Dow continues to advance sustainable chemistry through new and enhanced products, processes and services.

Polyethylene is the most widely used of all plastics and can be found in all manner of everyday products, from food packaging, milk jugs and plastic containers to pipes and liners.

Dow and Crystalsev will form a joint venture in Brazil to design and build the first world-scale integrated facility to produce polyethylene from sugar cane under the terms of a memorandum of understanding agreed to by the two companies in July 2007. The facility is expected to start production in 2011 and will have a capacity of 350,000 metric tons annually.

The new facility will use ethanol derived from sugar cane, an annually renewable resource, to produce ethylene – the raw material required to make polyethylene. Ethylene is traditionally produced using either naphtha or natural gas liquids, both of which are petroleum products. It is estimated that the new process will produce significantly less CO₂ compared to the traditional polyethylene manufacturing process.

This is just one example of how the Human Element at Dow is contributing to more sustainable chemistry solutions; for more, please visit http://www.dow.com/commitments/studies/index.htm
 

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