The Dow Chemical Co. recently announced that the SCG-Dow Group, a joint venture between Dow and SCG, has reached a key milestone for the new propylene oxide (PO) facility in Thailand. The plant has been ramped up to stable production levels in preparation for the full capacity run, which has been scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2011. The world-scale plant, located within the Asia Industrial Estates (AIE) site near Map Ta Phut, Thailand, will have a nameplate capacity of 390 kilotons per year of PO via the innovative hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide (HPPO) technology jointly developed by Dow and BASF.

“The Map Ta Phut, Thailand, HPPO plant cements Dow’s existing position as the global capacity leader in PO,” said Steven English, global vice president of Dow Polyurethanes. “Not only does this large investment exemplify Dow’s commitment to the PO-based industry, we also continue to bring value by investing in the latest technology and offering a more sustainable PO to our customers and our downstream offerings through Dow’s other Performance and Advanced Materials businesses, such as polyurethanes and propylene glycol.”

According to Holger Baer, global manufacturing and technology director for PO/PG, “Within three years, this is the second world-scale plant brought on-line with the innovative Dow-BASF HPPO process. It significantly reduces wastewater and energy consumption compared to existing PO technology, and is planned to be utilized next in the Sadara Chemical Company project between Dow and Saudi Aramco due to the clear demonstration of the advantages of this process.”

For more information, visit www.dowpolyurethanes.com.