Materials Science

Oxea to add NPG capacity to support growth in Europe

To meet growing customer demand in Europe, the global chemical company Oxea will increase its European production capacity for neopentyl glycol (NPG). NPG is used in the synthesis of polyesters, coatings, lubricants and plasticizers. It offers superior performance in many end applications, such as powder coatings, and in the manufacturing of saturated polyester resins.

A debottlenecking project for NPG at the Oberhausen, Germany,production site is underway. Oxea has already started basic engineering activities, following a successful feasibility study. The company expects the additional NPG production capacity to be available by early 2020.

“We are convinced that the NPG market is growing. But while capacities for NPG are being added in Asia, European capacities are not expanding in-line with demand growth,” said Matthias Freitag, Global Commercial Business Director Polyols and Plasticizers at Oxea. “We are responding to our customers’ increase in demand for high-quality NPG. With this debottlenecking project, we are enabling and upgrading our unit for the production of NPG. Based on customer requirements, we will yield NPG molten, 90% slurry, and flakes –for small to large industrial customers.”

“Our investment into the NPG capacity increase in Europe will further leverage Oxea’s global production network and is yet another milestone in our selective growth strategy, said Oxea’s CEO, Dr Salim Al Huthaili. “Based on the extensive know-howof our experienced teams from construction and manufacturing, I am confident that this is a great project that will be successfully executed. This project will make our network more flexible, improve product choice and will make us more agile in supporting our home and export markets.”