Sep 15 2004
Eastman Chemical Company has begun a debottlenecking project designed to increase capacity at its Kingsport manufacturing facility. This project will occur in two phases and will result in doubling of the 2-ethyl hexanoic acid capacity from 40 million pounds to 80 million pounds. The first phase will be completed during the first quarter of 2005.
“By converting existing, underutilized assets, we are able to quickly engineer a significant expansion of our 2-EH capacity at a nominal cost. Given the current tightness in the market, this will allow us to bring significant capacity on-line quickly and will alleviate the supply constraints our customers are currently under.” said Mark Cox, Director, Olefins and Acetyls Derivatives business at Eastman.
2-EH acid is produced by the company’s Eastman Division as part of the Performance Chemicals and Intermediates segment. The product is used to produce a plasticizer used in automotive and architectural safety glass, and is also used in paint dryers.
Headquartered in Kingsport, Tenn., Eastman manufactures and markets plastics, fibers and chemicals. The company has approximately 12,000 employees and had 2003 sales of $5.8 billion.
For more information on plasticisers, click here.