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NEWS


Dow to further boost alkoxylation capacity


Dow is to build new alkoxylation capacity in the US and Europe to meet fast-growing demand in industries such as personal care. The new capacity will support


global growth in key end-markets delivering 10% to 15% annual growth rates, it said. The investment will increase


Dow’s capacity while maintaining current carbon emissions levels through the use of efficient technologies and site improvements, it added. The investments in the US


and Europe are backed by supply agreements with customers, including leading consumer brands,


and expected to come online in 2024 and 2025, respectively. The announcement builds


on Dow’s alkoxylation capacity expansions announced in 2018 in Louisiana and in 2019 in Spain, which are both on track to come


online this year. In total, these and other


efficiency projects are expected to generate more than $150m in run- rate EBITDA by 2025, with returns greater than 20%. Collectively, Dow’s investments


will result in approximately 70% global capacity growth for Dow and its customers since 2020. “We have consistently seen


increased demand for our alkoxylation capabilities aligned to industry sectors growing faster than GDP across the cycle,” said Brendy Lange, business vice president of Dow Industrial Solutions.


Ashland to swell participation in India


Ashland plans to increase the number of farms participating in its sustainable guar scheme in India to 5,000 from 250 following a successful pilot. In partnership with the SM


Sehgal Foundation, Ashland last year initiated a STEM programme applying scientific solutions for sustainable farming to increase the volume of guar harvested annually while respecting the sourcing relationships and local cultures of small village farmers in the Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan. The relationships are critical


to Ashland, which uses guar to formulate specialty ingredients such as styleze es-dura ingredient for personal care.


The pilot programme included


250 farms from ten villages. Using modern technologies, farmers were taught sustainable agronomic practices and water conservation. “The programme’s successful


results include helping farmers lower their production cost while increasing their crop yield by approximately 30%,” a spokeswoman said. “In addition, the programme has helped increase farmers’ income, thus expanding the local economy in the small villages,” she added.


Based on the success of the


pilot, Ashland is moving forward with plans to increase the number


Siltech to double manufacturing


Canadian silicones specialist Siltech has revealed it is to undertake a major expansion of its manufacturing facilities in Ontario. The company said the new,


state-of-the-art manufacturing plant is in the final engineering design and approval stages. The more than 200,000


square feet plant will be constructed on 33 acres of land in Fort Erie, Ontario. Ground breaking will take


place this summer and the plant is expected to come on stream in early 2024. “This facility will not only


double Siltech’s nameplate capacities of the existing two plants in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario,” a spokesman said. “But it will also accommodate modern semi-continuous processing technologies, as well as introduction of new product lines,” he added.


DIC Corporation signs microalgae polyol deal


of farms to 5,000 by 2025. In addition to aiding the


farmers with guar production, Ashland’s Responsible Solvers mindset led the team to also provide training and other technical guidance for mustard and wheat crops during the guar off-season.


Amyris starts plant commissioning


US synthetic biotechnology company Amyris has started the commissioning of its new fermentation plant in Barra Bonita, Brazil ahead of full operation by the end of June. Located next to the Raizen


sugar mill, the plant will make bio- based products for the personal care and other industries. The fermentation plant has a


proprietary design with a process tower that is two times taller than the company’s prior Brotas plant


PERSONAL CARE June 2022


to take full advantage of gravity in its vertical fermentation process. The site consists of five


fermentation “mini-factories” capable of concurrently producing more than 13 bio-fermented products. “There is strong consumer


demand for bio-based products. A real shift is occurring across multiple end-markets, including food and personal care. Biotechnology has seen significant investment over the past years,”


Amyris said in a statement. “However, the majority of the funding has been applied toward the front of the funnel; gene discovery, genetic pathway modeling and microbe engineering. Little investment has been seen downstream in fermentation process development, scale up and fermentation at scale,” it added. “At Amyris we are taking control


of our destiny with the Barra Bonita plant,” said CEO and President John Melo.


Japan’s DIC Corporation has signed an agreement with US startup Checkerspot aimed at developing personal care ingredients from a high- performance polyol derived from microalgae. The joint development


agreement (JDA) is focused on engineering new ingredient systems targeting more sustainable skin care and other personal care applications derived from microalgae using Checkerspot’s WING Platform. The WING Platform consists of


four pillars - from the molecular foundry, to materials science, to fabrication and ending with consumer engagement. Checkerspot says its


material science engineering technologists are “leading the way” in microalgae research, developing “unique materials that visibly hydrate and nourish the skin, and learning how microalgae protect themselves in some of the Earth’s most extreme environments”. Checkerspot is now applying


those lessons to personal care product development, it added.


www.personalcaremagazine.com


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