Chemical giant Dow announced plans affecting two of its Houston-area sites, Freeport and LaPorte.
Dow Freeport
Dow plans to build an integrated MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocyanate) distillation and prepolymers facility at its Freeport manufacturing site. This new MDI facility will have 30% more capacity than Dow's current North America capacity in La Porte. When the new Freeport facility starts up, which is expected in 2023, Dow will shut down its polyurethane assets at the La Porte site.
The new facility will use existing thermal energy from the Freeport site, thereby removing the need to generate thermal power. Production efficiencies will also reduce water intake and wastewater discharge and eliminate the need for transport of raw materials.
Although the announcement does not include financial information about the project, Dow noted that it will support increasing demand for downstream polyurethane systems products in areas such as construction, consumer and industrial markets.
“This MDI investment optimizes our existing asset infrastructure and enhances our global polyurethanes leadership position, further enabling us to support downstream systems customers’ growth,” said Jane Palmieri, president of Dow’s Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure operating segment.
“The back integration at the Freeport site creates a cost competitive supply of key upstream polyurethane raw materials, ensures a reliable supply position to support our growth in downstream high-value polyurethane markets and delivers a more sustainable production process,” added Palmieri.
