Dow completes construction of world-scale ethylene unit

The Dow Chemical Company has completed the construction phase of its new, world-scale ethylene production facility in Freeport, Texas. The company reached this milestone within one week of the originally planned date, which was set approximately two years ago. Dow’s ethylene unit is now progressing through the commissioning phase, with start-up expected by mid-year.

“This tremendous milestone represents the Dow team’s unwavering ability to deliver on our commitments to meet the needs of our customers, generate value for our shareholders and to create opportunities for our employees,” said Andrew Liveris, Dow’s chairman and CEO. Mr. Liveris added that the Freeport ethylene unit is the cornerstone of Dow’s $6 billion investment in the U.S. Gulf Coast. “Our growth investments leverage the advantaged shale gas supply available in the U.S., and represent thousands of new jobs and significant economic value, including exports of approximately 20 percent of our U.S. production,” he explained.

At peak activity, the construction phase involved more than 3,000 Dow employees and contractors. The project achieved more than five million consecutive work hours without a lost-time incident. Dow’s new unit also represents one of the least capital-intensive ethylene investments1currently announced across the U.S. Gulf Coast.

“I’m incredibly proud of our team’s efforts to complete the complex construction phase of Dow’s new state-of-the-art ethylene facility. This unit will further enhance Dow’s industry-leading integration and provide the critical building blocks to bolster our competitive advantage in targeted consumer-led markets, including packaging, transportation, infrastructure and consumer care,” said Jim Fitterling, Dow’s president and chief operating officer.  

The production facility will feed Dow’s derivative investments, which will come on-line throughout 2017 and 2018 and include: ELITE™ Enhanced Polyethylene for high performance flexible food packaging and personal hygiene applications (Capacity: 400 KTA); new specialty low density polyethylene for industrial and supply chain packaging applications (Capacity: 350 KTA); next generation NORDEL™ metallocene EPDM to deliver solutions for higher-margin applications for the transportation, infrastructure and consumer durables end-markets (Capacity: 200 KTA); High Melt Index Specialty and Conventional Polyolefin Elastomers for high-performance flexible packaging, transportation and consumer markets (Capacity: 320 KTA); and Bi-modal gas phase de-bottleneck to enable more offerings for high-performance pipe and fitting applications, as well as the cap and closure market (125 KTA).