Total officially inaugurated the production of the company’s new high-purity
special fluids facility in Bayport, Texas
with a ribbon-cutting ceremony representing the completion of a $100 million
investment by the global integrated energy producer and leading international
oil and gas organization.
Total’s Bayport hydro de-aromatiza-tion (HDA) plant, the second in the world
- modeled on a similar facility in France
- will produce a range of 40 different
high purity special fluids for customer use
across a wide spectrum of industries including pharmaceuticals, crop protection,
water treatment, printing inks, paints and
coatings and cosmetics. With an annual
production capacity of 250KT, and ideally situated to supply the biggest markets
in the world, the Bayport facility will also
produce synthetic biodegradable fluids
for on- and off-shore drilling in keeping
with Total’s commitment to the use of
clean drilling fluids for exploration and
production operations.
“Our new Bayport operation illus-
trates Total’s commitment to our busi-
ness in the United States,” said Philippe
Boisseau, member of the executive
Committee of Total and President of
Marketing & Services. “We will work
closely with the Total refining facility in
Port Arthur, which will provide some of
the feedstock required to produce the
high purity special fluids our custom-
ers want and need, as well as the Total
Polyethylene facility at Bayport with
whom we share the site.”
Boisseau continued, “The innovative,
clean technology we will provide to our
customers from Bayport is the result
of a concerted and combined effort of
several Total global business activities
including Refining and Chemicals and
Marketing and Services with knowledge
and expertise transfer from engineers in
our plant in France.”
The Bayport HDA plant utilizes a
catalytic reaction process that, when
combined with high pressure and distil-
lation, enables the production of very
specific high purity fluids, odorless, color-
less, stable and with ultra low aromatic
contents. These high purity fluids are
customized to meet the needs of a wide
variety of industrial applications. Overall
employee headcount at the Bayport site is
approximately 110. Construction of the
new facility, located within Total’s exist-
ing Port Road operations, provided jobs
for approximately 400 different work-
ers and tradesmen during the built-out.
The construction phase was completed in
little over one year, and the entire project
was completed with an excellent Safety
Performance of 769,000 hours worked
without incident or Lost Time Injury.
The Bayport opening comes just
weeks after the opening of a multi-mil-lion dollar innovation center in Grand
Rapids, Michigan by Total’s automotive
and aerospace company Hutchinson.
AB Specialty Silicones
Adds a New Reactor for
High Viscosity Silicone Raw
Material Manufacturing
AB Specialty Silicones has a new reactor specifically for the manufacture of
high viscosity reactive and non-reactive
silicone polymers. The new reactor has
a specially designed, heavy duty anchor
style Lightnin agitator to manage the
high viscosity materials. This addition
will double the current capacity for high
viscosity products and give AB Specialty
Silicones the capability to produce materials with viscosity up to ~500,000 centipoise. As a result, AB Specialty Silicones
will now offer its customers an expanded
range of high viscosity products to complement an already diverse line.
AB Specialty Silicones continues to
invest in the Waukegan plant as well as
its future in order keep up with the com-
pany’s growth and meet the increasing
demand of silicone raw materials world-
wide. Aside from production, the location
also houses a research and development
laboratory specializing in custom silicone
development and over 115,000 sqare feet
of warehouse space.
Wacker Strengthens Its
Presence in Latin America
with a New Subsidiary,
Technical Center
Wacker Chemie AG is expanding its presence in Latin America by opening a new
technical center for construction applications and a new subsidiary in Bogotá,
Colombia. The technical facility serves as
a development and testing laboratory for
dispersible polymer powders, which are
needed as binders for the regional building industry. In addition to polymer construction materials, the new subsidiary
also represents the company’s biotechnology and silicone divisions. By expanding its local expertise in development,
applications technology and service,
WACKER is able to optimally support
local customers and business partners.
It is thus further opening up the Andean
region’s rapidly developing markets for
high-quality construction polymers and
chemical raw materials.
The reason for this increased com-
mitment to the region is strong growth,
particularly in the building industry.
“Latin America is a promising market
for WACKER. Demand for chemical raw
materials, especially our dispersible poly-
mer powders, has risen noticeably over
recent years,” said David Wilhoit, head of
Wacker Chemical Corporation, the sub-
sidiary which is responsible for the North
and Latin American regions. “With the
new subsidiary and technical center, we
are further expanding our strong market
position in the Andean region. This will
allow us to optimally support our local
customers and partners.”
The new technical center in Bogotá
serves as a local research and develop-
ment facility for polymer binders for
construction applications. The focus
Total Opens Bayport, Texas Plant to
Produce High-Purity Special Fluids
