Dow Selects Shanghai For Epichlorohydrin

Dow Chemical has selected the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park in the city's Caojing district for a 150,000-metric-ton-per-year plant that converts glycerin into the epoxy resin feedstock epichlorohydrin. The firm had previously announced the plant but not the location (C&EN, Aug. 14, 2006, page 32).

Dow also decided to build a 100,000-metric-ton liquid epoxy resin plant at the Shanghai location instead of in Zhangjiagang, where it was initially planned. A company official says feedstock considerations motivated the switch of location to China's main business hub. The two projects, worth about $200 million, will be Dow's first plants in Shanghai.

The company adds that local firm Shanghai Chlor-Alkali Chemical and its subsidiary Shanghai Tianyuan Group Huasheng Chemical will supply anhydrous hydrogen chloride and caustic soda feedstock. Glycerin for the epichlorohydrin plant will be purchased from local producers of biofuels, which, in China, are typically obtained from rapeseed and palm oil.

The epichlorohydrin plant relies on a new process that takes advantage of excess glycerin generated in biodiesel production. Dow currently makes epichlorohydrin from allyl chloride.