The Dow Chemical Company and Solvay have announced a joint venture to build the world’s largest hydrogen peroxide (HP) plant, in Thailand.
With a capacity of 330,000tpa, the plant is scheduled to come on stream in 2010, providing the raw material for propylene oxide (PO) manufacture.
The announcement, from Solvay, also said Dow and BASF are “advancing negotiations” for the construction of a 390,000tpa PO manufacturing site in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The plant would use the hydrogen peroxide-to-propylene oxide (HPPO) technology developed by Dow and BASF.
The Dow/BASF HPPO in Thailand would be the second world-scale plant to use HPPO technology. The first is under construction in Antwerp, Belgium (see PRW.com 27 September 2006) and is scheduled for start-up in early 2008.
Like its counterpart in Thailand, the 300,000tpa HPPO plant in Belgium is supplied by an HP plant based on Solvay’s proprietary technology. According to Eric Mignonat, Solvay’s general manager for hydrogen peroxide, the Beglian group has been active in the Asian HP market since 1988 through its Thai affiliate, Peroxythai.
President of Dow Polyurethanes Pat Dawson said: “Thailand is an attractive location for an HPPO investment due to its fertile business climate and easy access to the entire Asia-Pacific region.”
The liquids cracker that Dow is building jointly with The Siam Cement Group (SCG) will supply the HPPO plant in Thailand with propylene (see PRW.com 24 October 2006).
Propylene oxide is used in the production of propylene glycol, polyurethanes and glycol ethers.
