{"id":470,"date":"2022-01-07T21:49:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T03:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/?page_id=470"},"modified":"2026-04-08T20:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:43:10","slug":"1940s","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/index.php\/1940s\/","title":{"rendered":"1940 – 1949"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/span>
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World War II<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While gasoline was rationed back home, gasoline, diesel and fuel oil were in great demand for the vehicles, airplanes, and ships used in the war effort. The last Dubbs thermal cracking unit, far surpassing the original, was constructed. Then two towering fluid catalytic cracking units, utilizing a new process to produce gasoline from heavier crude oil components, were built (they are still in operation after many improvements). Two alkylation units were built to make gasoline from the lighter compounds in crude oil, utilizing sulfuric acid as a catalyst*. Two toluene plants were built to produce the raw material for TNT, which was shipped to the Weldon Spring, Missouri munitions plant. WRR was the first refinery to win the Army-Navy “E” award for wartime production excellence (WRR would subsequently win it four more times). 793 refinery employees were serving in the armed forces in 1944. Refinery capacity was 90,000 barrels per day in 1945. Expansion continued after the war with the construction of a vacuum flasher unit to produce fuels from the heaviest components of crude oil. Meanwhile, Shell consolidated the headquarters of its various U.S. subsidiaries and moved its corporate offices to New York City. The Shell Building in St. Louis still stands and was converted to a hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Wood River Oil and Refining Company constructed its first refinery in nearby Hartford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*a catalyst promotes a chemical reaction but does not become part of the product <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dubbs Unit no. 18<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Catalytic Cracking Units 1 & 2<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Alkylation Unit no. 1<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Toluene Unit no. 1<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Vacuum Flasher Unit<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u25c4 1930s<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Home<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
1950s \u25ba<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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1940s Wood River Refinery Newsletters:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dec 1941<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Jan 1942<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Feb 1942<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Mar 1942<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Apr 1942<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
May 1942<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Jun 1942<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Aug 1942<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Oct 1942<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Dec 1942<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Jan 1943<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Mar 1943<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Apr 1943<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Oct 1943<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Dec 1943<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Feb 1944<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sep 1944<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Oct 1944<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Nov 1944<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Dec 1944<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Apr 1945<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
May 1945<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Aug 1945<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sep 1945<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Dec 1945<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Jan 1946<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Apr 1946<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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1940s Wood River Refinery Newsletters:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-470","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1907,"href":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/470\/revisions\/1907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wrrmuseum.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}