The Dow Chemical Company has announced the completion of the construction phase of its new ELITE™ enhanced polyethylene production facility in Freeport, Texas, US.
The 400 000 t polyethylene unit is the first of four new derivative investments currently under way at Dow’s manufacturing sites in Texas and Louisiana as part of the company’s previously announced US$6 billion expansion on the US Gulf Coast.
Jim Fitterling, Dow’s President and Chief Operating Officer, said: “This milestone further reflects the steady progress our teams are making to bring these multi-phased investments online to enhance our cost-advantaged integration and industry-leading innovation […] Taken together, these investments represent the industry's broadest and most differentiated derivative slate, fuelled by Dow's proprietary catalyst and process technologies, and will deliver enhanced products and technologies for our customers while enabling higher quality growth for our shareholders.”
The production unit now enters its commissioning and start-up phase in sequence with the mid-year start-up of Dow’s 1.5 million t ethylene facility. The plant is expected to ramp up during 3Q17 and be fully operational in 4Q17. The unit will produce ELITE™ enhanced polyethylene resins, known for their versatility and high performance attributes in multiple types of flexible packaging applications for food, personal hygiene products and industrial packaging.
Dow’s other three derivative units along with a planned debottleneck are proceeding on schedule and are staged to come online throughout 2017 and 2018.
Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/petrochemicals/07062017/dow-completes-construction-of-enhanced-polyethylene-production-facility/