Inside Our Manufacturing: How La Porte Contributes to the Value Chain
At Kuraray America’s polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) site in La Porte, Texas, manufacturing extends beyond the products produced on-site. The facility produces vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), a primary raw material critical to other Kuraray America, Inc. (KAI) manufacturing operations at our EVAL and Bayport sites and even beyond North America.
In addition to producing VAM, our La Porte site produces polyvinyl alcohol resin under the trademark ELVANOL™, using VAM as a raw material. ELVANOL™ resin is a water-soluble synthetic polymer with excellent film-forming, emulsifying, and adhesive properties and is primarily used in adhesives, coatings, and emulsifiers.
It also works as a binding agent that holds the plies of a paper towel together, an application that surprised Clay Murphy, Production Engineer, when he joined the site full-time in March of 2026.
Clay Murphy, Production Engineer, at the PVOH site in La Porte, TX.
VAM supplied to Bayport is used in the production of KURARAY POVAL™ resin, which later becomes an ingredient in products ranging from adhesives and paper coatings to textiles, packaging materials, and specialty films.
For Bayport, having a critical raw material supplied directly from another KAI site translates into a more efficient supply chain.
Nearly 80 percent of Kuraray America’s product portfolio is made in the United States, and La Porte’s role shows how interconnected some of that manufacturing can be. What starts as VAM at one site can become the starting point for another production process, another material and, eventually, products used every day.
Manufacturing a Raw Material & the Product
VAM Production: From Reaction to Refining
VAM production at La Porte begins with an exothermic reaction that converts raw materials into vinyl acetate monomer (VAM). Following the reaction, VAM undergoes a series of refining steps to meet the required product specifications. A portion of the finished VAM is used at La Porte as a raw material in the production of ELVANOL™.
Behind each step is a robust Process Safety Management (PSM) program designed to ensure VAM is produced safely at the La Porte Site.
ELVANOL™ Production: From Monomer to Polymer
VAM is fed into a reactor where it is polymerized into polyvinyl acetate (PVA). The PVA is then saponified into PVOH. From there, a drying system removes liquids from the PVOH to produce a dry, powdery product, while an extensive recovery system recycles reagents and solvents.
The dry PVOH powder then moves from the drying system into the conveying system, where it is screened for size and transferred into silos to await packaging and shipment.
One silo at a time, the PVOH powder is conveyed into a railway hopper car. Each car is weighed before being sent off-site for further packaging and shipment to the final customer.
Keeping VAM Operations Online: Safely and Reliably
Ramsha Syed, a chemical engineer who supports the VAM unit operations, works with process engineers and operators who monitor the process 24/7. Preventive maintenance stays on schedule, and alarms give operators early warning. Shiftconnector®, a digital system launched late last year and now used more widely across the site, keeps communication flowing across shifts.
Ramsha Syed, Chemical Engineer, at the PVOH site in La Porte, TX.
VAM can be highly reactive, and multiple layers of process controls and safeguards support safe and reliable operations.
Modernizing Operations While Preserving Experience
The La Porte site began operations in the early 1970s and became part of Kuraray America in 2014. Today, the facility continues to invest in infrastructure upgrades, including the
- replacement of an azeotropic column,
- wastewater handling improvements and
- construction of a new ELVANOL™ packaging warehouse.
With capital projects planned over the next five years, the site has also expanded its engineering and planning resources to support these investments.
Modernizing long-serving equipment requires a strong understanding of existing systems and careful planning. "We've got to know what we have in place already before we start trying to change it," Murphy said.
Maintaining accurate records ensures that current improvements are documented for future teams.
Alongside infrastructure investments, La Porte continues to adopt digital technologies to improve operational efficiency and decision-making. A quality database introduced in 2025 enables engineers to analyze laboratory trends, review production lots, and share findings with teams, making quality data easier to access and use across the site.
Advancing Reliability Through Predictive Technology
Project Kuralytix was launched to modernize equipment reliability management at the La Porte site. In collaboration with Pinnacle, the project uses machine learning and Quantitative Reliability Optimization (QRO) through Pinnacle’s Newton™ platform to
- integrate previously disconnected reliability data,
- anticipate equipment failures, and
- prioritize maintenance activities based on operational impact.
This approach supports a shift from reactive to predictive maintenance, improving decision-making, equipment availability, and operational efficiency. Launched in January 2025, the 18-month initiative established La Porte as the initial deployment site before expanding to Bayport, with a focus on demonstrating measurable savings and establishing a sustainable, data-driven reliability management model.
Quality and Standards
For Melissa Whiteaker, Quality Specialist for PVOH, quality at the PVOH sites means ensuring that the VAM, ELVANOL™, and KURARAY POVAL™ produced meet product specifications. Whiteaker has been at the La Porte site for 18 years, joining through the DuPont acquisition after beginning her career in supply chain. Today, she is the site's go-to quality assurance person and supports quality and standards work across both La Porte and Bayport.
Melissa Whiteaker, Quality Specialist, at the PVOH site in La Porte, TX.
The technical standards for VAM and ELVANOL™ extend across multiple layers of documentation, including raw materials, process procedures, testing and final product specifications.
On-site laboratory technicians sample every production batch and check the results against the product specification database, and only material that meets specification is released. Over the summer, Murphy, Mark Parham and other engineers worked with the site's interns to develop a batch release form that logs any process event during a run that could affect final product quality.
La Porte operates to ISO* 9001, ISO 14001, RC** 14000 and ISCC*** PLUS requirements. The site was recertified to ISO 9001 this year and earned its ISCC PLUS certification in 2023. ISO certification has been part of the site since the 1990s, while RC 14000 provides a baseline for operating safely and remaining in good standing with the surrounding community.
La Porte was also the first KAI site certified to the ISCC PLUS requirements, earned by sourcing bio-circular ethylene from an outside supplier. This provides customers with a certified sustainable option and enables the site to produce ELVANOL™ from bio-circular VAM.
*ISO – International Organization for Standardization; **RC – Responsible Care®; ***ISCC – International Sustainability & Carbon Certification
For plant personnel, those standards show up most directly in the procedures they use every day. Whiteaker describes them as providing both the " know-how" and the "know-why": how to operate a piece of equipment, what safety measures apply, and how to troubleshoot when the process moves outside its normal range.
A La Porte team member performs laboratory testing as part of the site’s quality-control process, 2026.
Testing technology provides plant operators another way to see that performance sooner. In addition to existing laboratory testing methods, the site now has Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) instruments that provide a more efficient approach to analyzing process samples and delivering results. NIR testing shortens the feedback loop for operators by providing timely analysis of process samples, helping verify that material remains within customer-defined specifications during production.
Training and Workplace Culture
A new hire works through a 90-day personnel management-of-change process built around nine or ten structured steps, including one-on-one sessions with subject matter experts who cover the process, workflow, and documentation standards. The introductions matter as much as the information, because those are the people a new engineer keeps going back to with questions.
Operators and engineers who have been here since the DuPont era carry decades of hands-on knowledge, and engineers are encouraged to host knowledge transfer sessions. Syed and another engineer set up their own monthly sessions with colleagues approaching retirement to capture what they know. Syed started at Kuraray America as an intern in 2020 and now mentors the site's interns herself.
For Syed, that access to experienced employees is one of the things she values most about working at La Porte. She describes the site as “a great place to work,” especially because there are seasoned employees throughout the plant she can continue learning from.
Daniel Velasquez, Plant Manager, sees that willingness to share knowledge as part of a broader culture that has helped the site continue adapting over time.
Daniel Velasquez, Plant Manager, at the PVOH site in La Porte, TX.
Industry Recognition
2025 Recycle and Sustainability Award by HPP
Kuraray America’s La Porte site was awarded the 2025 Recycle and Sustainability Award presented by HPP, in recognition of efforts to divert recyclable materials, including soil and concrete, from landfill and give them a second life through HPP’s recycling process.
The La Porte team with the HPP 2025 Recycle and Sustainability Award.
2026 Manufacturing Leadership Award – Operations Excellence – Finalist
La Porte was named as a finalist in the Operations Excellence category for the 2026 Manufacturing Leadership Awards by the Manufacturing Leadership Council.
Award submission title - Kuralytix: AI-Driven Reliability Transformation to Close Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Performance Gaps at Kuraray America, Inc.'s La Porte Plant.
By addressing documented Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) performance gaps and continuing to shift decision-making from reactive to proactive, Kuralytix helps unlock stronger plant performance that supports smarter, data-driven operations.
For Velasquez, that advancement is part of a larger manufacturing standard at the site, one defined by disciplined processes, shared technical knowledge, and people who understand not only how the work is done, but why it matters.
(1) Shiftconnector® A registered mark of eschbach GmbH. (2) Newton™ A trademark of Pinnacle ART, LLC doing business as Pinnacle.
The Kuraray Group celebrated its centennial milestone in June 2026.