ALBEMARLE CORP : New Technology From Albemarle® and LINE-X® Wins 2011 Polyurethane Innovation Award

BATON ROUGE, La., Oct. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) honored Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) and LINE-X Protective Coatings with the coveted 2011 Innovation Award for the development of a new color stable aliphatic coating technology. The award, which was presented during the 2011 CPI Technical Conference on September 28th, highlights the role of in the polyurethane industry by recognizing companies and individuals whose vision and perseverance bring new products, technologies and initiatives to the marketplace.

The coating utilizes Albemarle's ETHACURE® 90, a new aliphatic curative that considerably improves the processing capability of polyurea spray elastomer coating systems. The new coating technology is UV and color stable, giving customer's color choice without the need for an additional topcoat. The technology provides rapid return to service and is environmentally friendly, generating minimal volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

The effectiveness and durability of this new technology was recently proven as it was used as the protective coating on Dominator 1, a vehicle featured on the 2011 season of Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers. The storm chaser vehicle, which is owned by TornadoVideos.net (TVN), demonstrated excellent resistance to storm damage during the 2011 storm season. "The protective coating was critical to the safety of the crew of Dominator 1 during a particularly dangerous storm season," said Reed Timmer, TVN Lead Storm Chaser, Meteorologist. "The coating performed exceptionally well in the field, protecting the vehicle from damage even in storms with softball-sized hail."

Discovery Channel's hit show Storm Chasers is a documentary series that follows the adventures of extreme meteorologists on the hunt to catch rare footage and data from the world's most violent tornados. The 2011 season of Storm Chasers premiered on Sunday, September 25th.

Albemarle chemist, Dr. Paul Wiggins was also recognized at the CPI conference as he won "Best Presentation Award" in the CASE (Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants & Elastomers) Technical Session for his paper New Developments in Aliphatic Polyurea Coatings. The paper was submitted and co-authored by Terry Pe (LINE-X), Thalan Burris (Albemarle), Sam Lane (Albemarle) and Dustin Le (Horn).

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts and Fine Chemistry. Corporate Responsibility Magazine selected Albemarle to its prestigious "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list for 2010 and 2011. Albemarle employs approximately 4,000 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Albemarle regularly posts information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, Regulation G reconciliations, SEC filings, and other information regarding the Company, its businesses and the markets we serve.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.