DOW Elastomers, a business unit of the Dow Chemical Company, will soon break ground on its planned world-scale NORDEL EPDM (ethylene propylene-diene terpolymer) facility in Plaquemine, Louisiana in US.
It aims to utilise the company’s newest 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 Kim Ann Mink, Ph.D., 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.
“This NORDEL plant will set the standard in quality, product performance, and production efficiencies, and coupled with the benefits of Dow’s shale gas investments will further solidify Dow’s unparalleled leadership position in the EPDM market,” said David Mitchell, Global Marketing Director, Dow Elastomers, Electrical & Telecommunications. “We are excited to continue to grow with our customers globally and to delivering the performance and value advantages needed to produce the highest quality products.”
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, including: high resistance to ozone; serviceability across a broad range of temperatures; chemical and abrasion resistance; and durability against sunlight and weathering.
According to Dow, benefits derived by their customers from using NORDEL is that it provides excellent control, performance, processing advantages and precision that yields minimal blemishes, defects and rejects; moreover, NORDEL’s consistent structure, which lends itself to easy processing and lot-to-lot consistency, makes it a preferred choice solution.
Dow Elastomers is the largest global producer of metallocene EPDM, with more than 50 years of experience in a variety of application and market segments including transportation, building and construction, wire and cable and general rubber products.