Clariant expands production capacity for Houdry dehydrogenation catalysts
- Production capacity will be increased to meet strong demand
- Debottlenecking of plant in Louisville, USA
- New production facility planned to start in September 2013
Muttenz/Charlotte, October 15, 2012 – Clariant, a world leader in Specialty Chemicals, today announced to expand the production capacity for Houdry® dehydrogenation catalysts. The expansion will be achieved by a low double-digit million Swiss francs investment at its current Louisville/ Kentucky, USA plant. Production is planned to start in September 2013. Surging ethylene production based on shale gas without C3 - and C4-olefins byproduct has generated a significant increase in Houdry catalyst demand. The Houdry catalysts are part of the broad portfolio of highly innovative catalyst products from Clariant’ s business unit Catalysis & Energy (formerly Süd - Chemie). It is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and has 16 catalyst production sites worldwide. “The first expansion investment in Louisville will further strengthen our position in the market for Houdry catalysts and allows us to cover catalyst requirements from our customers ”, said Harm Scheepstra, Head of Business Unit Catalysis & Energy. Houdry dehydrogenation catalysts are used in the Petrochemical industry to produce C3- and C4-olefins from light paraffins (including Butadiene) using the CATOFIN ® and CATADIENE ® technologies, which are exclusively licensed through Lummus Technology, a CB&I business sector. CB&I is one of the world’s leading engineering, procurement and construction companies and a major process technology licensor.
HOUDRY®, CATOFIN®, and CATADIENE® are registered trademarks.
