Thermphos International

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Thermphos International B.V.
Type Besloten Vennootschap
IndustryChemical
Founded Vlissingen, Netherlands
FateBankrupt
Headquarters,
Key people
Rob de Ruiter (Managing director)
ProductsPhosphorus Compounds
Number of employees
about 450 (end 2012) [1]
Website http://www.thermphos.com/

The Thermphos International B.V. was a venture of the chemical industry, which produced phosphorus and inorganic phosphorus compounds. In 2005 it earned about 550 Million Euros and employed about 1200 people. It was Europe's only producer of elemental phosphorus. [2] The company was also involved in recycling phosphorus. [3] It used to be a former affiliate of the German chemicals company Hoechst AG and was taken over in 2003 by a group of private investors, led by the Italian-Israeli businessman Nahum Galmor. [4]

Contents

Sites

The headquarters of the venture was in Vlissingen (in the Netherlands), with supporting production centres in Europe, Asia, and South America.

In North America, the company operates a sales center in Anniston, Alabama and Mattawan, Canada. [5]

Worldwide, the company has 16 daughter corporations:

Products

Thermphos products center around phosphorus and phosphates. This ranges from elemental phosphorus to base chemicals of phosphate chemistry, such as phosphoric Acid and polyphosphoric acid, phosphorus trichloride, phosphorus oxychloride, phosphorus pentachloride, phosphorus pentoxide, phosphorus pentasulfide, aluminium phosphate, calcium phosphate, ammonium phosphate, potassium phosphate, and sodium phosphate, as well as other additives for plastics and ceramics as well as food industries. Phosphorus is one of the three main nutrients present in fertilizer.

Environmental issues

In September 2010 the Public Health authorities of The Netherlands (VROM) issued an ultimatum on the Thermphos Industrial Park Vlissingen because of enduring severe environmental and safety problems related to emission of and exposure to cadmium and dioxine. If these problems were not solved quickly, VROM said, the factory must be closed. [6]

Bankruptcy

On November 21, 2012, the district court of Breda declared the company bankrupt. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phosphorus</span> Chemical element, symbol P and atomic number 15

Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Earth. It has a concentration in the Earth's crust of about one gram per kilogram. In minerals, phosphorus generally occurs as phosphate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phosphate</span> Chemical compound

In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid H
3
PO
4
.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phosphoric acid</span> Chemical compound (PO(OH)3)

Phosphoric acid is a colorless, odorless phosphorus-containing solid, and inorganic compound with the chemical formula H3PO4. It is commonly encountered as an 85% aqueous solution, which is a colourless, odourless, and non-volatile syrupy liquid. It is a major industrial chemical, being a component of many fertilizers.

A period 3 element is one of the chemical elements in the third row of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring (periodic) trends in the chemical behaviour of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when the periodic table skips a row and a chemical behaviour begins to repeat, meaning that elements with similar behaviour fall into the same vertical columns. The third period contains eight elements: sodium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, and argon. The first two, sodium and magnesium, are members of the s-block of the periodic table, while the others are members of the p-block. All of the period 3 elements occur in nature and have at least one stable isotope.

Polyphosphates are salts or esters of polymeric oxyanions formed from tetrahedral PO4 (phosphate) structural units linked together by sharing oxygen atoms. Polyphosphates can adopt linear or a cyclic ring structures. In biology, the polyphosphate esters ADP and ATP are involved in energy storage. A variety of polyphosphates find application in mineral sequestration in municipal waters, generally being present at 1 to 5 ppm. GTP, CTP, and UTP are also nucleotides important in the protein synthesis, lipid synthesis, and carbohydrate metabolism, respectively. Polyphosphates are also used as food additives, marked E452.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sodium hexametaphosphate</span> Chemical compound

Sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) is a salt of composition Na6[(PO3)6]. Sodium hexametaphosphate of commerce is typically a mixture of metaphosphates (empirical formula: NaPO3), of which the hexamer is one, and is usually the compound referred to by this name. Such a mixture is more correctly termed sodium polymetaphosphate. They are white solids that dissolve in water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parathion</span> Chemical compound

Parathion, also called parathion-ethyl or diethyl parathion and locally known as "Folidol", is an organophosphate insecticide and acaricide. It was originally developed by IG Farben in the 1940s. It is highly toxic to non-target organisms, including humans, so its use has been banned or restricted in most countries. The basic structure is shared by parathion methyl.

Hypophosphorous acid (HPA), or phosphinic acid, is a phosphorus oxyacid and a powerful reducing agent with molecular formula H3PO2. It is a colorless low-melting compound, which is soluble in water, dioxane and alcohols. The formula for this acid is generally written H3PO2, but a more descriptive presentation is HOP(O)H2, which highlights its monoprotic character. Salts derived from this acid are called hypophosphites.

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Showa Denko K. K., founded in 1939 by the merger of Nihon Electrical Industries and Showa Fertilizers, both established by a Japanese entrepreneur Nobuteru Mori, is a Japanese chemical company producing chemical products and industrial materials.

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Albright and Wilson was founded in 1856 as a United Kingdom manufacturer of potassium chlorate and white phosphorus for the match industry. For much of its first 100 years of existence, phosphorus-derived chemicals formed the majority of its products.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ammonium dihydrogen phosphate</span> Chemical compound

Ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP), also known as monoammonium phosphate (MAP) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (NH4)(H2PO4). ADP is a major ingredient of agricultural fertilizers and some fire extinguishers. It also has significant uses in optics and electronics.

Nahum Galmor is an Italian-Israeli industrialist residing in Switzerland. He has been the owner and chairman of the board of the Dutch company Thermphos since 2003.

Jebsen & Jessen Group is a diversified industrial group with operation offices across South East Asia and beyond. It is a third generation family-owned enterprise and part of the Jebsen & Jessen Family Enterprise.

GEA Refrigeration Technologies GmbH, with headquarters in Bochum, Germany, is a developer, manufacturer, and supplier of industrial refrigeration and freezer technology. Its product portfolio includes piston compressors, screw compressors, chillers, tunnel freezers, carton and spiral freezers, valves and valve sets, driers, and exhaust ventilators.

EuroChem Group AG is a Swiss fertilizer producer. It is a fertilizer manufacturer with its own capacity in all three primary nutrients – nitrogen, phosphates and potash. It is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sachtleben Chemie</span>

Sachtleben Chemie is a chemicals producer, with its primary focus on the production of white pigments, fillers and extenders. The company employs some 2,200 persons and achieves annual sales of around 820 million euros (2012). Sachtleben has been a member of the multinational Venator group since 2017. The company's corporate history reaches back over 130 years. Sachtleben produces particles using titanium dioxide, zinc sulfide and barium sulfate as the chemical basis, and markets these products worldwide. The principal applications for Sachtleben products include man-made fibers, paints and other coatings, plastics, and paper. Sachtleben also supplies special particles to the foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industries, and has interests in the fields of chromatography, nanotechnology, catalysis, and the production of building materials. The company leads the world in special titanium dioxide grades for printing inks and for the cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food industries. The production facilities at all three locations apply the sophisticated sulfate-route process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Behn Meyer</span>

Behn Meyer Holding AG is a German chemical company and family business that was founded as an overseas trading company in Singapore in 1840 and now develops, manufactures and distributes speciality chemicals. The company headquarters are located in Hamburg and the main focus of its business activities is Southeast Asia. The Group has more than 28 branches, 38 warehouses and several production facilities in more than 14 different countries in Asia, Europe and North America. Its main business activities are divided up into four divisions: AgriCare, Ingredients, Performance Chemicals and Polymers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marl Chemical Park</span> Industrial park in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

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References

  1. Dutch: http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2012/11/13/fosforfabrikant-thermphos-vraagt-faillissement-aan-wegens-dumpprijzen/ (in Dutch)
  2. Thermphos banks on China's exit from phosphorus.
  3. Phosphate Recycling in the Phosphorus Industry.
  4. "Kazakhstan Phosphate Producer Buys Thermphos.", Chemical Week. February 19, 2003
  5. Global Distribution Archived 2013-05-27 at the Wayback Machine . About Thermphos International B.V.
  6. Dutch: VROM dreigt fosforfabriek met sluiting 8 Sep 2010.
  7. English: Thermphos declared bankrupt 21 Nov 2012.