October 10, 2007—Silicon-materials provider Dow Corning Corp. has announced a $50 million investment in new equipment for its Midland, MI, plant that is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent, total emissions by 75 percent, and lower the site’s consumption of natural gas by 400 billion Btu per year—the equivalent of heating more than 3,500 homes over the winter.
The new equipment includes a recycle system designed to remove and recycle by-products from manufacturing processes, and a thermal oxidizer that will reduce air emissions from the site while generating steam for process heating.
The recycling system uses a plasma gasification process that separates the waste material generated in the chlorosilanes manufacturing process into organic and chlorine parts. The organic portion is converted into a synthetic gas for use in the steam boilers. The chlorine portion will be converted into one of the raw materials used to make chlorosilanes.
Remaining materials will be turned into a relatively small amount of inert obsidian-like glass that is also recyclable, says the company.
When fully operational, this process will generate approximately one-third of the site’s steam load, significantly reducing the consumption of natural gas, says Dow Corning. The company says this is the first time that the cutting-edge gasification process has been used commercially to recycle chlorinated organic liquids in the US.
The waste processing system will be owned by Integrated Environmental Technologies, provider of plasma-based waste processing and clean energy systems. Veolia Environmental Services, a waste removal company, was contracted by IET to operate the recycling equipment.
The Midland plant upgrades are the latest in a series of sustainability activities announced by Dow Corning, which in 2005 announced a five-year plan to improve employee and process safety, energy efficiency, waste and emission reduction, and environmental compatibility.
For more information about the Midland plant technologies or Dow Corning’s other eco-friendly initiatives, visit the company’s Web site.
