Dow Jubail Operations Ships First Batch Of Reverse Osmosis Elements To Emerging Markets

The Dow Chemical Company is celebrating the inaugural shipment of its DOW FILMTEC Reverse Osmosis elements from its new Saudi Arabia Dow Water & Process Solutions’ (DW&PS) Jubail Operations manufacturing facility. This first shipment is targeted to serve emerging markets.

A first of its kind built outside the United States, the new reverse osmosis (RO) production facility came on-stream in December 2015 to better serve the local Saudi Arabian market and help meet aggressively growing demands for RO in Middle East and Africa regions, as well as Eastern Europe, India, China and Southeast Asia.

“Through rapid urban economic growth, annual domestic water demand in the Middle East and North Africa countries is estimated to more than triple over the next 20-30 years,” said Yochai Gafni, business unit director for RO at DW&PS, a business unit of Dow. “To combat regional water scarcity challenges and address this growing resource demand, Jubail Operations will help deliver a robust local supply of cutting-edge technologies for municipal and industrial water applications.”

Dow’s wholly owned Jubail Operations is located in Jubail Industrial City II within the fully integrated Sadara Chemical Company complex, the joint venture developed by Dow and Saudi Aramco. The plant manufactures FILMTEC RO elements for seawater and brackish water desalination and for water reuse of potable, non-potable and industrial water.

“The Jubail Operations replicates and builds on the state-of-the-art production technology employed in Edina, Minn., USA, and adds a high technology investment to the Kingdom” said Chuck Swartz, president for Dow in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “It is also creating jobs for Saudi talents.”

It is anticipated that RO elements manufactured at DW&PS Jubail Operations have the capability to reduce the oil requirement to distill water in the region by approximately 10MM barrels per year – equivalent to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from 900,000 passenger vehicles driven per year.

Dow’s investment in the DW&PS Jubail Operations complements its continued activities at the Dow Middle East Research and Development Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where research on RO solutions in combination with ultrafiltration pretreatment for seawater desalination is taking place.

About Dow Water & Process Solutions
The global leader in sustainable separation and purification technology, Dow Water & Process Solutions is making real progress in the world. We’re helping to make water safer and more accessible, food taste better, pharmaceuticals more effective and industries more efficient and spearheading the development of sustainable technologies that integrate water and energy requirements. Dow Water & Process Solutions offers a broad portfolio of ion exchange resins, reverse osmosis membranes, ultrafiltration membranes, particle filters and electrodeionization products, with strong positions in a number of major application areas, including industrial and municipal water, industrial processes, pharmaceuticals, power, oil and gas, residential water and waste and water reuse. For more information, visit www.dowwaterandprocess.com.

About Dow
Dow combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from material, polymer, chemical and biological science to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high-growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2015, Dow had annual sales of nearly $49B and employed approximately 49,500 people worldwide. The Company's more than 6,000 product families are manufactured at 179 sites in 35 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. For more information, visit www.dow.com.