LOUISIANA PLANT PRODUCES
CHEMICALS BASIC TO OUR
NATION^S ECONOMY . . .
4-
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OLIN MATHIESON
LAKE CHARLES
PLANT ....
Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation produces
chemicals at Lake Charles, La., that are basic to
the nation’s economy and which find their way in
to a wide range of industries.
The Lake Charles plant was constructed in 1934
to produce soda ash and caustic soda, two impor
tant chemicals of the alkali group.
In the intervening years the plant has added
facilities for making ammonia, nitric acid, sodium
nitrate and hydrazine. Situated on the west shore
of the Calcasieu River, it now comprises 68 princi
pal buildings and employs approximately 750
people.
Lake Charles was selected as an industrial chemi
cals plant site by Olin Mathieson after an exhaus
tive search for a suitable location to supplement
its other chemical operations at Saltville, Va., and
Niagara Falls, N. Y.
The Lake Charles area has an almost inexhaust
ible supply of salt of high quality, ample calcium
carbonate in the form of oyster shell deposits in
the nearby lakes, and an abundant supply of nat
ural gas for fuel. An additional factor is the ex
cellent transportation facilities offered by the area,
both by water and overland, for moving the plant’s
products to industrial markets throughout the
South.
Early in World War II, the Corporation was re
quested by the United States Government to con
struct a plant for the production of synthetic am
monia for military uses, and again Lake Charles
was selected as the site. This plant now owned by
Olin Mathieson is producing ammonia for use in
the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers and
numerous industrial chemicals. Since the War,
it has added facilities for converting part of its
ammonia output into nitric acid and sodium
nitrate.
In July, 1953, another new installation—the
first of its kind in the country—was completed
for the manufacture of hydrazine, which is made
from ammonia, caustic soda and chlorine. Hydra
zine is used as a rocket fuel and in the manu
facture of other chemical products.
The manufacture of soda ash as carried out by
Olin Mathieson at Lake Charles involves the chemi
cal reaction of carbon dioxide with purified am-
moniated salt brine. The carbon dioxide is pro
duced by burning oyster shells in large rotary kilns
fired by natural gas. Brine is obtained by pumping
water into the nearby West Hackberry dome to