Hanwha to spend 190 billion won for new nitric acid factory 

Hanwha Corporation said on Monday that it will build a new nitric acid factory at Yeosu City.

The company will spend 190 billion won by 2023 for the new plant, which will add 400,000 metric tonne in annual production capacity.

This will increase Hanwha’ total annual production capacity from the current 120,000 metric tonnes to 520,000 metric tonnes by 2023.

Out of that total, 390,000 metric tonnes will be used by Hanwha it self, while the rest will be supplied for use in deposition and cleaning processes in semiconductor and display production, the company said.

A Hanwha spokesperson said the aim of the new factory was not to just expand production capacity but for the company to become an advanced fine chemical firm.

In March, Hanwha Solution, a subsidiary of Hanwha, announced that it was planning to spend 160 billion won to build a new dinitrotoluene (DNT) factory with an annual capacity of 180,000 metric tonnes.

Producing 180,000 metric tonnes of DNT requires 130,000 metric tonnes of nitric acid. DNT is made from mixing nitric acid with toluene. DNT, in turn, is used to make toluene diisocyanate, which is then used to make polyurethane used to make car sheets.

Hanwha is aiming to build new high-performance compsite materials using nitric acid in the future.