Commercial production is from methanol either by silver catalyst or metal oxide catalyst processes.
Seventy to 80 percent of formaldehyde output is used captively. Borden Inc. added formaldehyde plants at Baytown, Tex., Hope, Ark., and Louisville, Ky., in 1995-96. The company completed a major expansion of its Edmonton, Alberta, plant in 1997 that raised capacity to 375 million pounds. Combined capacity of Borden's three Canadian plants is 610 million pounds. Celanese will market the formaldehyde produced by D.B. Western under an agreement between the two companies.