Oxea announced it will increase its European production capacity for neopentyl glycol (NPG). A debottlenecking project for NPG at the Oberhausen, Germany, production site is underway. The company expects the additional NPG production capacity to be available by early 2020.
Neopentyl glycol is a polyalcohol that can be used as a building block in lubricants; uses for NPG are found in hydraulic fluids, synthetic lubricants, greases, metal-working fluids and aircraft engine lubricants.
“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. We are responding to our customers’ increase in demand for high-quality NPG. Oxea’s project is a token of our commitment to our customers. We are investing to be able to add to their success”, said Matthias Freitag, Global Commercial Business Director Polyols and Plasticizers at Oxea. “With this debottlenecking project, we are enabling and upgrading our unit for the production of NPG. We will further improve our already high reliability to supply our markets. Based on customer requirements, we will yield NPG molten, 90% slurry, and flakes – for small to large industrial customers,” he added.
“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. Based on the extensive know-how of 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,“ said Oxea’s CEO, Dr. Salim Al Huthaili.