The Special Chem global business unit of Belgian chemical group Solvay has joined forces with an unnamed partner – described as “one of the world’s leading electronics producers” –  to build a high-volume high purity hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) plant in Italy to meet the fast growing demand of the partner’s facilities.

Solvay said the electronic wet chemicals business has been one of its growth engines, and it has consistently upgraded its technology and quality standards to meet the demands of its customers in the semiconductor industry.

Over the past four years, the chemical producer has built new high purity plants for phosphoric acid, H2O2, HF and ammonium fluoride in the US, Europe and China. As a result, its sales of electronic wet chemicals have nearly doubled and are expected to double again by 2018. 

Almost simultaneously, Solvay has announced the signing of an agreement with Russian pulp producer Siberwood to explore building an H2O2 plant in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia. It would be part of the Russian company’s greenfield project with output totaling 900,000 t/y of pulp.

The plant could use Solvay's “myH2O2” technology, which is primarily designed for customers that require on-site production in remote areas. Siberwood's upstream chemicals plants would supply hydrogen feedstock to the on-site unit.

In yet another project, Solvay Peroxides and its Brazilian joint venture partner Peróxidos do Brasil are currently developing a small satellite plant based on myH2O2, for installation at customer sites in remote locations.