Texas Petrochemicals Houston, Texas

This plant, located adjacent to a Goodyear facility, is one of the major synthetic rubber plants in the country. It was built during the rapid expansion of synthetic rubber production brought on by WWII, when the Japanese controlled much of the natural rubber areas in Asia. The plant was purchased by Texas Petrochemicals, a relatively small, local chemical company, from a subsidiary of Tenneco in 1984. This plant, and another owned by the company in Port Neches, Texas, make Texas Petrochemicals the largest producer of butadiene in North America (2014). Butadiene is a feedstock for synthetic rubber, and carpet nylon. The plant covers 256 acres and produces more than 1.5 billion pounds of product per year.