OREANDA-NEWS. August 30, 2013. The Dow Chemical Company ( DOW ) and Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies announced that they have licensed their LP Oxo technology to PetroChina Guangdong Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of PetroChina, the largest oil and gas producer and distributor in China. PetroChina Guangdong Petrochemical Company will utilize the technology to produce 2-ethylhexanol, normal butanol and iso butyraldehyde in its major petrochemical complex in Jieyang, Guangdong, China.

LP Oxo SELECTOR Technology helps to reduce capital investment along with providing low feedstock and energy requirements. The Jieyang unit which has a capacity of 85,000 metric tons of 2-ethylhexanol, 235,000 metric tons of normal butanol and 33,000 metric tons of iso-butyraldehyde on an annual basis, will adopt JM Davy and Dow's LP Oxo SELECTOR 10 Technology with advanced liquid phase hydrogenation. It greatly helps in converting propylene to alcohols and leads to low capital investment and easy operation. The new facility is one of the largest grass root oxo alcohol plant in the world.

This also marks the sixth alliance of Dow and JM Davy with a PetroChina group and reinforces their long term commitment in providing best-in-class oxo alcohols technology to their customers.

LP Oxo Technology is a low-pressure hydroformylation process that is most commonly used with propylene and synthesis gas (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) to produce normal and iso-butyraldehydes.

LP Oxo Technology is the world's leading process for the production of oxo alcohols from olefins. LP Oxo SELECTOR Technology is the result of a partnership between Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), now a subsidiary of Dow, and The Power-Gas Corporation Limited, now known as Davy Process Technology Limited (DPT), which set out to revolutionize propylene hydroformylation technology.

Dow reported mixed second-quarter 2013 results on Jul 25. The company's profit soared in the quarter on the strength of its agriculture business and a sizeable gain from an arbitration case. Adjusted earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while sales missed. Gains across agricultural sciences and performance materials were offset by declines in feedstocks and energy and performance plastics.

Dow currently holds a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Other companies in the chemical industry worth considering are Northern Technologies International Corp. ( NTIC ), Cytec Industries Inc. ( CYT ) and Eastman Chemical Co. ( EMN ). All of them hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).