ABSTRACT
Completed in 1978, the Cooper River Plant, located northeast of Charleston, SC, is the newest of the five major domestic manufacturing facilities owned by Amoco Chemicals Company. With annual shipments in excess of 1.3 billion pounds, the Cooper River Plant is the world’s largest producer of purified terephthalic acid, a chemical intermediate used primarily in the manufacture of polyester fibers, films and molded plastics. Crude terephthalic acid is produced by the catalyzed air oxidation of paraxylene and then purified by a proprietary hydrogenation process.
