More Propylene Oxide Is Planned

Degussa is taking several steps to commercialize its hydrogen peroxide-based route to propylene oxide (PO).

The company is licensing its PO technology, which it developed with German engineering company Uhde, to SKC Chemicals. The South Korean firm is planning to build a 100,000-metric-ton-per-year propylene oxide plant in Ulsan, South Korea, by the beginning of 2008.

To provide the hydrogen peroxide feedstock for this plant, DegussaHeadwaters, a joint venture between Degussa and South Jordan, Utah-based Headwaters Corp., is purchasing a hydrogen peroxide plant in Ulsan from Finland’s Kemira for $35 million. DegussaHeadwaters intends to more than double the plant’s capacity, now 34,000 metric tons per year, in order to supply SKC. The joint venture says it may also use the plant to commercialize its technology for the catalytic direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide.

The hydrogen peroxide route to propylene oxide eliminates the coproduction of styrene or tert-butyl alcohol that is necessary with the current dominant technology. A joint venture between BASF and Dow Chemical is planning a facility in Antwerp, Belgium, expected to be the first propylene oxide plant based on a peroxide route.

Separately, Kemira is building a $100 million hydrogen peroxide plant on the site of a pulp mill being built by the Finnish firm Botnia in Fray Bentos, Uruguay. The pulp mill has spurred an environmental controversy and a diplomatic spat between Uruguay and neighboring Argentina.