Dow set to begin work on new EPDM facility in US
Dow Elastomers, a unit of Dow Chemical, will soon break ground on its planned world-scale ‘Nordel’ EPDM (ethylene propylenediene terpolymer) facility in Plaquemine (Louisiana, USA), which will utilise the company’s proprietary catalyst technology to enable products with high Mooney viscosity.
“The planned ‘Nordel’ facility will position Dow as the only advanced post-metallocene producer globally, enabling a broader range of EPDM solutions for our customers, while also meeting increasing global demand for our current EPDM applications,” said Dr. Kim Ann Mink, Business President, Dow Elastomers, Electrical & Telecommunications.
The facility, which will service customers globally, is expected to come online in 2016 and will leverage Dow’s comprehensive investment plan to serve its downstream businesses through increased ethylene and propylene production in the US Gulf Coast and to connect the company’s US operations into feedstock opportunities from increasing supplies of shale gas. Dow is the only EPDM producer globally that has announced expansion in the highly advantaged region.
The news comes as ‘Nordel’ celebrates 50 years of product offerings to the EPDM industry. Launched in 1963, ‘Nordel’ was touted for delivering breakthrough properties and benefits that natural rubber and even some synthetics at the time lacked.
