ADM Announces Start-Up of Renewable Biobased Propylene Glycol

Archer Daniels Midland Company announce the start-up of its biobased propylene glycol plant in Illinois.

The facility began start-up operations in late March and is now producing industrial-grade, biobased propylene glycol produced from renewable feedstocks such as corn and soy. Over the next few months, ADM will increase the plant’s production capacity and work toward adding production of propylene glycol which meets United States Pharmacopeial (USP) standards.

Business director, Paul Bloom;

“When we initially started propylene glycol production at the facility in June 2010, we made high-quality product and gained confidence in our technology. We also identified several opportunities to further improve product quality. We piloted the necessary design modifications, reviewed and updated our operational safety program and then implemented the improvements at scale to bring the facility online in late March. Because ADM is committed to safely producing high-quality, biobased propylene glycol, we took time to ensure our facility was getting the right results, the right way.”

Propylene Glycol has applications in a number of markets, as an additive or solvent in the pharmaceutical industry, as an additive in the food and cosmetics industries, a plasticizer, hydraulic fluid, unsaturated polyester resins and a plethora of other uses. Propylene glycol manufacture has been growing by about 4% annually over the past few years, with about 450 million kg produced a year in the US.