BASF Announces Plans to Expand PVP Facilities

BASF announced on Jan. 22, 2015 that it planned to invest up to €56 million ($65 million USD) in the expansion of its Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) value chain over the course of the next four years. PVP is a polymer used in the pharmaceutical industry because of its binding properties. The expansion will allow BASF to increase production by 6000 metric tons with improvements to facilities in Ludwigshafen, Germany and Geismar, Louisiana, USA, as well as adding the technology to produce PVP at its Shanghai, China facility.

PVP is a water-soluble polymer that can absorb large quantities of water;, it is temperature-resistant, pH-stable, non-ionic, and colorless. The binding abilities of BASF’s line of PVP products, called Kollidon, enable individual active ingredients of a tablet to form a homogenous entity and as a disintegrant it ensires ensures that the tablets break up in liquid and release the active ingredient quickly.

“With this investment, we are actively participating in the strongly growing PVP market, especially within the pharmaceutical industry,” said Saori Dubourg, president of BASF’s nutrition and health division, in a press release.

Source: BASF