Wacker Chemie has announced it will invest around $150 million in a new pyrogenic silica plant in Charleston, Tennessee, USA. Construction work on the facility, which will have an annual capacity of about 13,000 t, will start in the second quarter of 2017, with completion planned for the first half of 2019.

About 50 new jobs will be created at the new plant, adding to the 650 existing employees at the Charleston site where the Munich-based chemical company already produces hyperpure polysilicon for the local solar and semiconductor industries.

CEO Rudolf Staudigl said the additional output will strengthen Wacker’s leading market position for pyrogenic, or fumed, silica, as well as helping it to meet growing customer demand. He commented: “The new plant is the next logical step toward expanding Charleston into a fully integrated silicon site in the world’s second-largest chemical market.”

The addition of a plant to produce Wacker’s HDK brand of pyrogenic silica will make use of the tetrachorosilane available at Charleston. Tetrachlorosilane, the main byproduct of polysilicon manufacturing, has to be converted and fed back into the production loop or it can be further processed into the added-value product, HDK. Wacker already has integrated polysilicon/HDK manufacturing at its sites in Burghausen and Nünchritz in Germany. The company said the reprocessing of tetrachlorosilane achieves maximum flexibility, avoids the need to dispose of waste products and enhances its overall integrated production system.

As well as Germany, Wacker also produces HDK in Zhangjiagang, China. The firm is the world’s third largest producer of pyrogenic silica, which is used as filler in silicone elastomers and as a rheology-control additive in paints, adhesives, unsaturated polyester resins and plastisols. It also serves as a flow aid in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical and food-processing industries.