Dow plans to expand its production on shale gas reserves in US

(Dow) -- Dow has announced recently its attitude to shale gas prospects and explained how the economies can benefit from this recourse, including increasing national energy security; sparking stronger economic growth; facilitating exports of value-added products; and fueling lower utility bills for consumers.

"Access to shale gas is important for manufacturing - and especially the chemical industry. However we are not only customers for shale gas, we also have the potential to contribute to the safe and sustainable production of shale gas - through educational efforts and chemical solutions by leveraging the most advanced and sustainable microbial control technologies for shale gas exploration," highlighted Robert Stankiewicz, Country Manager of Dow in Poland.

As MRC reported earlier, three major chemical companies: Dow Chemical, Formosa Plastics, and Chevron Phillips Chemica,l had recently unveiled their expansion plans in North America basing on deposits in the Marcellus Shale Formation in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. One of the upcoming projects of Dow Chemical basing on attractive price of shale gas is propylene project in Freeport, Texas.
MRC

(chemmonitor) -- The Huston-headquartered US company PetroLogistics LP (PDH) is planning to increase the capacity of the factory at Houston site in line with reducing inventories of propylene. Moreover, another US chemical company also intends to put up similar plants in the USA.

The company intends to increase a number of combustion units at the plant generating propylene. The final decision considering the investment of the project has not been reached.

PetroLogistics LP is a major producer of propylene and is the only independent dedicated propylene producer in the United States. PetroLogistics LP owns and operates the world’s largest propane dehydrogenation facility, based on production capacity, strategically located on the Houston Ship Channel with direct and indirect access to approximately 1/2 of U.S. propylene consumption.
MRC

(specchem) -- Lanxess revealed its ambitions for the next five years at its annual Media Day in Dusseldorf on 15 September. It envisages increasing EBITDA pre-exceptionals, which it views as its chief earnings indicator, by about 80% to EUR1.4 billion in 2015. This will be done by a mixture of organic and external growth, though mainly the former.

The company claims that its businesses benefits from their focus on premium products serving the four megatrends of mobility, agriculture, urbanisation and water as well as a focus on the high-growth BRIC markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Its sales here have doubled as a percentage of total sales in the past five years.

The company also mentioned its developments in synthetic rubber, of which it is the world’s largest supplier, as well as in high performance plastics as examples of its activity in mobility. New technologies and new facilities in membrane filtration technology and ion exchange resins, both for water treatment, were highlighted in agriculture, urbanisation and water.

LANXESS is a leader in specialty chemicals and operates in all important global markets. Its core business comprises the development, manufacture and sale of plastics, rubber, specialty chemicals and intermediates.
MRC

(Dow) -- Dow Polyurethanes, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, in cooperation with Cannon SpA, announced yesterday that PASCAL Polyurethane Insulation Technology for household refrigerators and freezers is now available to retrofit to existing production lines.

The company created a new solution to enable customers to use PASCAL Technology by upgrading their production lines, but not having to build a brand new line, said Mark Bassett, global vice president for Dow Polyurethanes.

Launched in 2011 and available to manufacturers as a complete production line for household refrigerators, PASCAL is a polyurethane foam insulation technology that improves energy efficiency in refrigerators and freezers by up to 10 percent.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. It is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC

(Solvay) -- Solvay has announced a capacity increase of 70% at its Panoli plant, India, for the production of its high performance polymers KetaSpire polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and AvaSpire polyaryletherketones (PAEK).

Panoli is Solvay's largest plant worldwide for these two innovative ultra performance polymers that tower at the top of the plastics performance pyramid. Nearly half of this capacity increase has already been implemented and successfully brought on-line. The second phase of the project will be completed by mid 2013 and will allow the plant to continue to satisfy growth in demand.

The products are used in a diverse range of applications spanning many industries including aeronautic, automotive (mechanical components in cars), healthcare, electronics, oil & gas exploration and production, and process industries such as semiconductor manufacturing.

As MRC reported earlier, last week Solvay announced its acquisition of a controlling stake in Sunshield Chemicals, an Indian company specializing in surfactants, and some months ago it opened a major innovation centre in Savli (Gujarat State).

With this investments, the Group reaches a new milestone in realizing its ambition to double its sales in India by 2015.
MRC