MIDLAND, MI/BRUSSELS, Belgium - The Dow Chemical Company and Solvay S.A. are creating a joint venture to construct a hydrogen peroxide (HP) plant in Thailand. Scheduled to be operational in 2010, the new HP plant will serve as a raw material source for the manufacture of propylene oxide (PO). The HP plant will be the largest in the world, with a capacity of more than 330 kilotons per annum (KTA) of hydrogen peroxide at 100% concentration. The hydrogen peroxide supplying the process is based on Solvay’s proprietary, high-yield hydrogen peroxide technology.

In addition, Dow and BASF Aktiengesellschaft are advancing negotiations for the construction of a world-scale, 390 KTA propylene oxide manufacturing facility in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The new plant would use the hydrogen peroxide-to-propylene oxide (HPPO) technology jointly developed by Dow and BASF. The facility would be the second world-scale plant to use HPPO technology. The first, a 300 KTA Dow and BASF HPPO plant, also supplied by an HP plant based on Solvay’s high-yield technology, is currently under construction in Antwerp, Belgium, and is scheduled for start-up in early 2008. Propylene oxide is used to produce propylene glycol, polyurethanes and glycol ethers.