US chemical company W.R. Grace has started building a new colloidal silica plant at its flagship European site in Worms, Germany. The project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020. The company did not disclose the plant’s capacity or investment costs.

Grace said the new plant will accelerate the development of new Ludox colloidal silica applications into a wide spectrum of industrial uses that include catalysts, functional coatings and precision investment casting. In addition, it will provide alternative sourcing and logistics capabilities to better serve customers in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Sandra Wisnewski, president of Grace Materials Technologies, said the company is seeing very strong demand for its Ludox brand of colloidal silica and it was helping many customers develop entirely new products and markets.

“Grace is strategically investing to increase capacity for a variety of products,” Wisneski said. This new manufacturing facility will allow us to better serve both existing and new customers with differentiated silica technologies that deliver value to accelerate commercialization of their new products.”

Cited in more than 25,000 patents, Grace said Ludox is one of the most versatile and functional silica-based technologies available.

In separate news, the Grace/Chevron joint venture ART Hydroprocessing has announced a multi-year agreement with GS EcoMetal (GSEM) to recover metals from spent catalysts that ART supplies to its refinery customers in Asia-Pacific and other regions.

The companies said the arrangement allows them to address their customers’ needs to dispose of the spent catalysts while also establishing a way to reuse the metals in a sustainable manner.

GSEM will process the spent catalysts at its facility in Ulsan, South Korea.