Jul 5, 2018

Dow Chemical settles with SEC over ex-CEO's undisclosed perks


The Dow Chemical Co. has reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission following a three-year investigation that found its former chief executive failed to disclose about $3 million in perks.

The company agreed to pay the SEC $1.75 million and to hire a consultant to make sure the company is complying with SEC rules related to executive perks, according to Reuters.

Liveris stepped down as CEO in April following a multi-billion dollar merger with DuPont. In 2017, he earned $65.7 million in compensation for his final year with the company.

The SEC investigation, which Reuters detailed over several stories, found Liveris used Dow aircraft for his family to use and threw parties at the Super Bowl while Dow customers were in attendance.

これを交際費でないとするのは、少し厳しすぎると思われる。

Dow officials said the expenses were legitimate business expenses, but added the company has started implementing changes to improve disclosures.

 


September 12, 2018

Dow Announces Investment Plans to Meet Silicones Demand Growth and Drive Innovation

Incremental debottlenecking and capacity expansion projects to meet global demand for silicone-based solutions in targeted end-markets

The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) today announced new low capital intensity, high return investments in its upstream and downstream silicones franchise to accelerate innovation and support global customers’ demand in high growth markets, such as high performance building, home and personal care, electrical and industrial, consumer goods and components assembly.

The investment plans include:

“The projects we are announcing today support our ability to continue to meet strong global demand for Dow’s silicones materials, enabling us to grow and innovate more quickly with customers and advancing our leading positions in our targeted end-markets,” said Jim Fitterling, chief executive officer of The Dow Chemical Company and chief operating officer for the Materials Science Division of DowDuPont. “Further, these targeted investments are expected to deliver fast paybacks and higher return on invested capital for Dow, contributing to greater earnings and cash generation.”

In addition, the company also announced the start of a feasibility study for the construction of a new, world-scale siloxane plant. The geographic location of the new proposed siloxane facility will be determined as an outcome of the feasibility study.

“Dow is committed to our ongoing investment in both upstream and downstream assets to bring a reliable supply to our customers,” said Mauro Gregorio, business president, Dow Consumer Solutions. “As an essential addition to Dow’s global silicones manufacturing footprint, the proposed new siloxane plant will expand our access to differentiated monomers and intermediates around the world, while strengthening our capabilities to accelerate and execute our strong innovation pipeline.”

As a global leader in innovation and silicone-based technology, Dow already operates nearly twenty silicones manufacturing facilities globally, including three world-scale siloxane manufacturing facilities, located in Carrollton, Kentucky, U.S.A., Barry, Wales, United Kingdom and Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu, China.

 



June 1, 2019

Corteva AgriScience completes DowDuPont spin-offs Saturday

Corteva Agriscience™ spins from DowDuPont, becoming a standalone company June 1, 2019.



Saturday marks a historic day in the corporate world as Corteva AgriScience, the agriculture division of the company formerly known as DowDuPont, becomes an independently traded company for the first time.

The separation into three companies -- Dow, DuPont and Corteva AgriScience -- comes after the Delaware-based El du Pont de Nemours (DuPont) and the Midland-based Dow Chemical Co. merged in August 2017.

The historic merger created a single company worth $130 billion with the intention of then later splitting into three separate entities for each sector of business -- agriculture, specialty products and material sciences.

"Once each division has its own processes, people, assets, systems and licenses in place to operate independently from the parent company, DowDuPont intends to separate the divisions to stand within their own legal entities," a 2017 company announcement stated.

In 2018 alone, DowDuPont produced $86 billion in sales - more than any other company in the world.

That same year the Corteva AgriScience brand was announced. The company would be a leader in seed technologies, crop protection and digital agriculture. However, the history of Corteva AgriScience goes back to the early 20th century.

Dow was founded in 1897 by Herbert H. Dow and DuPont was established in 1802 by E.L. du Pont.

In 1906, Dow produced its first agricultural product and in 1928 DuPont purchased the Grasselli Chemical Co., a manufacturer of inorganic and organic insecticides.

Over the years the two companies changed and evolved and in 1997 Dow acquired ownership of DowElanco, an Indianapolis-based biotech and agribusiness company, creating Dow AgroScience.

Around the same time, DuPont acquired ownership of Pioneer, an agriculture company established in 1926 that produced corn and soybean seeds, among other products. And in 2011, DuPont acquired Danisco, a world-leading company in nutrition and health industrial biosciences.

Thus, when DuPont and Dow came together in 2017, the intention was to separate all the agricultural assets, DuPont Crop Protection, DuPont Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences, into one standalone agriculture company.

The first separation came on April 1 of this year when Dow became its own material science company, to be known simply as Dow or Dow Inc.

Now, as of June 1, Corteva AgriScience and DuPont are officially separate companies with James C. Collins Jr. as the chief operating officer for Corteva.

While Corteva's headquarters will reside in Wilmington, Delaware, it will retain its presence in Michigan with regional sales centers.

The emergence of Corteva comes during an unprecedented time in U.S. agricultural history, as Collins pointed out during the Bernstein 35th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on May 30.

He said seed deliveries were running behind the 2018 pace due to weather-related flooding and disruptions, as well as the cool and wet weather throughout the country.

"The wet weather persisted in the U.S. and in fact, we are seeing the wettest weather on record, which is still impacting the planting progress," he said. "As a result, we are seeing a significantly slower corn planting progress and at this point in the season, we normally would have expected to have corn planting in the United States essentially complete. However, the latest data from the USDA indicates that we are only 58 percent planted."

Due to the uncertainty within the market, Corteva will not be updating its full-year guidance at this time, Collins said.

"What we're truly experiencing here is unlike anything I've ever seen and for that reason, we will remain firm in executing against the plans that we've put in place and the levers that we have that are still within our control," he said.

A May report indicates that the company will have $14.3 billion in global net sales in 2019 and $2.7 billion in global operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.

The report also shows the decrease in headcount, seed production sites, commercial offices and R&D sites since the 2017 merger, as part of getting a best-in-class cost structure and improved return.
Corteva AgriScience will be on the New York Stock Exchange come Monday as CTVA.

 


2020.06.16 

Dow and Shell team up to develop electric cracking technology

Technology could lead to lower carbon emissions, provide a path to decarbonization as the energy grid becomes increasingly renewables-led

Dow, Inc. and Shell today announced a joint development agreement to accelerate technology to electrify ethylene steam crackers, which supply chemicals used to make products that people use every day.

Today’s steam crackers rely on fossil fuel combustion to heat their furnaces, making them CO2 intensive. As the energy grid becomes increasingly renewables led, using renewable electricity to heat steam cracker furnaces could become one of the routes to decarbonize the chemicals industry. The challenge is to develop a technologically and economically feasible solution.

The collaboration between the two companies is already underway and brings together their complementary expertise and common commitment to a low carbon future. Innovation project teams located in Amsterdam, Terneuzen, the Netherlands, and Texas, U.S., are focused on designing and scaling ‘e-cracker’ technologies. They will work in the coming years to first prove out process technology innovations in laboratory and pilot operations and to then scale to commercial crackers.

“Continuously improving the sustainability of our operations is an inherent part of how we operate at Dow,” said Keith Cleason, vice president Dow Olefins, Aromatics and Alternatives business. “Significant technological breakthroughs are needed to reduce our industry’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, which will require companies to step out of their comfort zones and work together to achieve bold and ambitious new goals. Our partnership with Shell is an important step in making this vision a reality.”

Thomas Casparie, executive vice president of Shell’s global chemicals business, said, “Steam cracking makes base chemicals, which are transformed into a range of finished products that help society live, work and respond to climate change. This new work with Dow has the potential to contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions from the manufacture of chemicals and to Shell’s ambition of becoming a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner.”
 


New report: Dow Freeport chemical plant leads nation in wastewater polluting

The Dow Freeport petrochemical plant in Brazoria County was found to be the top polluter of three toxic chemicals, causing downstream health risks to nearby communities of color and low-income households.

The Dow petrochemical plant in Freeport, Texas was found to be the worst wastewater polluter in the nation, according to a new report.

That's one of the findings of the Environmental Integrity Project's (EIP) latest study entitled, "Plastic's Toxic River," which was released Thursday afternoon.

The report, which looks into data from 2021 to 2023, found that dozens of petrochemical plants — factories that use oil and gas to make plastics, industrial chemicals and pesticides — have been breaking federal regulations without substantial, if any, repercussions.

Among the 70 petrochemical plants the EIP reported on, 58 were found to have violated at least one wastewater regulation. Only eight plants have been penalized, with the average fine being $266.

Krisen Schlemmer, a senior legal director at Bayou City Waterkeeper, a Houston-based environmental protection nonprofit, emphasized in a webinar that when it comes to violating wastewater regulations, "some of the worst actors are here in our backyard in Texas."

Among the plants that have violated the Clean Waters Act, 28 are in Texas, leaving only two plants in the state that have not broken federal wastewater regulations.

Local environmental experts and the report's authors point to the Environmental Protection Agency's lax regulations for why plants have continued to dump dangerous — and at high amounts lethal — chemicals into waterways.

Jen Duggan, the EIP’s executive director, said it’s communities of color and low-income households that are the most at risk.

"The unchecked pollution from these plants hurts peoples' livelihoods and quality of life, it puts our health at risk," Duggan said. "It puts our health at risk, and it shifts the cost of cleaning up this pollution to communities instead of the companies who are creating it.”

The Dow plant in Brazoria County was the report's top wastewater polluter of three toxic chemicals: dioxin, nitrogen and phosphorus, and dioxin.

Dioxin is a potent and toxic chemical that has been linked to cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, hormone imbalances and weakened immune systems. Just one drop of dioxin is enough to contaminate 44 swimming pools, according to the EPA.

Yet, there aren't federal limits to the amount of dioxins plastics and chemical plants can release into waterways.

The Dow Freeport plant released more than 800 grams of dioxins into the Brazos River in 2022.

Additionally, according to the report, in 2023 it released more than 3.3 million pounds of nitrogen and nearly 700,000 pounds of phosphorus into the river.

Schlemmer said both chemicals "degrade water quality, making it difficult for life to survive in the water. Yet, these are exactly the things that the Dows Freeport facility was found to have discharged into the Brazos River, which is upstream from popular fishing spots as well as a surfside beach."

To encourage tougher regulations over petrochemical plants, the report's authors made five recommendations to protect communities and wildlife:

 


 

Apr 26、2025   

Dow Inc. (DOW) Halts $9 Billion Petrochemical Project in Canada          2023/12/6    Dow、CO2排出量実質ゼロに向けたエチレンプロジェクトの最終投資を決定
 

U.S. chemical giant Dow Inc. has paused construction of a $9 billion net-zero petrochemical project in Canada, citing weak market conditions.

Formerly known as the “Dow Chemical Company,” the Michigan-based concern is one of the three largest chemical producers in the world. It previously committed to build the “Path2Zero project” in the western Canadian province of Alberta, which is the center of Canada’s oil and gas industry.

However, after a “comprehensive review,” Dow says that it has decided to push back the timeline for the project. No new timeline for its completion has been announced. Management at Dow says it is adjusting to what is sees as a “lower-for-longer earnings environment” in coming quarters due to macro-economic and market uncertainty caused by U.S. trade tariffs.

As such, management at Dow says they won’t need the Canadian project’s output as early as thought and will pause construction on the petrochemical plant until market conditions improve. The delay means that Dow won’t be spending $1 billion in Canada this year.

The project was expected to create 5,000 jobs in Alberta during the construction phase and about 450 full-time jobs once the plant was operational. Dow previously said that the massive Canadian project would be the world’s first net-zero greenhouse gas emission petrochemical plant.

 



2025年05月13日 
随筆  化学の散歩みち  西出 徹雄  
 
ダウ・ケミカル、化学工場に原子炉導入を申請

ダウ・ケミカルは去る3月31日、かねてよりX-energy社と計画中だったテキサス州シードリフト地区に先進原子力プラントを建設するための許可申請を米国原子力規制委員会に行った。

シードリフト地区にはユニオン・カーバイト社から買収した化学プラントがあり、ダウのメキシコ湾岸地域拠点の1つである。工場で使う電力と熱の両方の全てを第4世代原子炉の高温ガス炉から供給してスコープ1及びスコープ2のGHG排出量のほぼ全量を削減しようとするもので、エネルギー集約型の産業分野で効率的、経済的に脱炭素化を目指すプロジェクトである。

米国エネルギー省の先進原子炉実証プログラム(ARDP)で認定されており、最大12億ドルの補助を受けられる。審査の結論が出るまでには3年程度かかるとされ、30年代初めの稼働を目指しているが、正式に認可されれば、工場敷地内に原子炉を組み込む米国初の事例となる。このプロジェクトで得られた技術や経験は共同でライセンス化され、他の産業用途でも活用できるよう合意されている。

エネルギー多消費である化学産業において経済性を保ちながら脱炭素化を如何にして進めていくかについては、2050年のGHG排出実質ゼロを目標に様々な方策が検討されている。

しかし石油化学プラントのようなGHG排出量の多い設備についてカーボンニュートラルを経済性も確保しつつ実現する目途をつけている実例はまだない。

今回原子炉の導入が計画されているシードリフト地区(ヒューストンから240km、広さ1900ヘクタール)では年間180万トンのプラスチックや繊維、塗料、不凍液などの原料が生産されており、現在は天然ガス火力発電所から電力と蒸気を供給しているが、プラントの老朽化が進んでおり、これをX-energy社の4基のXe-100原子炉に置き換える計画となっている。

導入される原子炉は第4世代高温ガス炉といわれるタイプで、1000℃にもなる炉心の燃料を化学的に安定なヘリウムガスで冷却し、ガスの温度も750℃の高温となるため、石油化学プラントのように高温を使用するプロセスに熱供給できる。

高温ガス炉は電力と高温蒸気の両方を供給でき、出力変動にも柔軟に対応でき、炉心は2500℃の高温にも耐える黒鉛で作られ、配管の破損や電源喪失で冷却装置が故障した場合にも炉の表面からの放熱で自然に炉心の温度が下がり、燃料はセラミックでコーティングされているため高温でも破損のおそれが少なく、福島第1原子力発電所のようなメルトダウン事故が起こりにくいなど安全性に優れ、発電コストも軽水炉より低いと予想されている。

使用される燃料は、2020年にX-energy社がエネルギー省から選ばれて開発したTriso-Xという燃料で、ウランを含む粒kernelをセラミックスなどで3重にコーティングしたもので、高温、高圧に耐える球形の形状をしている。

最近では化学産業だけでなく、AIの進化、利用拡大に伴いデータセンター等での電力需要が急増し、マイクロソフト社はスリーマイル島原子力発電所と28年間の供給契約を結ぶなど原発の見直しが進み、小型モジュール原子炉をクリーン電源としてデータセンターに隣接して設置しようとする動きも見られる。

日本でも高温ガス炉の研究は日本原子力研究開発機構(JAEA)の高温工学試験研究炉(HTTR)で行われてきたが、国の「GX実現に向けた基本方針」を踏まえ、高温を利用した水素製造を目指しており、そのためHTTRに水素製造施設を接続するための許可申請が本年3月27日、原子力規制委員会に提出された。
 
(筆者は元化学研究評価機構理事長)
 
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原子力産業新聞 2025/4/2 

Dow、米テキサス州でXe-100の建設許可を申請

米国の大手化学メーカーであるダウ(Dow)社とX-エナジー社は3月31日、テキサス州シードリフトで計画されているX-エナジー社製SMRの高温ガス炉(HTGR)「Xe-100」(電気出力8万kW)を採用する発電所の建設許可を米原子力規制委員会(NRC)に申請したことを明らかにした。 

ダウ社が提案する先進炉プロジェクトは、同社の完全子会社であるLong Mott Energy社が開発。ダウ社のテキサス州メキシコ湾沿いに位置するシードリフトの製造サイトに、運転期間満了間近の既存の発電・蒸気設備に替わる、安全かつ信頼性が高く、クリーンな電力と産業用蒸気を供給する発電所を設置する。本プロジェクトは、米エネルギー省(DOE)が先進炉の展開の加速を目的として開始した、先進的原子炉実証プログラム(ARDP)の中で、5〜7年以内に実証(運転)を目指し、支援対象に選定した二つの設計のうちの一つである。 

2018年以降、X-エナジー社、続いてダウ社は、高度な燃料設計、受動的安全機能、最先端の分析技術を通じて、Xe-100の安全性を実証し、広範な許認可申請前活動を通じてNRCと協力してきた。建設許可の承認は、最大30か月かかると予想。ダウ社は許可を取得後、財務上のリターン目標を達成しつつ、プロジェクトの遂行能力を確認できれば、建設を開始するとしている。本プロジェクトが実現すれば、2020年代後半に建設を開始、2030年代初めに稼働し、北米の産業施設に配備される最初のグリッド規模の先進炉になると期待されている。

X-エナジー社のJ. セルCEOは、「今回の建設許可申請は、米国を先進炉の商業化の最前線に位置づけるという議会とDOEのビジョンを実現するための重要なステップである」「世界クラスのダウ社とともに、テキサス州シードリフトで展開される先進炉を迅速かつ効率的に複製して、全米の驚異的な電力需要の増加への対応を実証する」と意欲を示した。 

 

Xe-100 ダウ・シードリフトの概念図  Ⓒ X-Energy

X-エナジー社は、Xe-100およびTRISO-X燃料製造施設の開発、許認可取得手続き、建設活動が2020年10月にDOEのARDPの支援対象に選定後、Xe-100のエンジニアリングと予備設計を完了、テネシー州オークリッジにおけるTRISO-X燃料製造施設の開発と許認可手続きを開始し、その技術の商業化に向け民間から、約11億ドル(約1,648億円)を調達している。 

ダウ社のシードリフト・サイトは、約19㎢の広さを有し、食品の包装と保存、履物、ワイヤーとケーブルの絶縁、太陽電池膜、医療および医薬品の包装など、幅広い用途で使用される材料を製造している。 

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2025/3/31 Dow

Dow and X-energy Submit Construction Permit Application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for Proposed Advanced Nuclear Project in Texas

  • Project supported by U.S. DOE's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program
  • Represents a key milestone toward bringing advanced nuclear energy to fruition in the U.S.
DOW and X-Energy Reactor Co.  ("X-energy") announced the submission of a construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission  for a proposed advanced nuclear project in Seadrift, Texas.

Dow's proposed advanced small modular reactor ("SMR") project is being developed by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Long Mott Energy LLC. The project is focused on providing Dow's UCC1 Seadrift Operations manufacturing site ("Seadrift" or the "site") with safe, reliable, and clean power and industrial steam replacing existing energy and steam assets that are near end-of-life. The project is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program ("ARDP") which is designed to accelerate the deployment of advanced reactors through cost-shared partnerships with U.S. industry.

Since 2018, X-energy, and subsequently Dow, have worked with the NRC through extensive pre-application engagements to demonstrate the unparalleled safety profile of the Xe-100 advanced SMR through its advanced fuel design, passive safety features, and state-of-the-art analysis techniques. This has culminated in a comprehensive application submittal that exceeds NRC regulations for the protection of public health and safety, as well as the environment, with substantial safety features.

Approval of the construction permit is an important step forward that could take up to 30 months. Once the permit is received and upon Dow confirming the ability to deliver the project while achieving its financial return targets, construction could begin. Dow expects the cost of energy ‐ net of all subsidies ‐ to be competitive with other alternatives for firm, clean energy.   

"This is an important next step in expanding access to safe, clean, reliable, cost-competitive nuclear energy in the U.S.," said Edward Stones, business vice president, Energy & Climate, Dow. "We look forward to engaging with the NRC, DOE, our business partners and the community throughout the application process."

"The construction permit application is a critical step to deliver on the vision of Congress and DOE to position the U.S. at the forefront of commercializing advanced reactor technology," said J. Clay Sell, chief executive officer of X-energy. "Together with our world-class partner, Dow, we will demonstrate how the technology deployed at Seadrift, Texas, can be quickly and efficiently replicated to meet incredible power demand growth across America."

The proposed project could begin construction later this decade and start up early next decade. The nuclear power and steam assets would eliminate most Scope 1 and 2 emissions at the site and ensure the site remains competitively advantaged for the life of the facility.

X-energy was selected by the DOE in 2020 to develop, license, and build an operational Xe-100 advanced SMR and TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility. Since that award, X-energy has completed the engineering and preliminary design of the nuclear reactor, has begun development and licensing of a fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and has secured approximately $1.1 billion in private capital to commercialize its technology. Once complete, Long Mott Generating Station is expected to be the first grid-scale advanced nuclear reactor deployed to serve an industrial site in North America.

Dow's Seadrift site covers 4,700 acres and manufactures more than 4 billion pounds of materials per year used across a wide variety of applications including food packaging and preservation, footwear, wire and cable insulation, solar cell membranes, and packaging for medical and pharmaceutical products.

About X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC
X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC, is a leading developer of advanced small modular nuclear reactors and fuel technology for clean energy generation that is redefining the nuclear energy industry through its development of safer and more efficient advanced small modular nuclear reactors and proprietary fuel to deliver reliable, zero-carbon and affordable energy to people around the world. X-energy's simplified, modular, and intrinsically safe SMR design expands applications and markets for deployment of nuclear technology and drives enhanced safety, lower cost and faster construction timelines when compared with other SMRs and conventional nuclear.

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