Milliken Building Largest Clarifier Plant in its History

Starting in April, Milliken & Company, Spartanburg, S.C., begins building the largest clarifier plant in its history at its Blacksburg, S.C. site. The world-class plant is due to begin operations in 2020 and will boost capacity of Milliken’s Millad NX 8000 clarifier by approximately 50 percent. The expansion has been driven by fast-growing global demand for this PP additive which has been shown to help users achieve significant sustainability and performance advantages. Demand is growing in every geographical region and across many end-use markets, with the strongest growth in Asia. Milliken’s investment will enable the company to better serve its customers worldwide and meet dynamic market requirements.

Millad NX 8000 boasts several sustainability and performance advantages over previous PP clarifier generations for plastic molders and brand owners who use it. Says global product line manager Zach Adams, “In contrast to previous generation clarifier technologies, Millad NX 8000 has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions for plastic manufacturers. Our propriety technology improves the aesthetics and processability of polypropylene, a plastic which is lightweight, has a low carbon footprint and almost always performs better than less sustainable plastics in a life cycle analysis.”

Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has validated that the processing of PP containing Millad NX 8000 requires lower energy consumption than other PP resins that uses third-generation clarifiers, allowing the UL eco-label to be used on those products. Lower processing temperatures are benefitting users with energy savings.