Construction is Underway for Conversion of an Ethylbenzene Unit in Texas

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) (Midland, Michigan) has begun construction for a conversion project of their ethylbenzene (EB) unit in Freeport, Texas. This conversion will enable the production unit to use zeolite catalyst instead of aluminum trichloride catalyst, which is naturally very corrosive.

Technology for using the zeolite catalyst, CDTech technology, was licensed from ABB Lummus Global (Houston, Texas), who also completed the basic engineering for this estimated $50 million project. Construction is well underway with the intension of being complete during the first quarter of 2003. This conversion will help reduce corrosion and the associated maintenance costs.

EB is produced by reacting ethylene and benzene. The primary end use for EB is in the production of styrene with some small uses in solvent applications as well. Styrene has been in slight oversupply for most of 2002 although pricing has improved somewhat as the year has progressed. Efficiencies gained in this catalyst conversion should help Dow produce an even more cost competitive product in a market that is very demanding.