Solvay, an international industrial group active in chemistry, has planned to form a joint venture (JV) to construct and operate a new hydrogen peroxide facility in Jubail industrial city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The company will form a 50/50 venture with Sadara Chemical, a joint venture of The Dow Chemical and Saudi Aramco. The new facility will commence operations in 2015.
The new plant is expected to supply hydrogen peroxide to Sadara for manufacturing propylene oxide (PO) at its world-scale fully customized chemicals complex. PO is utilized to manufacture glycol ethers, polyurethanes and propylene glycol.
Sadara’s chemical complex is one of the largest integrated chemical facilities in the world, which includes 26 manufacturing units. The facility has the capacity to produce more than 3 Mt of value-added performance plastics and chemical products for faster growing markets in consumer products, infrastructure, transportation and energy sectors.
Solvay will employ its proprietary hydrogen peroxide technology for its megaplant. The use of enhanced hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide (HPPO) technology can decrease the environmental impacts of PO production and capital intensity compared to the standard production technologies.
Solvay already operates a 230 kt/y mammoth plant in Antwerp, Belgium and is presently commissioning a 330 kt/y megaplant in Thailand. The planned Saudi Arabian hydrogen peroxide facility will be the third megaplant.