ST. LOUIS, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Solutia Inc. (NYSE: SOI) today
announced plans to construct a new phenol plant at the company's Pensacola
site and, at the same time, announced an agreement with JLM Industries Inc.
(Nasdaq: JLMI) to participate in this project.  In return for investing in
this project, JLM will obtain a long-term arrangement for purchasing a
substantial amount of the plant's output of phenol.
    The new plant will incorporate new, proprietary one-step phenol
manufacturing technology, first discovered by scientists in Russia's Boreskov
Institute of Catalysis (BIC) and perfected and commercialized in conjunction
with Solutia engineers.
    Solutia will use its share of the phenol output in the production of nylon
6,6 which is used in hundreds of products such as carpet, tire-reinforcing
fabric, mechanical gears, electrical connectors, airbags and molded automobile
parts.
    JLM Industries, with headquarters in Tampa, Florida, is a leading
manufacturer, marketer and distributor of chemicals such as acetone, phenol,
propylene and olefins.
    "We are very pleased to have JLM as our partner in this project to build a
new phenol production facility," says John  Hunter, Solutia's president and
chief operating officer.  "JLM is well suited to sell this additional phenol
into markets where they already have significant positions."
    "This is a unique opportunity where everyone benefits from this
partnership," Hunter adds.  "By pooling our resources, we both gain the
advantages of a world-scale phenol plant."
    "This partnership will give JLM access to phenol produced by this facility
in excess of Solutia's internal requirements," says John Macdonald, JLM
Industries Inc.'s president and chief executive officer.  "When combined with
our current phenol production, this additional capacity will make JLM a major
factor in the North American merchant phenol market."
    Phenol is a key raw material for producing nylon as well as for many other
products such as plywood, particleboard and high-performance plastics.
    "The new phenol production process is world-class breakthrough technology
that allows phenol to be produced in a one-step process, rather than going
through several manufacturing steps," exclaims Charles Weidhas, director of
Solutia's intermediates business.  "The process significantly reduces aqueous
wastes and, unlike the traditional process using cumene, does not produce
acetone as a by-product."
    A pilot plant has been operated for the past two years in Pensacola.  "The
results from our pilot plant work are extremely successful," Weidhas adds.
"The next phase, the engineering studies already have been completed, and we
anticipate being able to break ground on the phenol unit in the first quarter
of 1999 and be in full-scale production by the fourth quarter of 2000."
    The high yield of the new one-step phenol manufacturing process enhances
Solutia's plans to expand the production of nylon intermediates at its
Pensacola plant, and, at the same time, improve environmental quality.  The
new plant will strengthen the Pensacola plant's position as the world's
largest integrated manufacturer of nylon intermediates, fiber, polymer and
resin.
    "Solutia's new phenol technology fits the company's strategy of reducing
the cost of making nylon 6,6," adds Weidhas.  "We will use phenol to produce
KA oil which is used by many of the company's ten businesses to make such
products as adipic acid, nylon 6,6 fibers, plastics and polymers.  We believe
we will have the world's best cost position in adipic acid which translates to
lower nylon 6,6 production costs."
    "Solutia owns exclusive rights to the one-step phenol technology outside
the former Soviet Union, and we will offer the phenol-production technology
for license to other global companies seeking to increase manufacturing of
phenol," Weidhas says.  BIC will offer the technology for license within the
countries of the former Soviet Union.
    In 1996, the new one-step phenol process won a special award from Monsanto
as an example of outstanding environmental technology.  Solutia is also
submitting the process as a candidate for a President's Green Chemistry Award,
given by the Clinton Administration.
    Solutia was spun-off last September 1 from St. Louis-based Monsanto
Company.  Solutia continues to be based in St. Louis.

    COMPANY INFORMATION:
    SOLUTIA INC.
    Solutia Inc. the applied chemistry businesses which were spun off from
Monsanto on September 1, 1997 is already a successful enterprise, drawing on
nearly a century's worth of experience in applied chemistry.  Solutia operates
businesses which produced sales of approximately $3 billion in 1997.

    Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Solutia has a major presence in both
national and international markets with 16 manufacturing plants in 12
different states, along with manufacturing facilities in Belgium, Canada and
the United Kingdom.  In addition, Solutia has equity interests in a number of
joint ventures and leases production capacity at several plants still owned by
Monsanto.  The company's operations also include sales offices, research
laboratories and technical centers worldwide.

    JLM INDUSTRIES, INC.
    JLM Industries, Inc. is a leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor
of certain commodity chemicals, principally acetone, other solvents, and
phenol.  Based in Tampa, Florida, JLM is also a global distributor of olefins,
principally propylene, as well as a variety of other commodity and specialty
chemicals.  The company sells its products worldwide, and in 1997 had revenues
of approximately $300 million.  JLM Industries supplements the output of its
own Blue Island (Illinois) manufacturing facility with long-established
supplier relationships with several major chemical companies.  The company
maintains sales offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, and operates
terminal facilities in Texas and North Carolina.

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