Baton Rouge up for $264 million in new ExxonMobil projects

A look at the plant during a ceremony celebrating the opening of a $500 million polypropylene expansion at ExxonMobil's polyolefins plant in Baton Rouge. ExxonMobil is considering its sprawling Baton Rouge area facilities for a trio of new projects potentially worth $264 million

ExxonMobil is considering its sprawling Baton Rouge area facilities for a trio of new projects potentially worth $264 million, company officials said Tuesday.

Those projects could include a new unit to produce high-grade isopropyl alcohol for microchip manufacturing; a new resin production facility at ExxonMobil's Port Allen lubricants plant; and an advanced plastics recycling facility, the possibility of which company officials had previously disclosed in March 2022.

Final investment decisions on the projects are slated for the first half of 2024, said Jennifer Purpera, Baton Rouge project development lead for ExxonMobil. It's possible the company's local operations could win anywhere from all three of the projects to none.

Purpera said ExxonMobil is still developing the necessary technology for the projects as it continues to map out when and where the potential facilities could be built.

"We’re looking at our economics. We’re testing the markets for the products," she said. "We’re asking ourselves those questions as we better develop and define the projects and the cost of the projects. All of that will be finalized before we do that final investment decision."

Of the potential investment, $155 million would be steered toward East Baton Rouge Parish, company officials said. The other $109 million would go to West Baton Rouge Parish.

The projects would create more than 50 new jobs combined with more than $21 million in total payroll for new jobs and construction jobs, ExxonMobil officials said. It would also generate $23 million in new tax revenue for the state over 20 years.

Purpera acknowledged other sites are under consideration for all three projects, both nationally and globally. However, she said Baton Rouge is ExxonMobil's only location that produces isopropyl alcohol, and it is the largest isopropyl production facility in the world.

Company officials stressed that decisions on all three projects are still up in the air. ExxonMobil spokeswoman Stephanie Cargile said the scope of the projects could change based on economics and customer demand.

However, Purpera expressed excitement for the projects’ potential and their impact on global sustainability.

"It really highlights some of the things that we can do, and we can do really well," Purpera said of the project suite. "It also shows we’re being a lot more aggressive around technology development and project development at the same time."

The advanced plastics recycling facility would take plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled — or chopped up and melted into recycled plastic bottles, for example — and turn it into virtually brand new plastic materials, such as polypropylene. Purpera said the advanced process focuses on "film types of plastics," such as shrink wrap and food bags, that are harder to process.

A new Baton Rouge facility would build on ExxonMobil's Baytown advanced recycling facility, which opened at the end of 2022 and can process up to 80 million pounds annually of plastic waste. ExxonMobil has a companywide goal of being able to recycle 1 billion pounds of plastic waste annually by 2026.

Meanwhile, the new isopropyl alcohol unit would make an "ultra-pure" version of the substance for microchip producers, who use isopropyl alcohol to clean chip parts before assembling them.

Purpera said ExxonMobil's interest in the unit was sparked by the CHIPS and Science Act, federal legislation that was enacted in 2022 to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Potential customers of the isopropyl alcohol would be specialty chemical companies that would make "a couple of adjustments" to the material before sending it to microchip producers.

"Some of the customers for our product are considering Louisiana as an option to build their facilities out," she said. "So we have another opportunity with a customer (base) to grow business here in the Baton Rouge area."

The resin production unit would manufacture thermoset resin, a state-of-the-art form of the material that could be used in wind turbines for power generation, Purpera said. It could also be used as a replacement for rebar in concrete, as well as for pipe insulation and anti-corrosion coatings.

In other news, construction on ExxonMobil's $240 million expansion project at its Baton Rouge refinery could be completed by end of this year, Purpera said. If that timeline holds, full production would ramp up by early 2024.

Construction on the project began in 2021. It is designed to allow the Baton Rouge refinery to handle a wider range of crude oil and "really remain relevant in our industry," Purpera said.

"We’re about halfway through some of the heavy lift construction work here in the refinery, and we have the second half of that the back half of this year," she said.

Email Robert Stewart at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter, @ByRobertStewart.