Showa Denko KK (SDK) has decided to build a 100,000-tons/year ethyl acetate plant at its Oita complex in Japan, based on its own recently developed technology.

Ethyl acetate is used in wide-ranging applications, including printing ink and paint. Demand for the product is expected to continue growing inside and outside Japan.  Meanwhile, the business environment is changing rapidly due to the changes in the supply of raw materials and expansions in production capacities in neighboring countries.

SDK’s proprietary production process technology, which uses a solid heteropolyacid catalyst developed by SDK, adds ethylene directly to acetic acid, enabling efficient production of high-quality ethyl acetate, the company explained. The technology is already being used at SDK’s production site in Indonesia.

SDK positions its ethyl acetate operation as a core business in the petrochemicals segment.  By building the new ethyl acetate plant, SDK aims to better meet diversified and sophisticated customer requirements, and strengthen its status as a stable supplier of high-quality product.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is subsidizing the plant as an “investment in leading-edge-technology-based plant and equipment.

The project is due to start commercial production in June 2014.