Delaware Creates Good Chemistry for Industry
Published Apr 16, 2006
From simple stone buildings (now a museum) on the banks of the Brandywine River, DuPont grew into an industry giant.
New Castle County has long served as a cradle for chemical research and production.
DuPont Co., founded in Wilmington in 1802, evolved from a gunpowder company into an innovation leader, responsible for such brands as Corian, Lycra, Teflon and Tyvek. Another large chemical company, Hercules Inc., was established in Wilmington in 1912. Newark-based W.L. Gore & Associates, famous for Gore-Tex, has been a pioneer since 1958.
The legacy continues. A streamlined DuPont, for example, creates products for a variety of industries, including agriculture, health care, construction and electronics. W.L. Gore, founded by a former DuPont employee, counts medical products among its fastest-growing sectors.
Other chemical companies have joined these heavyweights – many growing from seeds DuPont sowed.
Paris-based Air Liquide, a provider of industrial and medical gases, is currently transforming a former DuPont site in Glasgow into a research and development facility.
“Air Liquide has been welcomed by all the different bodies of [Delaware] government,” says Diane Labelle, director of corporate communications for American Air Liquide in Houston. The location is also near “the brainpower of major universities,” she says.
When completed in early 2007, the building will house 160 employees. Some will relocate from the company’s Chicago research facility; others will move from Newport-based MEDAL, an Air Liquide subsidiary that produces membranes that separate gases. MEDAL (MEmbrane systems DuPont Air Liquide) was once a cooperative effort with DuPont.
Ciba Specialty Chemicals, which manufactures pigments for the coatings, imaging and inks, and plastic industries, also resides in Newport. Born as the Krebs Co. in 1902, the operation was purchased by DuPont in 1929. Ciba bought it in 1984.
About 300 employees now work at the 31-acre site. In addition to producing pigments, the Newport location is the NAFTA headquarters for the company’s coating-effects business segment.
“Delaware has been very supportive of our business, ever since we first established ourselves here,” says Donna Jakubowski, director of public affairs for Ciba Specialty Chemicals.
State grants helped the company complete a $180 million modernization program in 2000.
Chemistry can overlap information technology. Consider Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials in Newark, which specializes in polishing technology for semiconductors, silicon wafers and storage media substrates. “That polishing must take place before you can build a microchip,” says Kate Klemas, public affairs manager for Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, a division of chemical giant Rohm and Haas Co. in Philadelphia.
Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials originated as a company called Rodel Inc., founded in 1968 by former DuPont employee Bill Budinger. The Newark location now boasts more than 750 employees working from 15 buildings.
The area has responded to the company’s growth. “When we first started this business, you could not go down to the University of Delaware and get a degree in material sciences,” Klemas says. “But today, the School of Engineering has an incredible, robust program for material sciences.”
Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials is “a wonderful success story for Delaware,” she says.
Story by Pam George
Photo by Stephen Cherry
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