a leading provider of naturally-derived ingredients focused on the personal care, food, consumer, and industrial end markets.

Frankfurt-based private equity VR Equitypartner and Luxembourg-based BIP Investment Partners sell their joint portfolio company LEUNA-Tenside GmbH at the end of 2018.

As part of a succession arrangement, the Frankfurt-based private equity firm VR Equitypartner and the investor BIP Investment Partners S.A., Luxembourg, acquire a majority stake in LEUNA-Tenside GmbH. The former owner joins the company’s Advisory Board

The production facilities for chlorinated paraffins for use as flame retardants or plasticizers are successfully brought into service.

Construction of production facilities for nonionic surfactants at LEUNA-Tenside GmbH with an annual capacity of over 10,000 metric tons.

LEUNA-Tenside GmbH is created as part of a management buyout of a division of the former Leuna Werke (Leuna works). The company has a wide range of large-scale technical facilities at a site measuring over 95,000 square meters.

Privatization of certain divisions of Leuna Werke (Leuna works) begins. Unprofitable facilities are closed, and divisions not related to the chemical industry are spun off.

Test operations on Mirathen production line V for high-density polyethylene begin in September.

A first tanker truck delivers caprolactam from the new facility at plant II to Premnitz in August. In October, the Schwedt–Leuna mineral oil pipeline enters into operation.

The plant processes more than 1 million metric tons of mineral oil for the first time. The L-Forming-Anlage, a system designed to increase gasoline quality, is incorporated into production activities.

Development of the Polyamid Leuna injection molding compound. Production of isonicotinylhydrazide (INH) for the treatment of tuberculosis begins.

Production of surfactants for use in detergents begins.

First experiments on the large-scale synthesis of caprolactam for the production of polyamide fiber Perlon using a method developed by the chemist Prof. Paul Schlack (1897–1987).

Prof. Carl Bosch (1874–1940) and Prof. Friedrich Bergius receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the technical realization of the catalytic synthesis of ammonia in Leuna between 1909 and 1913 (Haber–Bosch process), for the promotion of methanol synthesis and gasoline synthesis through coal hydrogenation. Isobutyl synthesis creates the technical conditions for the production of high-octane aircraft fuel from synthesis gas.