South Carolina manufacturing center adds liquid sodium silicate facility

GOOSE CREEK, S.C.—A new liquid sodium silicate facility at the Charleston International Manufacturing Center at Bushy Park in Goose Creek is a bid to support companies like Evonik Industries A.G.

Cooper River Partners, L.L.C., a subsidiary of Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, is investing $20 million in its CIMC to build an 87,000-sq.-ft. facility on-site, said Nathan Wingate, vice president of utility operations and engineering for CRP.

The liquid sodium silicate facility will bring the capacity to dissolve about 150 million pounds per year of sodium silicate glass, and allows for potential future expansion with incremental investment, he said. The facility will create 11 jobs.

In December 2016, Evonik revealed plans to build a precipitated silica facility at CIMC, including an on-site sodium silicate production facility, as the primary raw material used in the precipitated silica process. CRP partnered with Evonik to own and operate the facility and provide the materials to Evonik, Wingate said.

"The demand for precipitated silica in North America is growing pretty dramatically," Wingate said. The product can be used in a variety of applications, but Evonik's facility will produce a tire grade that can be used to make tires more fuel-efficient and improve wet-grip properties. Liquid sodium silicate itself can be used in production for goods such as tires, adhesives and detergents.

As an industrial service provider, CRP supplies tenants with utilities services such as steam, compressed air, processed water, wastewater treatment and ammonia refrigeration.

"Over the past several years, we sought to diversify our services and become sort of a one-stop shop for industrial services," Wingate said. "We want to allow our customers to focus on their core business, and we take care of everything else for them."

With Evonik's plans for the new precipitated silica facility, it made sense to move forward on providing liquid sodium silicate as well, Wingate said.

"Sodium silicate production we saw as the logical next step for us to treat basically a commodity portion of Evonik's process as a utility, as a service we're providing for them," he said. Liquid sodium silicate isn't a high margin product compared to precipitated silica, making it more straightforward to look at it as a commodity.

Wingate said the step opens up new possibilities for tenants at CIMC, beyond softer services like a cafeteria and groundskeeping to supplying an integral part of the company's process. The new facility is being constructed with additional capacity as a possibility, but there's also potential to work with other tenants to fulfill other supply needs, depending on requirements.

There are no current plans in place to diversify that offering, but "at the moment, this is where we're starting, with liquid sodium silicate," Wingate said. Evonik will use a significant portion of the liquid sodium silicate, but there will be excess capacity available as well.

Wingate said another possibility for future expansion is the potential for additional equipment to broaden the grades of liquid sodium silicate. CIMC currently is investigating the market to determine that potential. The process to be used at the new facility involves dissolving sodium silicate with high pressure and removing impurities through filtration. The product will be housed in tanks on-site.

Both the liquid sodium silicate and Evonik's precipitated silica facilities are currently under construction, and are expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2018, Wingate said.

CIMC currently houses eight other manufacturers on a 1,750-acre site, which includes 500 acres of land that can be developed. The site includes rail service and deep-water access. Other companies include Symrise A.G., Lanxess A.G. and Nexans S.A.