Chemical company Röhm has spent the past 18 months on, among other things, the construction of a new innovation centre at its site in Worms, Germany. The project has now been finished and the new centre was festively opened during a ceremony attended by the managing partners of the Thelen Group, the real estate investor and general contractor for the project, and invited guests.
The new centre was built to house the company’s European research activities and consists of a laboratory building and a technical centre with pilot plants.
“Our innovation centre will become an incubator for future-oriented technologies in methacrylate chemistry, and will strengthen our leading position in Europe and beyond,” said CEO Michael Pack in his welcoming speech. Among the guests at the opening was the prime minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer.
Special attention was given to features to enhance the centre’s sustainability and energy efficiency.
“We have achieved the highest energy efficiency standard possible,” said Wolfgang Thelen, Managing Partner of the Thelen Group. The photovoltaic system planned for both roofs covers a large part of the buildings’ electricity needs, and heating is supplied by heat pumps.
The innovation centre will create a further 100 jobs at the location. Employees working in research, development, and application technology will collaborate on the development and optimisation of innovative products, processes, and applications at the new Innovation Centre. Sustainability will be a major action field for the teams, driven by Röhm’s strategic goal to achieve climate-neutral production by 2050.
Röhm has also reinforced its research activities internationally, establishing research centres in China and the USA, that were also recently taken into operation.