Inovyn (www.inovyn.com), a joint venture between Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) and Ineos Technologies (Rolle, Switzerland; www.ineos.com) announced that it is planning a major investment in a large scale potassium hydroxide (KOH) production facility at its Antwerp/Lillo site, Belgium. This underpins Inovyn’s position as Europe’s leading supplier of KOH and demonstrates the Company’s long term commitment to the KOH market.
Work on the project is already well under way, with initial groundbreaking, putting in place key additional site infrastructure, and the procurement of major plant items having been completed.
According to the plan the investment consists of a KOH plant with a capacity of 160,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) using the latest technology and will be on line in 2017. It will utilise much of the existing infrastructure at the Site, thereby making the project highly cost competitive.
Inovyn’s site at Antwerp/Lillo was selected for the investment as it is well situated to serve European customers, with the nearby Port of Antwerp facilitating KOH movements by ship. The site is also a highly competitive location given it has major customers for the chlorine (which is co-produced with KOH) that are linked directly to the site by pipeline.