Global chemical and specialty materials company Celanese Company has recently announced that its subsidiary, Celanese Chemical Co. Ltd., has signed a tri-party agreement with Southwest Institute of Chemical Co., Ltd. (SWCHEM) (Chengdu, China) and Yankuang Lunan Chemical Co., Ltd. (Teng Zhou, China).

“SWCHEM has a longstanding relationship with Celanese dating back to 2008,” said Chen Jiang, President of SWCHEM. “This agreement marks the expansion of our cooperation into deeper value chain of the acetyls industry.”

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Global chemical and specialty materials company Celanese Company has recently announced that its subsidiary, Celanese Chemical Co. Ltd., has signed a tri-party agreement with Southwest Institute of Chemical Co., Ltd. (Chengdu, China) and Yankuang Lunan Chemical Co., Ltd. (Teng Zhou, China).

The agreement involves constructing a Pilot Scale-up Unit in Teng Zhou to test industrial scale production of acrylic acid using acetic acid as the principal raw material.

“I am delighted that the collaboration between Celanese and SWCHEM has enabled us to reach such a critical milestone in the development of this new technology to produce acrylic acid from acetic acid,” said John Fotheringham, Senior Vice President of Celanese’s Acetyls business. “This could create additional demand for acetic acid while also improving the supply options for acrylic acid consumers.”

According to Celanese’s press release, the company and SWCHEM are developing the production using the process of acetic acid formaldehyde condensation based on Celanese’s original proprietary research. For the development, Lunan has agreed to build an industrial scale pilot plant to finish commercial production trials.

“We are excited to be part of a winning team,” said Liu Qiang, President of Lunan. “The successful commercialization of this technology will promote organic growth of the acetic acid industry and Lunan is proud to be part of this effort.”

Financial details of the agreement have not been disclosed at this time.