Dow moves to increase supply and availability of high-purity OPTIM Glycerine

The Dow Chemical Company announced on March 4, 2003 that it is taking steps to ensure reliable supply of its extremely high quality OPTIM Glycerine 99.7% USP product for use in key market segments including food, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and personal care applications. OPTIM Glycerine is ideal for use in those markets because of its consistent quality, purity and clarity. Dow is the only major global producer of high-purity synthetic glycerine.

According to Ian Telford, Dow’s global business director for glycerine, acrylic monomers and epoxy specialties, Dow will seek to free up capacity by buying natural, high quality glycerine from outside suppliers to meet its own internal demand for the raw material. Dow’s internal demand, used in the production of polyurethane polyols and polyglycols, is estimated at approximately 35,000 to 45,000 mt annually at 16 facilities around the world. Telford adds that Dow also expects to benefit as a result of this move through supply chain savings and price differences between glycerine grades.