BOSTON (Jan. 20, 2010)—Cabot Corp. and China National Bluestar (Group) Co. Ltd. plan to triple the fumed silica capacity of their joint venture plant in Jiangxi Province, China.
The site will progressively increase capacity to 15,000 metric tons of fumed silica from 5,000 tons, with the capability of rising by another 5,000 tons, the companies said. The expansion will go online in stages starting this year, and be completed in 2011.
The project will produce fumed silica using Cabot's manufacturing technology and utilizing the methyltrichlorosilane byproduct from Bluestar's silicones monomer production. Bluestar's Xinhuo plant will then recycle the hydrogen chloride byproduct from the production of fumed silica as the raw material in the manufacturing of methyl chloride for their silicones monomer production.