Bayer’s Bergkamen Site: Flexible API Production with PFA Technology
Bergkamen produces steroid hormones, contrast media, as well as active ingredients for innovative therapeutics, including a medication for chronic kidney disease in type 2 diabetes that generated €463 million in revenue in 2024. With the FDA’s extended approval in 2025 for additional indications, demand continues to grow—and with it, the pressure on flexible, reliable production lines. Bayer therefore invests continuously in new technologies and automation. This is precisely where Richter comes in: with components that ensure the highest levels of safety, precision, and chemical resistance.
Richter Portfolio in multipurpose API Plant: PFA‑Lined Valves and Magnetic Drive Pumps for GMP-conform Media Handling
For decades, Richter has supported the site with a broad portfolio of valves, pumps, and specialized solutions—from sampling valves and control and safety valves to chemically resistant magnetic drive pumps.
Particularly noteworthy:
- Sampling valves with protective cabinets, individually adapted to Bayer processes
- Control valves with exceptional positioning accuracy, crucial for reproducible syntheses
- PFA lined ball valves (“bromine valves”) with 5 mm lining, serving as the benchmark for aggressive media
- LPV low pressure valves for constant pressure control in the millibar range
- Sight glasses, check valves, diaphragm valves for GMP compliant media handling
- MNK magnetic drive pumps for leak free transfer of critical solvents
The result is a plant infrastructure that meets the highest safety and quality standards—from raw material receipt through synthesis to final filling.
A highlight of the modernization in Bergkamen is the filling manifold: a centralized, automated dosing solution that replaces eight previously used mobile scales. Together with high precision control valves and end to end instrumentation, this creates a synthesis environment that is precisely controllable and fully validatable
Work‑Up, Isolation, and Drying – Process Safety with Bromine Valves & MNK Magnetic Drive Pumps
Chemical work up places extreme demands on material resistance and safety. Richter valves are used especially in the bromination unit, where they reliably withstand highly corrosive media.
During crystallization, filtration, and drying, Richter valves and pumps ensure:
- Safe media handling
- Contamination protection
- Transparency via sight glasses
- Resistance to solvents
Filling & CIP/SIP: Validated cleanliness with Low Dead Space Product Design
Between production campaigns, equipment undergoes intensive cleaning cycles. Valves and pumps from Richter support these CIP/SIP processes through:
- PFA lining for high chemical resistance to common cleaning and solvent media
- Low Dead Space Product Design for improved rinsability/drainability and validatable cleanliness
- ATEX certified executions for safe operation in hazardous areas
- Robust product families such as MNK (sealless magnetic drive pumps), LPV (low pressure holding valves for millibar control), and RSS (control valves with high repeatability)—providing stable pressures, reproducible flows, and reliable shut off during cleaning sequences
Partnership That Delivers: Reliability, Flexibility, and Trust in API Manufacturing
What distinguishes the partnership between Bayer and Richter is not just technology. It is the interplay of close collaboration, technical expertise, and a shared willingness to break new ground. Or, as Hasan Kozat, CapEx Project Management Lead at Bayer’s Bergkamen site, puts it:
“Our relationship with Richter is about more than technology—it’s the trust that together we can overcome any challenge.”
