Brazil: PVC production with bio-based Ethylen planned

The chemical group Solvay has announced the Board of its affiliate Solvay Indupa has approved a further US$ 135 million investment program to expand and increase the competitiveness of its vinyls production plant of Santo Andre, Brazil. This second stage of expansion, following the plan announced in August 2006, comprises the creation of an integrated plant to produce ethylene with ethanol originating from sugar cane. Ethylene is one of the two main feedstocks needed to manufacture polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – together with chlorine.

Santo Andre would be the first industrial project in the Americas implementing renewable resources for the production of PVC. Solvay Indupa’s ambition is to complete the expansion of Santo Andre by 2010. The plant would then have an installed capacity of 360,000 tons/year of PVC; 360,000 tons /year of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), 235,000 tons/year of Caustic Soda and 60,000 tons/year of bio-ethylene.

The Solvay group is one of the world’s leading vinyls producer, ranking second in Europe and third globally. Solvay Indupa, a company of the Solvay group, is one of the most important petrochemical companies in the Mercosur. Its main products are PVC resins and Caustic Soda.

Solvay press release Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) Derived from Sugar Cane and Salt (PDF-document)

(Cf. news of 2007-07-22 and 2007-06-22.)

Source

Solvay, press release, 2007-12-14.

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