About Us

For more than 80 years, Union Carbide has manufactured products in West Virginia. Now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, Dow continues to work hard to improve manufacturing challenges at WVO, while building upon past success.

South Charleston Site

In 1920, Union Carbide constructed the world's first petrochemical plant at Clendenin, West Virginia. By 1925, the demand had grown to the point that the Clendenin operation and employees were moved to a new location at South Charleston. This move would help fulfill a contract to supply three million pounds of a chemical that kept dynamite from freezing. The chemical — ethylene glycol — was one of the first to propel Union Carbide to international recognition and later became the base for antifreeze.

Eventually the site came to occupy 236 acres in South Charleston, extending across the Kanawha River onto Blaine Island. Today, the site produces nearly 400 million pounds of different chemicals and plastics for applications such as:

Paints and paint primers
Brake, hydraulic and metalworking fluids
Textile processing
Car wash applications
Personal care products
Specialty chemicals for agricultural, automotive and industrial applications
Gas treating
Wastewater flocculent

South Charleston Technology Park
The South Charleston Technical Centers first research laboratory was dedicated in 1949. Two more large development labs and an engineering building were added in 1959. With this, the facility became a full-scale technical center. Major petrochemical processes have been developed right here at the South Charleston Technical Center. These world-class innovations include improved catalysts for chemical production and new manufacturing processes. Additionally, leading technologies allow the development of environmentally friendly flexible foams to be produced for the automotive, housing and construction industries.

Now known as the South Charleston Technology Park, this 651-acre complex is home to 381 labs, more than 400 researchers (180-200 doctorate-level) and several other technologically-focused tenants. The Technology Park also houses several chemical pilot plants, a computer operations center, and an engineering center, among other functions.

Institute Site
Originally built in 1943 as a government facility to produce synthetic rubber for the war effort, this plant was purchased by Union Carbide in 1947. While it first manufactured commodity-type products, the plant changed to specialty chemicals and agricultural products. In 1986, the agricultural business was sold to Rhone-Poulenc, a French chemical manufacturer. Today, the site is owned and operated by Bayer CropScience.

Dow purchases operations and infrastructure services to support Union Carbide’s operations units at the site. Bayer owns the plant site proper, the general facilities and the agricultural products units, thus making Dow a tenant at the Institute site.

Located a short distance from South Charleston, the Institute site produces approximately 300 million pounds of specialty chemical products annually for West Virginia Operations. These products are used in many applications we use every day, such as:

Adhesives
Shampoos
Contact lens products
Paint
Toys
Carpet and foam padding
Denture adhesives
Latex
Oil Field Drilling
Building Materials
Liquid detergents and all-purpose cleaners
Hair care products
Pharmaceutical applications
Paper
Lighting
Antifreeze