Consumables
Dow Epoxy Receives Environmental Impact Assessment Approvals for Two Proposed Plants in Shanghai
Wednesday 03. September 2008 - Dow Epoxy, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company ("Dow"), has reached a significant milestone in its plans to build a 100,000 MTPA liquid epoxy resin (LER) plant and a 150,000 MTPA glycerine-to-epichlorohydrin (GTE) plant at Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) by the end of 2010 - the approval of environmental impact assessments (EIA) by Chinas Ministry of Environmental Protection.
“It was a thorough and robust process that we went through and wed applied the highest of Dow standards to our proposed plants at SCIP,” said Noelle Walsh, global business director, Liquid Resins & Intermediates, Dow Epoxy. “We are pleased to have reached this milestone, which brings us one step closer to actual construction. We can only execute our growth plans, and be a sustainable business, with environmental excellence as our foundation.”
EIA is a method and system adopted by Chinas Ministry of Environmental Protection to assess the possible environmental impactpositive or negativeof a proposed project. The EIA allows the Ministry to propose countermeasures to prevent or mitigate adverse environmental impacts. All proposed chemical projects in China must obtain approvals for an EIA before construction.
The LER and GTE plants will further strengthen Dow Epoxys ability to meet growing customer needs in China, particularly in its core markets of coatings, electrical laminates and civil engineering. They are on track to be completed in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
The LER plant will be the first world-wide that will recycle the purified, salt water byproduct as feedstock to the chlorine plant in the chemical complex instead of discharging into the sea.
“With our proprietary GTE technology, we will cut chlorine consumption in half and produce 10 times less waste water, while also improving process efficiency and product quality,” said Walsh. “This technology is a prime example of Dows commitment to significantly reduce and conserve energy as part of its 2015 Sustainability Goals.”
Dows proprietary GTE technology is distinct from and an alternative to any GTE technology practiced today. Dow is actively pursuing patent protection on its developed GTE technology and will continue to file numerous patent applications to ensure a strong intellectual property position.