The company owns and operates the world's three largest acetic acid plants: one in the Clear Lake area of Pasadena, Texas,[6] one on Jurong Island in Singapore, and a third in Nanjing, China.

[4][7] In 1918, the American Cellulose & Chemical Manufacturing Company (known as Amcelle) was founded in New York City by Swiss chemist Camille Dreyfus.

It was also situated in proximity to a ready source of water at the Potomac River and easy access to coal supplies and railroad lines.

[15] In 1983, Celanese built a $20 million plant in Rock Hill, South Carolina, to produce polybenzimidazole (PBI), a material used to fabricate high-performance protective apparel used in firefighter's gear and astronaut space suits.

[18] In 1998, in a $2.7 billion deal, Hoechst Celanese sold its Trevira division to a consortium between Houston-based KoSa, a joint venture of Koch Industries, IMASAB S.A., and Grupo Xtra, both of Mexico.

In 1999, Hoechst spun off Celanese AG as a publicly traded German corporation, cross-listed on both the Frankfurt and New York stock exchanges as "CZZ" and "CZ", respectively.

[22] On 16 December 2003, the U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group announced a takeover offer for Celanese,[23] after two years of wooing management.

[26] In June 2009, the company sold its polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) business to Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd.[27] Celanese has a process to make ethanol from natural gas.

[30] In 1985, Hoechst Celanese was named along with Shell Oil and US Brass as a defendant in a class action lawsuit for $7 billion in both past and potential future damages for which they were accused of being liable because of leaks in their polybutylene (PB) plumbing systems.

[33] In January 2014, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the citizens of Cannon's Campground, seeking relief from health and environmental dangers posed by groundwater and surface water contamination emanating from the Hoechst-Celanese manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Major end-use markets include polyvinyl alcohol producers, paper, mortar and gypsum, textiles, paints, coatings, and adhesives manufacturers.

Celanese researchers developed the TCX Technology to create a fuel that helps countries reduce their need to import oil and gas.