Chemicals giant Dow Inc., one of Western Canada’s top natural gas customers, has sanctioned an integrated ethylene cracker and derivatives complex in Alberta, which it said would be the first of its kind to reduce direct and indirect carbon emissions to net zero.

The estimated US$6.5 billion brownfield investment, dubbed Fort Saskatchewan Path2Zero, is expected to boost polyethylene (PE) capacity at the complex by 2 million metric tons/year (mmty). An existing cracker would be retrofitted to achieve the net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which would decarbonize 20% of Dow’s global ethylene capacity. 

“The project serves as a leading example that industrial decarbonization is both possible and profitable,” CEO Jim Fitterling said. “The...