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| Dow Water & Process Solutions | |
|---|---|
| Name | Dow Water & Process Solutions |
| Industry | Chemicals |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | DowDuPont Water Solutions |
| Headquarters | Midland, Michigan |
| Key people | Andrew N. Liveris |
| Products | Ion exchange resins, reverse osmosis membranes, filtration systems |
| Parent | The Dow Chemical Company |
Dow Water & Process Solutions is a former business unit of The Dow Chemical Company focused on water treatment and process purification technologies, membranes, and ion exchange resins. The unit operated globally with manufacturing in locations such as Midland, Michigan, Freeport, Texas, and international sites in Shanghai, Manama, and Warrington, Cheshire. It served industrial sectors including Petrochemical industry, Pharmaceutical industry, Power station, and Municipal water supply clients through branded products and licensed technologies.
Dow Water & Process Solutions traces origins to legacy divisions of The Dow Chemical Company and acquisitions including assets from Rohm and Haas and partnerships with firms like Koch Industries in membrane development. During the 20th century the group evolved alongside milestones such as the expansion of Chloralkali process applications, the rise of reverse osmosis commercialization, and global industrialization in regions including East Asia and Middle East. In the 2000s the unit consolidated technologies from collaborations with entities like GE Water & Process Technologies and later became part of portfolio reorganizations during the DowDuPont merger period and subsequent divestitures.
The business functioned as a divisional unit within The Dow Chemical Company reporting to executive leadership including figures like Andrew N. Liveris and interacting with corporate governance bodies such as boards influenced by shareholders including institutional investors like Berkshire Hathaway and BlackRock. Ownership shifted during major transactions tied to the DowDuPont merger and subsequent specialty chemical spinoffs involving corporate entities like DuPont and Corteva. Strategic alliances and joint ventures involved multinational conglomerates such as BASF, Shell plc, and regional partners in Saudi Arabia and China.
Product lines encompassed reverse osmosis membranes, nanofiltration membranes, ion exchange resins, ultrafiltration modules, and specialty filtration media used across sectors including Oil refinery operations, Semiconductor industry fabs, and Brewery utilities. Technologies integrated polymer chemistry advancements from research linked to institutions like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, and Imperial College London as well as testing standards from organizations such as American Water Works Association and International Organization for Standardization. Patented technologies referenced prior art from corporations such as 3M, Ecolab, and Suez in membrane fabrication and anti-fouling surface treatments.
Markets served ranged from municipal potable water projects funded by agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to industrial water reuse in Chevron and ExxonMobil refineries, pharmaceutical purification for companies like Pfizer and Novartis, and power plant boiler feedwater conditioning for utilities such as Duke Energy and EDF. Applications included desalination projects in the Middle East and North Africa region, produced water treatment in Gulf of Mexico oilfields, and ultrapure water generation for Intel and Samsung semiconductor fabs.
R&D efforts leveraged collaborations with academic centers including University of California, Berkeley, University of Cambridge, and Stanford University and engaged with national laboratories like Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Programs focused on membrane materials science, ion exchange kinetics, and process intensification, drawing on conferences such as the American Chemical Society meetings and publications in journals like Nature and Science. Research partnerships also extended to consortia funded by entities including the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Sustainability initiatives emphasized water reuse, energy-efficient reverse osmosis, and reduced chemical usage aligning with goals of organizations like the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Health Organization water safety guidelines. Environmental performance was audited against standards from Environmental Protection Agency programs and lifecycle assessments referencing frameworks from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Projects addressed challenges such as brine management in desalination plants in collaboration with regional authorities in Australia and Spain.
The unit’s operations intersected with legal and regulatory matters involving chemical manufacturing, permitting disputes before agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, and litigation over intellectual property with competitors such as Pentair and Koch Industries. Issues included contested patents on membrane technologies, compliance actions related to discharge permits in jurisdictions like Texas and California, and public scrutiny during corporate restructuring in the DowDuPont merger, which prompted inquiries from regulators in European Union competition authorities and U.S. Department of Justice antitrust reviews.
Category:Chemical companies Category:Water supply and sanitation