Innovation Headquarters
Linz, Austria
The Borealis International Innovation Headquarters is located in Linz, Austria, close to the Danube River and approximately 200 kilometres west of Vienna. It is within easy reach of the industrial regions in southern Germany. Historically, industry in this area was centred on mining and steel, but now includes chemicals and pharmaceuticals, among other industries.
The Innovation Headquarters is home to state-of-the-art research facilities consisting of a catalyst plant utilising the proprietary Borealis Sirius Catalyst Technology, pilot plant for hydrocarbon production technologies, a high-tech polymerisation laboratory and industrial polymer compounding and conversion equipment for injection moulding, pipe extrusion, and film and fibre production. The polymer compounding facilities produce customer and development samples with a wide range of flexibility from 500g to 20 tonnes.
The core competencies at the Innovation Headquarters are small-scale polymerisation and product development of polypropylene (PP) and low-pressure polyethylene (PE) products for pipe, packaging, foam, automotive, solar and capacitor film applications. The catalyst plant utilising the proprietary Borealis Sirius Catalyst Technology underlines the Borealis position along the entire plastics value chain: from research and development into production of its own catalysts, to application-oriented development of innovative solutions in close co-operation with its customers. The main research activities concerning hydrocarbons and melamine also take place in Linz.
The Innovation Headquarters is also home to the Circular Economy Solutions Innovation Studio, which serves as a hub for research and development for novel circular polyolefins-based technologies and solutions.
Borealis, together with its shareholder OMV, supports the Plastics Engineering programme at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. The programme's aim is to meet the demand of the Upper Austrian plastics industry for young researchers and engineers in the years to come.