Precipitated Hydrate Plant Planned for South Texas

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Sherwin Alumina Company (Corpus Christi, Texas) and Nabaltec GmbH (Shwandorf, Germany) have formed a joint venture to construct a fine precipitated hydrate plant adjacent to Sherwin's 1.6 million ton per year Corpus Christi alumina refinery site (Plant 1063130). The joint venture, named Nashtec LP, will produce 23,000 tons per year of alumina trihydrate (ATH) utilizing Apyral ® 40 CD technology to be used for a halogen free flame retardant (PEC 01009829). The project is being reviewed and an engineering and construction firm should be selected by the middle of this year. Construction is estimated to begin by the end of the year and be operational mid 2005.

ATH is a raw material chemical derived from bauxite that is found in abundance in the earth's crust. The natural ore is then refined into a white power, and through excessive heating results in anhydrous alumina. Due to the excessively high temperatures used, all the organic matter present in the original bauxite ore is destroyed, which results in the ATH white powder. It is very practical that ATH would be used as a halogen free flame retardant, because of its non-smoking and low toxicity. When exposure to fire the ATH dissolves into water and anhydrous (water-free) alumina allowing the water to act as a fire extinguisher.

Sherwin Alumina is headquartered out of Corpus Christi, Texas and has been producing alumina from bauxite ore for almost 50 years. Nabaltec has trademarked the Apyral ® technology to be used in the new plant, which is an environmentally friendly and non-toxic flame retardant filler known as an hydroxide.