Marl Chemical Park

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Aerial view
Southern area near the main gate with high-rise and power plants
Main entrance / factory gate 1

The Marl Chemical Park (formerly Chemische Werke Hüls AG ) in Marl in the Ruhr area is one of the largest industrial parks in Germany.

It extends over an area of ​​6.5 square kilometers. About 10% of the area (0.6 km²) is considered vacant and available to investors. The plants of the 30 companies currently active there  provide work for around 10,000 people, are in a close material and energetic network and are for the most part operated fully continuously . The chemical site is the third largest Verbund site in Germany .

The operator of the Marl Chemical Park is “Infracor” , which has been part of Evonik Industries since the transfer of operations on July 1, 2013 . The services include basic services for the site operation, raw material and product logistics, energies, supply, disposal, facility and workplace support.

The Marl Chemical Park is the anchor point of the Route of Industrial Culture and can be visited.

Infrastructure

  • In addition to around 900 buildings, there are more than 100 production plants on the site  , most of them from the chemical industry.
  • The checkered streets are 55 km long. The numerical designation of east-west (100, 200,…, 1200) and south-north streets (20, 40, 60, 80, 2000, 2020, 2040) gives all buildings unique numbers that indicate their location in the chemical park Describe (for example the high-rise building 145 near the intersection of streets 100 and 40).
  • The raw materials are supplied via pipelines (ethylene, propylene, C4 hydrocarbons, benzene, methanol, brine and natural gas), ships (internal handling for shipments up to 2000 t), railways and trucks . Larger storage areas, high rack and tank storage facilities are available.
  • An internal pipeline network of 1200 kilometers has been laid on pipe bridges 30 kilometers in length. In addition to raw materials, intermediate and end products of the chemical plants, various gases are also distributed through the pipelines: nitrogen and oxygen in several pressure stages, ethylene, natural gas and hydrogen.
  • An air separation plant based on the Linde process provides consumers with liquefied argon and, via the internal pipeline network, gaseous oxygen and nitrogen as well as cold.
  • The electrically monitored rail system with its own freight station and two connections to the Deutsche Bahn network is 120 km long, making it one of the largest electrically monitored private train stations in Europe.
  • The sewer network is 70 km long and has been separated into rain / cooling and sewage channels since the chemical park was built . The wastewater is cleaned in two sewage treatment plants before it reaches the Lippe . In the north of the site there is a sewage sludge and waste incineration plant .
  • Three power plants provide means cogeneration 300  MW electrical power in different voltages (110  kV , 10 kV, 6 kV, 500 V and 400/230 V) and more than 1000 tons of steam per hour (pressure stages 4, 20, 70 and 120 bar) at market prices. There is also an association with the public power grid.

history

South view of the plant and Marler Vesthalle (at the blue hour )

The chemical park goes back to the establishment of the Chemische Werke Hüls GmbH on May 9, 1938 in the Drewer Mark in Marl. The chemical works belonged to 74% of the IG Farben and 26% of the mining company Hibernia AG , thus VEBA AG . The name "Hüls" goes back to the proximity to the neighboring Marl district, where the parent company IG Farben already ran a mine. In the “Third Reich” , Buna (synthetic rubber) was produced there for the production of tires.

The managers and masters of the plant were mainly provided by other IG Farben plants in Ludwigshafen am Rhein , Schkopau and Leverkusen . In the years 1938 to 1940, more than 3,000 employees and their families moved in, who were taken care of by factory-run farms. Between 1940 and 1942, another 2,000 employees moved in with their families. This led to a large housing shortage in Marl, so that they initially had to live in camps. Thereupon the construction of the so-called standby settlement began.

In the course of the Second World War, forced laborers who lived in the meanwhile empty camps of the German workers were increasingly used. The chemical works have been targeted by bomb attacks several times . The heaviest of them in the summer of 1943 shut down the plant for about three months. When Marl was captured by American troops on March 31, 1945, German troops prevented the plant from being blown up.

At the end of the war, the number of employees had dropped from around 10,000 to around 500. The company was placed under English administration and had to change its products. In 1953 the Hüls chemical works were released from Allied control and converted into a stock corporation. The complex was later renamed Chemische Werke Hüls AG, with the main focus on plastics, raw materials for detergents and again Buna. In 1998 Infracor, a subsidiary of Evonik Degussa GmbH , took over the site as operator (there is also more information about the history).

Location and transport links

Location of the plant within Marl

The Marl Chemical Park is located on the northern edge of the Ruhr area and the southern foothills of the Münsterland . To the south of the chemical park is the Autobahn 52 with connection to the A 43 . The Lippe and Wesel-Datteln Canal , on which the chemical park has its own port, run through the northern part of the site . The connection to the ethene pipeline system plays a special role for chemical products . There is also an alternative connection point to the Gelsenkirchen-Buer Nord-Marl Lippe railway line .

Established businesses

Evonik logo on the roof of the skyscraper
  • Evonik Industries with its subsidiaries
    • Nutrition & Care
    • Performance Materials
    • Resource Efficiency
    • Materials
    • Creavis
    • Technology and Infrastructure
    • Logistics Service
    • Catering services
    • Operations
    • Real estate
    • CPM network
    • TÜV Nord InfraChem
    • Transshipment Terminal Marl
    • West gas

Companies independent of Evonik

Products and services

Products

More than 4,000 chemical products are manufactured in around 100 plants in the Marl Chemical Park, the largest in terms of quantity:

TUIS

The plant fire brigade provides information about the handling of dangerous substances and goods. As one of the ten nationwide TUIS emergency call centers, it also provides vehicles and equipment.

Accidents

  • On January 30, 1995 - after a previous safety shutdown - a connecting elbow in a reactor of the ethanolamine factory tore when starting up , and about two tons of ammonia and 400 kg of ethanolamine leaked. Since this accident happened after the day shift, only property damage occurred . The release of the substances is registered as ZEMA event 9501.
  • On July 19, 1998, an operator error in the vinyl chloride plant triggered an exothermic reaction that had not been expected until then . This led to the bursting of pipes, the escape of hydrogen chloride and an open fire. The fire brigade was able to protect neighboring systems with cooling, suppress the hydrogen chloride with spray mist and let the escaping gases burn off in a controlled manner. There was considerable property damage. The release of the substance is recorded by ZEMA as event 9815.
  • On May 28, 1999, a pipe bend in a vinyl chloride plant tore open and a mixture of 1,2-dichloroethane, vinyl chloride and hydrogen chloride leaked out. Six employees were injured as a result; some emergency services also suffered minor injuries. Outside the chemical park, no people were affected. Because of the release of the substances, this was a reportable accident that was registered as ZEMA event 9918.
  • On October 10, 2006, at around 10:40 a.m., there was a deflagration in a production building of the intermediate product factory (ZPF) . As a result, the Marlotherm heat transfer oil, with which u. a. Products are heated up (about 300 ° C). As a result of the oil fire, a huge column of black smoke rose into the sky, which could still be clearly seen even in neighboring cities. After a few hours, the plant fire brigade was able to put out the fire. This incident is recorded by ZEMA as event 0621.
  • On March 31, 2012, at around 1:35 p.m., there was damage to the CDT system from Evonik , which was accompanied by a 100-meter high jet flame and heavy smoke. Local residents reported a severe explosion. The cloud of smoke moved south over the A 2. One worker died at the scene of the accident, another died of serious injuries later in hospital. Measurements by the plant fire brigade and the fire brigade of the city of Marl showed no health risk for the population. After initial investigations, material fatigue is assumed to be the cause. The production stop temporarily led to a worldwide shortage of the polyamide 12 (nylon 12) made from CDT .

literature

  • Bernhard Lorentz, Paul Erker: Chemistry and Politics. The history of the chemical works in Hüls 1938–1979 . CH Beck, Munich 2003. ISBN 3-406-50962-2 .

Web links

Commons : Marl Chemical Park  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chemieatlas.de: The information portal for the chemical region Ruhrgebiet + NRW ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / Karte.chemieatlas.de
  2. ↑ Bernhard Lorentz, Paul Erker: Chemistry and Politics. The history of the chemical works in Hüls 1938–1979 . CH Beck, Munich 2003. p. 10.
  3. ↑ Bernhard Lorentz, Paul Erker: Chemistry and Politics. The history of the chemical works in Hüls 1938–1979 . CH Beck, Munich 2003. p. 11.
  4. ↑ a b company. In: chemiepark-marl.de. Accessed March 31, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Ineos about the Marl location ( Memento from July 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ After a fire in the chemical park: Second worker dies in Marl. FAZ, April 2, 2012, accessed on April 2, 2012 .
  7. ^ POL-RE: Marl: Damage case at Marl Chemical Park. Recklinghausen Police Headquarters, March 31, 2012, archived from the original on April 6, 2012 ; accessed on March 31, 2012 .
  8. ↑ Lars Hilbig and Claus Pawlinka: After the explosion in the chemical park: Worker is dead. In: Marler Zeitung . March 31, 2012, accessed March 31, 2012 .
  9. ^ Marl: Explosion shakes chemical park. In: stern.de. March 31, 2012, accessed March 31, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Lars Hilbig, Claus Pawlinka, Thomas Thiel and Philipp Ostrop: Major fire in MarlDrama in the chemical park: Rescuers have to wait. (No longer available online.) In: HalternerZeitung.de. March 31, 2012, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 31, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.halternerzeitung.de  
  11. ↑ Severe explosion in Marl Chemical Park: worker who has not yet been rescued has been declared dead. In: RP online. March 31, 2012, accessed March 31, 2012 .
  12. ↑ Press release from Infracor. In: Marler Zeitung. March 31, 2012, accessed March 31, 2012 .
  13. ↑ The West: Fire in the Chemical Park, probably the result of material failure, April 4, 2012
  14. ↑ Evonik incident makes car managers restless ( Memento from April 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 0 ″  N , 7 ° 5 ′ 48 ″  E