Ribbon-Cutting for First-of-Its-Kind Chemical Manufacturer in Delaware
by Zoë Read (WHYY) A specialty chemical company said its Delaware plant can now make a key chemical bonding agent, common in household products, from 100 percent renewable resources. This is a first in North America.
On Wednesday, company executives for Croda and Gov. John Carney, D-Delaware, participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the operation located in New Castle, at the base of the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
The estimated $170 million project, which began in April 2015, produced 250 construction jobs and will create 30 new full-time positions.
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Robert Stewart, managing director of operations at the Atlas Point site in New Castle, said the expansion will allow the site, acquired in 2006, to reduce fossil fuel emissions by producing renewable, bio-based non-ionic surfactants. Surfactants are emulsifying agents that help keep water and oil mixed together.
Surfactants are traditionally produced from fossil fuel-based petrochemical ethylene.
“Ethylene oxide is traditionally produced from a petroleum route, so this now allows us to produce it from a sustainable route, which is ethanol,” Stewart said. READ MORE