Plug-and-Play Principle for Chemical Producers
The Marl Chemical Park is one of the largest and most fully integrated sites of its kind in Europe – and also the largest site within the ChemSite Initiative. Of a total, 650ha, roughly 60ha of industrial land are available to new investors. There are more than two dozen producers on the site, like Evonik Industries, Rohm and Haas, Ineos Styrenics, Sasol, ISP and Vestolit. 

At Marl Chemical Park, basic feedstocks like ethylen and propylen are available by pipeline and barge, etc. Marl also boasts a newly upgraded chlor-alkali facility, owned by Vestolit, which feeds its vinyls chain as well as providing chlorine to other users on the site. At the site more than 4000 chemicals are produced ranging from high volume materials such as, styrene, polystyrene, 1-buten, acrylic acid, ETBE and PVC, to speciality products like polyamides and polyesters, plasticisers, surfactants, elastomers and latices.

At the heart of the chemical complex lies Infracor, the site operator and service provider. Its role is to ensure that roughly 100 production plants continue to produce no less than 4m tons of materials every year. Formed in 1998, the 700m turnover company employs some 3400 people at Marl.

Infracor operates three power plants – two coal and one gas-fired - at the complex, giving 300MW of electricity generation and 1000 tons/hr of steam. It also has responsibility for waste management - operating two waste water facilities - logistics, technology and all aspects of health, safety and environmental protection, technical plant safety and site security, telecommunications, facility management and permitting and regulatory affairs.

In terms of logistics, that 4m tonne of production leaves the site by train (400 000 tons/year), road (2.4m tons/year), barge (900 000 tons/year) and pipeline (300 000 tons/year). Infracor manages the site railway, port, pipelines and racks, and also handles storage at the site. It has, for example, recently invested in a major new multi-storey warehouse to serve producers on the complex and is currently expanding the harbour facilities with an extra barge berth.

Infracor’s goal is to be ‘the most attractive infrastructure and service provider’ for the companies at Marl Chemical Park and beyond.