BASF & Dow venture to produce propylene oxide (PO)
28 Sep '06
2 min read
BASF Aktiengesellschaft (BASF) and The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) today launched a long-term venture to produce propylene oxide (PO) at the world's first commercial-scale hydrogen peroxide propylene oxide (HPPO) plant at BASF's site in Antwerp, Belgium.
This plant uses a new technology developed jointly by BASF and Dow. PO is a core ingredient for the $21 billion a year polyurethane industry. Solvay S.A. (Solvay) will be a key supplier to the new, innovative facility.
The innovative process technology offers a number of benefits over conventional routes to PO, including better economics, environmental improvements and flexibility for locating new plants.
The HPPO plant will be fed with hydrogen peroxide (HP) from a second new plant at the Antwerp site. The HP plant will have a capacity of 230,000 metric tons per year and will be constructed by Solvay, BASF and Dow.
The 300,000 metric tons per year HPPO plant, which is being built jointly by BASF and Dow, is scheduled to start up in early 2008.
Today, Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt joined Dow's Chairman and Chief Executive, Andrew Liveris, Solvay's Chairman of the Executive Committee, Christian Jourquin, and BASF's Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht, at the project's official groundbreaking ceremony.
Each of them planted a tree to commemorate the start of construction and to symbolize the growth opportunities and the environmental benefits generated by the innovative HPPO process.
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