Dow to expand glycol ethers capacity and invest in an alkoxylation facility on US Gulf Coast
US-based Dow Chemical Company says it will make a series of phased, incremental investments to expand its global glycol ethers capacity to meet increasing demand in key end-markets and applications. Once complete, the company will have nearly doubled its current capacity of these product lines.
The company plans to increase its production capacity of select p-series and performance glycol ethers product lines, including Dowanol Glycol Ethers, through a series of seven debottlenecking and incremental expansion projects. These phased investments will begin in 2018 and are expected to continue over the next several years. The first increments of the new capacity will become available by end of 2019.
Demand for glycol ethers continues to rise as a result of urbanisation, a growing middle class, evolving and stricter regulations and increasing sustainability challenges. Glycol ethers are used in a variety of applications to help deliver improved performance and reduced health and environmental impacts of the end products.
Meanwhile, it also plans to invest in an alkoxylation facility on the US Gulf Coast. Upon completion, this new facility will support global growth in Dow’s core end-markets related to infrastructure and home and personal care, as well as additional end-markets where Dow continues to strengthen its position for the Triton, Tergitol, Ecosurf and Carbowax Sentry brands.
“We continue to see strong demand, well ahead of global GDP, across multiple consumer, industrial and manufacturing sectors,” said Ester Baiget, Business President for Dow Industrial Solutions. “These investments will build on Dow’s recent US Gulf Coast investments; they will expand production capacity and enable Dow to meet customer and value chain needs for alkoxylate products.”
The new alkoxylation facility is expected to come online by the end of 2021. This expansion is in addition to various incremental debottlenecking projects being conducted across Dow’s global alkoxylation production units. These projects will support growing customer demand across the Americas, Europe and Asia.