Dow and HidroLotus to Build the Largest Surface Water Plant in Baku, Azerbaijan

Leveraging Dow’s advanced technology and world-class engineering support as well as HidroLotus’ regional power in civil engineering and water infrastructure, the plant will turn water from Ceyranbatan lake into a valuable clean drinking recourse

Baku, Azerbaijan - Dow Water & Process Solutions, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), and HidroLotus LLC, a joint venture between Azeri Hidro Group and Turkish Lotus Group, announced today their plans to build the world’s largest surface water ultrafiltration plant in Baku, Azerbaijan. Work started in June 2012, and upon completion planned in 2013, the plant is projected to reach daily capacity of 520,000 cubic meters and become one of the main drinking water suppliers for Baku’s population of three-million.

The plant is currently being constructed by HidroLotus, the nation’s water infrastructure building company, leveraging Dow’s technological capabilities and worldwide expertise in the water filtration segment. Dow Water & Process Solutions supplied advanced UltraFiltration (UF) modules to contribute to purification of water from the lake in Ceyranbatan, Baku, and offered engineering services to support the key part of the complex water management cycle – that starts from the water intake, its treatment, waste neutralization and discharge, transfer and supply to the end-user. The project will use DOW Ultrafiltration IntegraPac™ skids and modules, a pre-engineered and ready-to-assembly solution, which will allow for faster assembly to meet the project’s delivery schedule.

“The plant, which is currently being built in Baku, leverages the know-how and worldwide experience of Dow Water & Process Solutions to contribute to make water safer, cleaner and more available with filtration, purification and separation technologies,” said Gergely Nagy, regional commercial manager for Dow Water & Process Solutions in Russia, Eastern Europe, Greece and Turkey. “The progress we are making today would not have been possible without the highly valued and continued dialogue established and maintained with the local authorities, our customers, the collaboration between the local highly qualified and dedicated specialists, and the Dow team assigned for this project.”

“We are very happy to have as a partner The Dow Chemical Company, one of the largest and most respected chemical companies in the world, and worldwide leader in the water filtration industry. We are confident this will allow us to jointly build the largest UltraFiltration plant in Ceyranbatan, Baku, addressing the increasing demand in the city for clean drinking water and offering more than 2,000 qualified jobs, paid salaries and taxes for the local community,” commented Tankut Güzel, Project Coordinator, HidroLotus LLC.

“The Ceyranbatan project is not only the world’s surface largest UltraFiltration plant; this plant will be constructed within the shortest period of time possible. The outstanding teamwork over the past few months and relentless efforts by our staff and our partner Dow ensured the success of this project which is an enormous asset to the community of Baku,” Tankut added.

“We are highly committed to continue working closely with local companies, helping create new jobs in the country, supporting implementation of the national priorities of Azerbaijan, and thus contributing to the country’s economic development,” said Ihsan Necipoglu, country manager for Dow in Turkey and Central Asia. “Dow will continue to enhance its ability to contribute to the national agenda of diversifying the economy through a more direct relationship with our customers and through our industry presence and technological know-how,” Ihsan added.

DOW™ Ultrafiltration, used in the design and construction of the plant, utilizes a double-walled, hollow fiber, PVDF membrane which is much more robust, tolerant to chemical cleanings, and less prone to breakage than those materials used by the average of microfiltration or ultrafiltration products on the market. The uniformity of pore size and outside-in flow ensures the DOW™ Ultrafiltration membrane creates a good barrier without sacrificing performance. DOW™ Ultrafiltration is NSF61 certified for drinking water applications, and is effective for removing a good range of particulate matter. DOW™ Ultrafiltration facilitates for higher solids loading, higher flow area and easy cleaning. In addition, DOW™ Ultrafiltration minimizes energy required to filter water for drinking processes, reduces operational costs and greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

About Dow Water & Process Solutions

The global leader in sustainable separation and purification technology, Dow Water & Process Solutions is making a clear impact in the world. We’re helping to make water safer and more accessible, food taste better, pharmaceuticals more effective and industries more efficient and spearheading the development of sustainable technologies that integrate water and energy requirements. Dow Water & Process Solutions offers a broad portfolio of ion exchange resins, reverse osmosis membranes, ultrafiltration membranes and electrodeionization products, with strong positions in a number of major application areas, including industrial and municipal water, industrial processes, pharmaceuticals, power, residential water and waste and water reuse. More information about Dow Water & Process Solutions can be found at www.dowwaterandprocess.com.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company connects chemistry and innovation with the principles of sustainability to help address many of the world’s most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, renewable energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow’s diversified industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 160 countries and in high growth sectors such as electronics, water, energy, coatings and agriculture. In 2012, Dow had annual sales of approximately $57 billion and employed approximately 54,000 people worldwide. The Company’s more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 36 countries across the globe. References to “Dow” or the “Company” mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.