Arkema invests in Texas site

Arkema is investing US$90M in its Clear Lake Texas site to replace existing acrylic acid production units with modern facilities using the latest available technologies. Thus Arkema will position the Clear Lake site among the most competitive in North America, while meeting growing demand in the region.

As part of its operational excellence program, Arkema has launched a project, which will replace two 45kt/yr acrylic acid reactors at the end of their life with a single 90kt/yr reactor at its Clear Lake site. This investment will introduce new competitive, state-of-the-art manufacturing assets using the latest production technologies available.

The new unit is expected to come on stream by mid-2019. At completion of this programme, Clear Lake’s total acrylic acid production capacity will be 270kt/yr.

In the meantime, Arkema will continue to meet customer demand from its American plants, which benefited from a previous modernisation programme between 2012 and 2014, as well as its European and Asian plants.

With this investment Arkema confirms its position as the number two producer of acrylic acid in North America and its strong position to meet the growing demand in markets, such as superabsorbents, coatings and adhesives, polymers for water treatment and enhanced oil and gas recovery.