Solvay Solidifies Its Specialty Surfactant Production in Asia

Solvay announces today that it will build a large-scale alkoxylation facility in Singapore connected to Shell’s new High Purity Ethylene Oxide (HPEO) unit located in the integrated petrochemical hub of Jurong Island.

“This project is aligned with our aggressive growth strategy in Asia and solidifies our specialty surfactant production,” explained Emmanuel Butstraen, President of Solvay Novecare. “In addition to greatly expanding our alkoxylation footprint in Asia, the facility also demonstrates Novecare’s ambition to be the world leader in delivering innovative surfactant solutions to our customers on a global basis.”

Already Asia’s largest specialty surfactant manufacturer with 11 production sites and two R&D centers in Singapore and Shanghai, the new Solvay Novecare alkoxylation plant is projected to start operations by 2015. It will produce specialty alkoxylate surfactants which deliver targeted cleansing, dispersing, defoaming and emulsifying performance attributes in formulations developed for the fast-growing Asian market in home & personal care, coatings, industrial, agrochemicals and oil & gas.

“Our new facility will enable us to develop our specialty surfactant offer in Asia and use Singapore as a hub to provide highly competitive and innovative intermediates to other Novecare sites in Asia, as well as penetrating further into key Southeast Asia markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand,” said Pierre-Franck Valentin, General Manager of Solvay Novecare in Asia- Pacific.

The “on pipe” facility will be supplied by an ethylene oxide (EO) pipeline from Shell to feed the alkoxylation activities, highlighting both Solvay Novecare’s long-term commitment to sustainable production and the growing demand from its end markets.
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