Kobuta is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Potter Township, Beaver County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States. It is located along the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, due west of

Monaca Monaca ( ) is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States along the Ohio River, northwest of Pittsburgh. The population was 5,615 as of the 2020 census. First incorporated as Phillipsburg as the home of the New Philadelphia Societ ...

, southwest of

Industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

, and southwest of

Beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

. The area was the site of a butadiene, and later a foamed polystyrene, chemical plant during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and in the 1950s, owned by the Koppers United Company, predecessor to Koppers Company, Inc. The company produced the chemical

butadiene 1,3-Butadiene () is the organic compound with the formula (CH2=CH)2. It is a colorless gas that is easily condensed to a liquid. It is important industrially as a precursor to synthetic rubber. The molecule can be viewed as the union of two viny ...

, an ingredient of

synthetic rubber A synthetic rubber is an artificial elastomer. They are polymers synthesized from petroleum byproducts. About 32-million metric tons of rubbers are produced annually in the United States, and of that amount two thirds are synthetic. Synthetic rubbe ...

. The name of the area came from the combination of "Koppers" and "butadiene". The community has largely disappeared from modern maps, except for a few business names. Effectively all of Kobuta will become part of the

Pennsylvania Shell ethylene cracker plant The Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex is an under-construction ethylene Cracking (chemistry), cracker chemical plant, plant located in Potter Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Potter Township, Pennsylvania, United States, owned and o ...

once it opens in the early 2020s.

References

External links

History of Kobuta
Unincorporated communities in Beaver County, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh metropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania {{BeaverCountyPA-geo-stub

Further reading

References

External links