TCL USA expands in North America with WV chemical plant

The site is located within an existing complex at New Martinsville, WV.

Phase I of the investment is in an advanced stage of construction and is budgeted at about US$ 200 million. These facilities include a petrochemical plant designed to produce over 40,000 tons/yr (90 million lbs/yr plus) of Maleic Anhydride from local Butane; and also, a Food Ingredients/Fine chemicals plant that will initially produce 30,000 tons/yr (66 million lbs/yr).

These new facilities will enable TCL to serve the large and growing markets for safe input for Snacks, Foods, Beverages, Health drinks, as well as for Lightweight composites in Mobility, Energy, Infrastructure, Transport; and for Biodegradable packaging, Paper, Water treatment etc., and for a whole range of specialty and high value products.

TCL USA is a fully owned subsidiary of Thirumalai Chemicals Ltd India (TCL India).

TCL India has been producing advanced materials and safe fine chemicals/food ingredients since 1976, now at multiple locations, and markets these products in about 40 countries including South & Southeast Asia, MEA, Europe and North America.

TCL India provides its latest patented Hi-Efficiency, Low Investment technology along with the design, engineering & construction management for this project. The TCL group has designed, built, and operated many similar plants for about 50 years. A major part of the project is modular plants built by TCL Technology & Engineering (TCL-TE), a division of TCL India, which specializes in the design, supply and construction of "ready to startup" modular process plants and skids. Modular Plants ensure significantly lower investments, improve construction safety and allow for pre-testing and minimizing expensive on-site work.

Full integration of the 2 units of the plants enables the facility to produce and use 90% of the Energy needed (power and steam) from waste heat, reducing emissions significantly.

Engineering, US site acquisition and supplies were initially delayed by the pandemic and the impact of the Ukraine war and Middle East Crisis.

As of January,'25, over 99% of the assembly and construction of the plant modules at TCLTE has been completed. Shipments of fully assembled modules began in June 2024 and will be fully completed by late February/Early March '25. Construction and Installation at the US site have been ongoing since early 2024, with final testing/pre-commissioning expected to begin in Q3'25.

The site is a fully equipped ‘Plug and Play’ facility providing TCL with roads, fire protection systems, electric power, water, and various services including full waste water treatment, security, medical & emergency, on-site rail siding and an ocean connected barge port. These features significantly reduce investment and operating costs.

The plants are fully automated to provide a high level of safety, quality and cost efficiency. All the plants and equipment are fully 'IoT enabled' ensuring real-time technology support and 24×7 monitoring by the designers and suppliers globally; this provides a high level of reliability, optimization, flexibility and quality.

This is the first of four phases of investments that TCL USA hopes to build on this site over the years, to make an integrated range of specialty materials for a wide range of segments, to serve growing demands in North America, Latin America and other markets.

The US market presents a significant opportunity for all these products, given the large base demand, sustained growth and few local producers.

These products will be based on the abundant input of Natural Gas fractions available locally and an extensive range of competitive raw materials within this region.

3D models of the plant are shown here, along with a few pictures of the assembled modules presently under shipment.

TCL USA expects the plants to begin start up in Q4 2025, with ramp up during H1 2026.

Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (RM)