2018-08-01

New sales partner for membrane elements in Turkey

LANXESS signs distribution agreement with Burkut

Cologne -

The Liquid Purification Technologies (LPT) business unit of the specialty chemicals company LANXESS, one of the world’s leading suppliers of products and solutions for water treatment, plans to expand its business with reverse osmosis membrane elements in Turkey. Correspondingly, LPT signed a distribution agreement with the Turkish Burkut INC, Izmir, regarding the sale of membrane elements of the Lewabrane brand.

Burkut, founded in 1984, is a leading Turkish company for industrial process water treatment. It markets, builds and supplies technical services for water treatment plants. “Burkut has decades of experience in the field of process water treatment and is therefore an ideal partner for us to continue growing in Turkey,” says Jean-Marc Vesselle, Head of LANXESS’s BU Liquid Purification Technologies.

“The domestic market offers a lot of potential for water treatment technologies. We are pleased to be able to market the membrane elements from LANXESS, which meet the highest German and international production and quality standards, in Turkey,” says Enis Burkut, President of Burkut Su Tekniği A.Ş.


Membrane technology from LANXESS for the Turkish water market

The treatment of industrial process water has gained in importance in Turkey since the 1980s. Burkut has accompanied the development of the market from the very beginning. “In the past, only imported water treatment plants were used in Turkey. This has changed fundamentally over the last four decades. Turkey now exports water treatment systems to numerous countries via large international OEMs. And the water purification business will continue to grow in the coming years as exports increase,” forecasts Burcu Atalay, Sales Manager in the BU LPT.


Membrane technology from LANXESS for seawater desalination

Since its market launch in early 2012, LANXESS has continuously expanded its range of membrane elements for reverse osmosis. Today, the Lewabrane range offers numerous element types in various sizes, which are either particularly fouling-resistant, energy-efficient optimized for high performance. This opens up a wide range of applications for the Group and its customers in the treatment of process water and wastewater across many different industries. Another important field of application is the treatment of seawater. LANXESS has developed the Lewabrane RO S series especially for this purpose, which currently comprises six types.

In reverse osmosis (RO), seawater is pressed at high pressure through semipermeable membranes that retain the salt. The process requires only about one-sixth of the energy consumed by a multi-stage evaporation system.

“In the Aegean region between Izmir and Bodrum, the flow of well water decreases from the second half of the year. Some large steel, cement and power plants located by the sea meet the seasonal water shortage by treating seawater by reverse osmosis. Holiday resorts in areas where communal water is good but expensive are already using this technology,” reports Atalay. “In the area of seawater desalination, we will continue to grow through our cooperation with Burkut while also expanding our business with operators of Turkish energy and industrial plants that already purchase our Lewatit ion exchange resins,” adds Vesselle.

Detailed information on the products of the BU LPT can be found on the Internet at lpt.lanxess.com.

The BU LPT of LANXESS currently employs over 500 people worldwide. LPT is part of LANXESS's Performance Chemicals segment, which achieved sales of EUR 1.44 billion in 2017.


Forward-Looking Statements
This company release contains certain forward-looking statements, including assumptions, opinions, expectations and views of the company or cited from third party sources. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause the actual results, financial position, development or performance of LANXESS AG to differ materially from the estimations expressed or implied herein. LANXESS AG does not guarantee that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does it accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the opinions expressed in this presentation or the actual occurrence of the forecast developments. No representation or warranty (expressed or implied) is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, any information, estimates, targets and opinions, contained herein, and no liability whatsoever is accepted as to any errors, omissions or misstatements contained herein, and accordingly, no representative of LANXESS AG or any of its affiliated companies or any of such person's officers, directors or employees accept any liability whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from the use of this document.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 9.7 billion in 2017 and about 19,200 employees in 25 countries. The company is currently represented at 74 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. Through ARLANXEO, the joint venture with Saudi Aramco, LANXESS is also a leading supplier of synthetic rubber. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.