Dow to manufacture polyethylene from sugar cane
Canadian Plastics
Canadian PlasticsMidland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Company has announced plans to build a facility to manufacture polyethylene from ...
Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Company has announced plans to build a facility to manufacture polyethylene from sugar cane with Brazilian ethanol producer Crystalsev.
The two companies will form a joint venture in Brazil to design and build the first integrated facility of its scale. The plant is expected to start production in 2011, with a capacity of 350,000 metric tons.
“We are excited to partner with a great company like Crystalsev to build the first world-scale polyethylene facility that will use a renewable feedstock,” said Dow chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris in a press release.
The facility will use ethanol derived from sugar cane and Dow’s proprietary Solution technology to manufacture DOWLEXT polyethylene. According to Dow, the final product will be identical to the current DOWLEXT resins on a molecular level.
Dow also noted that the product would be fully recyclable using existing infrastructure.
