MIDLAND, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), a leader in energy conservation, has been recognized for excellence in energy efficiency by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). The ACC awarded Dow with five Responsible Care awards for outstanding achievements in energy efficiency. Two of the five projects received additional recognition for exceptional merit.
“Dow leads the world in innovations that reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, such as building insulation, light-weighting technology for vehicles and components that harness wind and solar power,” said George Biltz, corporate vice president and business vice president for Energy and Climate Change at Dow. "We have also long been recognized as a pioneer and leader in industrial energy conservation. We are extremely proud of these excellent examples of how Dow continues to be at the forefront in driving energy solutions, creating competitive advantage along the way.”
As an example of Dow’s leadership in energy efficiency, the Company has reduced its energy intensity by 40 percent since 1990, saving $24 billion and 5,200 trillion Btu—roughly equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 20 million homes. As a result of Dow’s energy efficiency efforts, the Company has also avoided over 270 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 16 million households.
Following are the award-winning Dow energy efficiency projects:
- St. Charles Operations at Hahnville, Louisiana –improved the energy efficiency of its olefin unit’s flaring operation by 45%, saving 555,481 MMBtu/year. The facility produces basic building-block and intermediate chemicals that are used in thousands of everyday household, business and consumer products. This project was also recognized with an Exceptional Merit Award.
- Ringwood, Illinois, an operating site that manufactures materials for packaging, adhesives as well as laminates, cut its energy consumption by 56,000 MMBtu/year from 2010 to 2011 by optimizing the utility footprint of the site.
- Texas Operations in Freeport, Texas implemented a new reactor design to manufacture low density polyethylene (LDPE) that reduces process energy intensity by 11 percent and saves 67,200 MMBtu/year. Low density polyethylene is used in a variety of applications including plastic bags, food containers and laboratory equipment. This project was also recognized with an Exceptional Merit Award.
- Texas City Operations, in Texas City, Texas, through hydrogen enrichment of a flare stream, reduced its energy consumption by 60%, with an annual savings of 50,000 MMBtu/year. The conversion from natural gas to hydrogen enrichment using Dow’s patented process decreases the supplemental fuel requirement and energy used, while reducing the amount of greenhouse gases generated.
- Texas City Operations, by optimizing flare fuel gas, will create energy savings of 155,000 MM Btu/year, a 28% reduction in fuel gas use, in its vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant flare. VAM is an essential chemical building block used in a wide variety of industrial and consumer products such as adhesives, coatings, textiles and wire and cable polyethylene compounds.
Dow’s energy efficiency initiatives were chosen out of 73 projects submitted from 19 member companies. Only 12 of the submissions were chosen as exceptional merit winners.
About Dow
Dow combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company connects chemistry and innovation with the principles of sustainability to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, renewable energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's diversified industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 160 countries and in high growth sectors such as electronics, water, energy, coatings and agriculture. In 2011, Dow had annual sales of $60 billion and employed approximately 52,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 197 sites in 36 countries across the globe.
St. Charles Operations and Texas City Operations are owned and operated by Union Carbide Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company
Responsible Care is a trademark of the American Chemistry Council
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