ExxonMobil announced plans this week to invest more than $100 million in facility upgrades in Baton Rouge to produce high-purity isopropyl alcohol, a critical material for semiconductor chip manufacturing in the U.S.
Though Kate Lightfoot, manager of the Baton Rouge Complex Chemical Plant, says the company has been producing isopropyl alcohol at the Baton Rouge facility for more than 80 years, highly complex microchip manufacturing requires isopropyl alcohol with an extremely high—99.999% pure—purity level.
“With this investment, we’re enhancing one of our legacy chemical products to meet growing demand in the tech industry,” Lightfoot says.
State officials are touting the project for helping to retain existing jobs as well as create 45 construction jobs. The project is expected to be completed in 2027.
To support the project, the state offered the company a competitive incentives package, including the Retention and Modernization Program, which provides manufacturers up to a 4% refundable tax credit of the amount of qualified expenditures. The company is also expected to utilize the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program.
