Exxon consolidates Proxxima operations in Baytown, continues growth

February 13, 2025

Spring-based Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is consolidating and growing its Proxxima technology at its massive Baytown Complex.

After acquiring California-based Materia Inc., which was Exxon’s Nobel Prize-winning partner in developing the Proxxima polyolefin thermoset resin systems, in 2021, Exxon has spent the past year moving its Proxxima operations from Materia’s lab in Pasadena, California, to Baytown.

"The lab that we had out in Pasadena was a standalone lab facility not integrated with any other businesses,” Dave Andrew, Exxon’s vice president of new market development, told the Houston Business Journal during a tour of the lab in Baytown.Exxon’s Baytown Complex, meanwhile, is one of the most technologically advanced and largest integrated petroleum and petrochemical complexes in the world, according to the company. It includes a refinery, chemical plant, olefins plant, and the Baytown Technology and Engineering Complex, where the Proxxima lab is housed.

The lab currently employs 42 people, Andrew said, and it’s only growing. By the end of the year, Exxon hopes to have about 60 people working at the lab.

“The thing about ExxonMobil is that there are a lot of career opportunities, and moving the lab to Baytown provides that level of opportunity to our people,” Andrew said.

By 2030, Exxon expects to scale up its Proxxima production to 200,000 tonnes per annum, with the addressable market for the technology reaching 5 million tonnes and $30 billion by the end of the decade.

Proxxima is one of several new technologies Exxon has been pursuing over the past year. Proxxima, specifically, is meant to be lighter and stronger than steel and has applications in many industries. It can replace steel rebar or be used in the automotive industry for lightweight batter boxes in electric vehicles. The resin can also coat pipes and make wind turbines.

Meanwhile, Exxon teased in April 2024 it was exploring the carbon materials market. Later, during its third-quarter 2024 earnings call, Exxon said it had developed proprietary technology that allows it to produce feedstock for graphite, the primary material in battery anodes, at scale. The material could improve electric vehicle range and charging both by 30%.

Together, the two technologies could have an addressable market of more than $100 billion by 2030, Exxon said during a December investor presentation.

Beyond 2040, the Proxxima and carbon materials ventures have annual earnings potential of over $6 billion and investment returns of more than 20%, which is higher than Exxon’s energy products segment has averaged over the past five years, CFO Kathryn Mikells said during the December investor presentation.

When looking at these two products, along with carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, and lithium under Exxon’s Low Carbon Solutions, Mikells said the businesses could collectively generate $3 billion of earnings in 2030.