"Growing demand for Levasil colloidal silica, particularly in North America, is the driver of the expansion at our production facility," said Patrick Wilhelm, vice president Inorganic Specialties at Nouryon. “New factories for batteries, electric vehicles, and semiconductors in artificial intelligence applications are driving the rising customer demand. This latest capacity increase will enable us to serve global customers with our high-quality solutions,” Wilhelm added.

According to Nouryon, its Levasil colloidal silica are derived from two natural ingredients – sand and water – and serve a variety of end-markets. They are used as an abrasive in electronics applications for shaping, smoothing, and polishing silicon, metals, sapphire, and other precision substrate materials. In building and construction applications, they are used by admixture companies to increase the durability and strength in concrete.

The Dutch specialty chemicals producer operates eight Levasil production facilities worldwide.