History of Carolina BioFuels Biodiesel Facility
The roots of Carolina BioFuels, LLC, Taylors, SC, facility (formerly Rohm and Haas/Morton International) can be traced back to the mid-1940's when Chemical and Industrial Laboratories was established in a small building in Greenville, SC – about two miles from the present site of Carolina BioFuels facility. About that same time, Polymer Industries, Inc. was started in a garage in Astoria , NY.
By 1951, the Taylors Company had changed its name to Polymer Southern and merged with Polymer Industries. Philip Morris Industrial acquired both groups in January 1958. The Taylors location became known as Polymer Industries, Textile Chemicals Division, in 1975. The company didn't change hands again until 1982 when Morton International (then Morton Norwich) acquired the chemical group of Phillip Morris, including Polymer Industries.
Construction at the current Taylors site has been almost continuous since the ‘60s and continues into the ‘90s. The existing Plant #5 was built in 1963 around a single chemical batch reactor system. A second batch reactor was added in 1966. The office, R&D building, warehouse and compounding Plant #4 were occupied in 1968. In 1973, Plant #6 and a warehouse addition were constructed. Additional chemical process equipment was installed in Plant #6 in 1984, and our largest computerized reactor system went on line in 1994. Plant #7 (Morez) was completed in 1996 and included our first continuous operating reacting system.
In June of 1999, the property was acquired by the Rohm and Haas Company. The property was subsequently sold to Cybertech GSP in January 2003 after an extensive cleaning and renovation had occurred.
Cybertech was a Wilmington , NC , corporation which was established in 1978 to service the pulp, paper and packaging industries but had no polymerization capabilities. Therefore, the acquisition of the Taylors facility allowed Cybertech to backward integrate for their major raw materials.
The company was reorganized in 2006 and reopened as Carolina Polymers, LLC. In June 2006, Carolina BioFuels, LLC was created as a subsidiary of Carolina Polymers, LLC for the purpose of manufacturing and marketing Biodiesel. From June of 2006 until today, many process changes have occurred including the re-tooling of the facility's largest process reactors for the purpose of producing Biodiesel. The company has made the decision to fully commit its capital resources for converting the remaining process equipment to manufacture Biodiesel at a rate of 30-50 million gallons per year.
The capacity and flexibility of Carolina BioFuels, LLC, Taylors , SC , facility is unique in the industries which we serve and shows tremendous potential for growth in the coming years.
The Carolina BioFuels team has decades of experience in chemical manufacturing. Heading the production operations team are Bill McIlwain, Chief Operating Officer, Terry Boone, Chief Technology Officer, and John Roberts, Plant Manager. Other management members include Everett Dickson, Chief Executive Officer, and Ben D. Davis, Chairman of the Board.
Carolina BioFuels has existing biodiesel production capacity of 40 million gallons per year, with plans to install additional capacity. At current production volumes, Carolina BioFuels is one of the largest biodiesel facilities east of the Mississippi River . Carolina BioFuels biodiesel has been certified as meeting European specifications.
Carolina BioFuels sells biodiesel through several ports on the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard, including dedicated Carolina BioFuels tankage at Savannah, Georgia .