With its new oxo plant at Stenungsund / Sweden at full run, Perstorp (Perstorp / Sweden; www.perstorp.com) now has sufficient capacity to supply 2-propyl heptanol (2-PH) to the merchant market as well as its own downstream operations, the company said – see Plasteurope.com of 10.03.2015. Most of the plant’s output is consumed internally in production of Perstorp's “Emoltene” 100 and “Pevalen” PVC plasticisers, but Jerker Olsson, vice president of the oxo business unit, said the global surfactants industry “is increasingly calling for C10 fatty alcohols and our new capacity for high-purity 2-PH is an answer to that call.”

Perstorp now claims to have one of the few fully integrated platforms in Europe providing ready access to both plasticisers and their raw materials. The new plant, touted as the single largest investment in the Swedish chemical producer’s history, increases its oxo capacity by 150,000 t/y. It also significantly boosts output of valeraldehyde, another key raw material for plasticiser production. The company’s renewable n-valeric acid, made directly from valeraldehyde, is also an important raw material for lubricants, pharmaceuticals and fragrances.

The Emoltene 100 plasticiser, based on DPHP and used in cables, wires and roofing membranes, “is one of the thoroughly tested phthalate plasticisers on the market,” Perstorp asserts. It is being promoted as a substitute for products being phased out under the EU’s REACH legislation – see Plasteurope.com of 18.03.2015. The Swedish Chemicals Agency also has urged the phase-out of a number of phthalate-based plasticizers but has listed the less toxic phthalates DIHP, DINP, DPHP as possible alternatives – see Plasteurope.com of 11.07.2014. Pevalen has a non-phthalate base.