ASHTA Chemicals Inc. Announces Significant Capital Investment In Northeast Ohio Benefiting The Environment And Local Community

ASHTABULA, Ohio, June 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, ASHTA Chemicals Inc. ("ASHTA") unveiled plans for a $60 million investment at its production facility in Ashtabula, Ohio.  The investment will result in ASHTA retaining and adding jobs in Northeast Ohio, improving energy efficiency in its operations and eliminating the use of mercury in its manufacturing process. 

"ASHTA's plant has operated in this community, since the 1960's and this event is a celebration of our commitment to our customers and our employees and a thank you to the many stakeholders who have made this possible," said Brad Westfall, ASHTA's President.  "This investment will allow us to operate our facility long into the future with significantly improved energy efficiency and increased production capacity.  It will also result in the elimination of mercury from our manufacturing process.  This is great news for our customers, our employees and the environment."

ASHTA Chemicals Inc. manufactures and markets chlorine and potassium-based chemicals to a broad customer base.  Its products are used in a wide variety of end use markets including liquid fertilizers, runway deicers, food products and pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, alkaline batteries, photochemistry, oil and gas production, industrial cleaners and water treatment.

"For more than fifty years, ASHTA has continuously improved its manufacturing processes, safety performance and environmental compliance while delivering these vital products to its customers," said Jose Valdes, ASHTA's CEO. "By converting to membrane cell technology, we will reduce electricity consumption by approximately 20% and produce the same high quality products with less waste and less of an impact to the environment."

The project is expected to take between 24 and 30 months to complete and will replace the current mercury cell processing technology with membrane cell technology.  ASHTA has chosen Ineos Technologies Limited (Runcorn, England) as its membrane electrolyzer equipment and technology provider and Jacobs as its engineering, procurement and construction management provider for this project. This state-of-the-art sustainable technology has lower power consumption, longer component lifetimes, improved production quality and enhanced safety performance.

"ASHTA has consistently operated in full compliance with its environmental permits," said Westfall. "ASHTA has worked with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to complete supplemental environmental projects to reduce water and air emissions. This project is an example of the extraordinary measures we take to assure the environmental security of our operations, our products and our distribution networks."

SOURCE ASHTA Chemicals Inc.