Solvay to build alkoxylation plant in Singapore

Solvay has announced that it will build a large-scale alkoxylation facility in Singapore, which is expected to start operations by 2015 and will serve the fast-growing Asian market in home & personal care, coatings, industrial, agrochemicals and oil & gas.
The facility will be connected to Shell’s new High Purity Ethylene Oxide (HPEO) unit located in the world-class, integrated petrochemical hub of Jurong Island. Through the alkoxylation process key monomers are produced that serve downstream surfactant development and manufacturing.

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

The investment comes after Solvay recently announced that it would build a speciality surfactant plant near Berlin, Germany, serving the Central and Eastern European markets.

Solvay Novecare is already Asia’s largest speciality surfactant manufacturer with 11 production sites and two R&D centers in Singapore and Shanghai. The new plant will produce specialty alkoxylate surfactants, which deliver targeted cleansing, dispersing, defoaming and emulsifying performance attributes in formulations.