Evonik To Build MMA Facility In U.S.

Evonik Industries plans to build a methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant in Mobile, Ala. Set to open by the middle of 2015, the facility will have a capacity of 120,000 metric tons per year and cost more than $130 million, the German firm says. The plant will represent the first commercial installation of Evonik’s Aveneer technology, which starts with the traditional MMA raw materials—ammonia, methane, acetone, and methanol—but does not require sulfuric acid. In 2008, Evonik competitor Lucite International opened an MMA plant in Singapore that uses ethylene, methanol, and carbon monoxide as raw materials.