Borealis appoints Eberhard Dreher as third Chief Scientist

• Innovation in base chemical technologies is an important key to success of Borealis’ new business group

• Eberhard Dreher brings years of professional experience to the role

Borealis, a leading provider of innovative, value creating plastics solutions, has appointed Eberhard Dreher as its new Chief Scientist for Base Chemicals. The company produces a range of base chemicals, mainly for use at wholly-owned and joint-venture operations producing polyethylene, polypropylene and nitrogen chemicals such as melamine, urea and fertilizers.

Eberhard Dreher‘s key responsibility will be to ensure that Borealis operates with the most advanced technologies for the economic and high quality production of polyolefin feedstocks. He will also be looking at new options in the light of the rapidly growing PP capacities in the Middle East and Asia. “This requires new technologies that allow us to adjust the balance between ethylene and propylene production,” says Eberhard Dreher. “We need to ensure that we continue to be a leader from a technology point of view and have a keen eye on the market and the direction technology takes.”

Eberhard Dreher states that the same arguments also apply for an extended range of monomers such as Bisphenol-A, ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol that will be produced in the planned Chemicals Industrial City in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which is expected to start production in 2013.

“The appointment of Eberhard Dreher demonstrates the importance that Borealis gives to innovation in all aspects of its operations, and is a further step in developing our base chemicals business”, says Alfred Stern, Borealis Vice President for Innovation and Technology. “We are very happy that we have been able to find someone with such a wealth of knowledge and experience in this critical area.”

Eberhard Dreher is the third Chief Scientist at Borealis. Gunilla Herrgård is Chief Scientist for polyolefins research and development, and Bill Gustafsson is Chief Scientist for technology and Borstar licensing.

Eberhard Dreher is a chemist by profession and has almost 30 years of experience in large scale chemical process operation and development. He has been responsible for the successful implementation of many process improvements and has led the development of new processes from conceptualisation to implementation. Before joining Borealis, Eberhard Dreher held several management positions at The Dow Chemical Company and most recently worked as a consultant and independent contractor for companies in Europe and the Middle East. He has experience in most processes used for the commercial production of polymer feedstocks.