Chairman of the LANXESS Board of Management Axel C. Heitmann and State Secretary in the Ministry for the Environment and Nature Protection, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia Alexander Schink today inaugurated a new nitrous oxide reduction unit - known as LARA - at LANXESS’s Krefeld-Uerdingen site. The specialty chemicals group has invested around EUR 10 million in the facility which was built in a record time of less than one year.

“With this lighthouse project we are making a clear statement in extremely difficult economic circumstances and, in this very global crisis, expressing a commitment to innovation and environmental protection,” said Heitmann.

LANXESS will cut emissions of climate-unfriendly gases at its German facilities through 2012 by around 80 percent compared to 2007 levels. The core project here is the new, second plant for reducing the greenhouse gas dinitrogen monoxide (N2O), more commonly known as nitrous oxide. The new plant supplements the existing facility at the location.

With this new facility LANXESS will neutralize around 5,000 metric tons of nitrous oxide per year, which corresponds to approximately 1.5 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents. In total, with its two plants, LANXESS will annually reduce five to 10 million tons of CO2 equivalents. With the new, second facility LANXESS is developing into the technology leader in the reduction of N2O.