Clariant and CB&I PP catalyst plant to begin production in 2015

MUTTENZ–CB&I and Clariant jointly announced that its new Ziegler-Natta (ZN) polypropylene (PP) catalyst production plant in Louisville, Kentucky, is on schedule to start production in 2015. Part of a long-term strategic partnership between Clariant’s Catalysts business unit and CB&I’s Lummus Novolen Technology business, the plant is located at lariant’s largest US production hub. The state-of-the-art facility will combine innovative catalysts - jointly developed by both companies with high-capacity output to serve the fast growing polypropylene industry.

The partnership strengthens both companies’ position in PP catalyst and technology by leveraging Clariant’s catalyst research and development and production know-how together with CB&I’s vast knowledge in catalyst, process design and licensing of polypropylene plants.

As a result of the intensive joint efforts from research and development teams of Clariant and CB&I, a series of new ZN polypropylene catalysts to be produced in the Louisville plant has been developed recently. The PolyMax and NHP (Novolen High Performance) catalyst series with merged and improved technical and commercial features from both Clariant’s and CB&I’s research and development pipelines is a drop-in catalyst based on a ‘one-for-all’ solution. Both series are currently being tested in several commercial polypropylene plants demonstrating outstanding performance.