"Smells like innovative spirit": The event in Leverkusen brought the international R&D teams together

“Creativity means capital. But how do we increase this capital quicker, more reliably and with the lowest possible costs? This is what this day is all about,” said CEO Axel C. Heitmann, summarizing the objectives of the third LANXESS Innovation Day. On September 2, in Building H4 in Leverkusen, it was all about ideas developed by LANXESS. Employees demonstrated to more than 200 guests the creative solutions they were implementing to makes processes even more efficient, to further improve products and to develop new products. Their achievements were also visualized on around 40 posters, exhibited in a separate, designated area.         

The all-day event featured several lectures focusing, for example, on the objectives and strategy of the Innovation Group Function, improved tire tests and ‘bio-routes’ to important raw materials. Always keeping one eye on the topic of innovation, the speakers also addressed customer requirements and how to face challenges such as the shortage of raw materials. The talk given by Markus Antonietti, Director at the Max-Planck Institute for Colloid and Interface Research and a professor at the University of Potsdam, also addressed the issue of finite resources. In his lecture, “Polymer Chemicals in Times of Energy and Raw Material Transition”, he explained how important the acquisition of new raw materials is to the chemicals industry. He invited those in attendance to participate in a biomass revolution– akin to the industrial revolution. State Secretary Helmut Dockter from the North Rhine Westphalian Ministry for Innovation, Science, Research and Technology, emphasized the importance of to the chemical industry for the Federal State of North Rhine Westphalia and praised its innovative power.

The high point of the innovation day was the presentation of prizes to the winning projects. Here the Butyl Rubber Business Unit (BU BTR), with its various teams from different locations, took home two of the four prizes. The “Process Development” category was won by the dry finishing procedure platform technology, which BTR developed together with GF Innovation &Technology, with the help of external support. In the “New Chemicals” category” the global BTR research team came out on top, having developed a new procedure for the synthesis of tree-like branched polymers. The prize in the “Ecology” category went to the Functional Chemicals Business Unit (BU FCC) for the newly developed product, Levagard TP LXS 51078. In the “application Technology” category, the Ion Exchange Resins Business Unit (BU ION) was victorious, with its newly developed membrane technology.

Board Member Dr. Werner Breuers stressed the following: “To remain competitive on the long-term, to operate within new markets and to make clever use of the chances that present themselves – all of this is impossible without continuous and comprehensive innovation. Therefore at LANXESS, innovation is of central and most importantly, continually increasing importance.” This can be seen, for example, in the fact that the Research & Development Division is continually recruiting new personnel. Three years ago there were just 441 employees, and now there are well over 500 members of staff working in the R&D division. Furthermore, LANXESS is continually increasing its investment in research and development. In the coming year the budget is set to increase by 15 per cent, to around 130 million Euros.