Producer
W.R. Grace & Co.
U.S. specialty chemicals company; #1 US FCC catalyst supplier (~38% US market share) via Grace Catalysts Technologies. Baton Rouge, LA facility is the site of the world's FIRST commercial FCC unit (commissioned May 25, 1942). ~$300M Louisiana investment across Baton Rouge, Norco, and Sulphur facilities. Developed REpLaCeR family of low/zero rare earth FCC catalysts in response to 2010 China lanthanum supply crisis. The same company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2001 due to asbestos liabilities from its historical vermiculite mining operations; asbestos claims now managed through a trust fund, while the catalyst business continues growing.
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Facilities
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2 facilities
W.R. Grace Curtis Bay Research & Manufacturing — Curtis Bay, MD →
USMaryland · manufacturing
W.R. Grace R&D headquarters and smaller-scale specialty catalyst production; proximity to Johns Hopkins research ecosystem.
W.R. Grace FCC Catalyst Plant — Baton Rouge, LA →
USLouisiana · manufacturing
1201 Gulf States Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70805; ~165 employees. The world's first commercial FCC unit was commissioned at this site on May 25, 1942 — the birthplace of modern petroleum catalytic cracking. Acquired from Albemarle in 2018; part of W.R. Grace's ~$300M Louisiana expansion across Baton Rouge, Norco, and Sulphur. Process technology team for FCC catalyst scale-up and plant support. Source: https://grace.com/about-grace/locations/baton-rouge/
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FCC Catalysts (US #1 — 38% Market Share)
55%Polyolefin Catalysts (Plastics Manufacturing)
25%Specialty Materials (Silica, Coatings)
15%Asbestos Legacy (Libby Montana — Chapter 11 2001)
5%
Intelligence
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Capacity2023
W.R. Grace completed a $35M expansion of its Baton Rouge FCC catalyst plant in August 2024, cementing its position as the largest single-site FCC catalyst producer. The new PARAGON™ technology line produces catalysts optimized for bottoms upgrading and olefin maximization — yet Grace is privately held (Standard Industries) with no public disclosure requirements, making supply disruption risk assessment opaque.
W.R. Grace ↗Did you know2023
W.R. Grace is the world's largest supplier of FCC catalysts for oil refining AND a major supplier of polyolefin catalysts enabling the production of virtually all commodity polyethylene (HDPE, LLDPE) and polypropylene. The SYLOPOL catalyst system Grace supplies for the UNIPOL polyethylene process (licensed with Dow) is inside the production of billions of kilograms of plastic annually — the bags, bottles, pipes, and automotive parts that modern society depends on. The oil refinery catalyst company and the plastic manufacturing catalyst company are the same W.R. Grace. The catalysts converting crude oil to gasoline and the catalysts converting ethylene to polyethylene film both come from the same specialty chemicals company in Columbia, Maryland.
W.R. Grace & Co. ↗Origin2023
W.R. Grace & Co. was founded in 1854 by William Russell Grace — an Irish immigrant who became the mayor of New York City (1880 and 1884) and founded W.R. Grace & Co. as a shipping and trading company. The company evolved through the 20th century from Latin American trading into chemicals, and particularly into catalysts through acquisition of the Davison Chemical Company in 1954. Davison had developed key FCC catalyst technologies in partnership with Standard Oil of New Jersey. Grace's Baton Rouge, Louisiana facility hosted the world's first commercial FCC unit on May 25, 1942 — a date that marks the beginning of modern petroleum refining. Today Grace and BASF together supply the majority of the world's FCC catalysts, effectively controlling the catalyst chemistry enabling the production of most of the world's transportation fuel.
W.R. Grace & Co. ↗