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INDUSTRY &. BU.SINE
essing to h a n d l e t h e nionohydrate ore. Alcoa uses t h e conventional Bayer proct-vs to make alumina. T h e bauxite shipments will come to Point Comfort via Point Aransas. Tex. T h e o r e will then b e trans-shipped TO miles b y barge through t h e intracoastal canal to the Point Comfort plant on M a t a g o r d a Bay. This is a temporary set-up and will go on until the Matagorda ship channel is d r e d g e d for ocean traffic. Congress appropriated funds for t h e project last > ear, a n d it should take three years to complete. Alcoa will convert some of the alumina m a d e at t h e new plant to aluminum at t h e company's Point Comfort reduction plant. This facility can make 120,000 tons of aluminum annually, is being expanded b y 20,000 tons. Point Comfort alumina will also b e shipped to other Alcoa reduction plants and some will b e sold to others in t h e aluminum business • O r m e t Plant· Last week Ormet (owned jointly by Olin Mathieson and
At O r m e t ' s alumina plant ( below ) in Burnside, L a . , a worker p r e p a r e s t o c h a n g e a leaf in a filter press. Plant has 345,000 t o n a n n u a l capacity
Gantry crane unloads first b a r g e of bauxite shipped to Alcoa's new ^aluiraina plant af: Point Comfort, Tex. Actually, the plant won't b e completed itmtil later thus year, b u t shakedown operations a r e scheduled to start this w^eek
Alumina Rounds Out Latest Growth Alcoa starts u p , O r m e t readies n e w plants . A L U M I N A MAKES NEWS this week as
Alcoa starts up a n e w plant a t Point Comfort, Tex. A week earlier, Ormet d e d i c a t e d its n e w plant at Burnside, La. Tfrese facilities will add 720,000 tons a year to U . S. alumina capacity. And that's n o t all, for this spring Kaiser will stiirt u p an alumina plant at Grarnercy, La., that will have a capacity of 430,000 tons p e r year. By I960, illumina capacity should total about -4.8 million tons—enough to sustain ahaminum's growth for t h e next few veoxs, Alcoa won't finish building t h e Point Comfort plant until later this year. But shakedown operations will get under
dedicates,
a n d Kaiser
way this week, and Alcoa figure to have the plant u p to a rated capa-city of 375,000 tons by i960. When complete, the plant will cost about $45 million. By 1965, Alcoa expects to increase capacity to 1 million tons of alumina annually. T h e Point Comfort plant will process two types of bauxite ores—one from Surinam in South America, a long established source, the other from Alcoa's new mining operation in the Dominican Republic. T h e difference between the ores: Surinam material is a trihydrate, that from the Dominican Republic a monohydrate. Alcoa says it's raeces-sary to a d d a modification step during p r o c -
^\mx
INDUSTRY & BUSINESS Revere Copper and Brass) dedicated its new* $55 million alumina plant at Burnside, La. It also dedicated a $15 million hulk marine terminal (('6cEN. Dec. 2 9 , 1958. page 1 7 ) , which will make Baton Rouge one of the top ten deep water plants in the V. S. Ormet will receive its bauxite from Surinam through this terminal. Construction was started on the alumina plant in November 1956, and it reached full production last September. It has a rated capacitv of 345,()()() tons of alumina per year. Ormet also uses the Baver process to make alumina.
Alumina C a p a c i t y in the U. S. by 1960 Alcoa Bauxite, Ark. Mobile, Ala. Point Comfort, Tex.
420,000 tons 986,000 tons 375,000 tons
Reynolds Metals Hurricane Creek, Ark. Corpus Christi, Tex.
730,000 tons 730,000 tons
Kaiser Aluminum & C h e m i c a l Baton Rouge, La 800,000 tons 430,000 tons Gram ere v, La. O r m e t C o r p . ( (JÏin M a t h i e s o n & Revere Copper ) Burnside, L a .
345,000 tons 4,816,000 tons
Total
Alumina m a d e at Burnside is barged up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to the Ormet alumina plant at Hannibal, Ohio. This plant has a capacity of 180,000 tons of aluminum annually, the output shared b y Olin Mathieson (two thirds) and Revere (one t h i r d ) . Kaiser is also active on the alumina construction scene, is building an alumina plant at Grarnercy, La. Construction started about t w o years ago, and the plant should start up this spring. It will have a rated capacity of 430,000 tons a year. Kaiser has no other plans to expand its alumina facilities nor does Reynolds, which completed a 182.500 ton expansion of its Corpus Christi plant last fall. Apparent 1 ·)·, the nation's alumina capacitv will be adequate by I960 to meet aluminum demands for the next several years. This year it's predicted that aluminum output will reach 1.8 million tons, which m e a n s , roughly, the consumption of 3.6 million tons of alumina. C&EN
JAN.
2 6,
19 5 9
Computer Control Comes Closer Two computer-controlled processes will be on stream in 1959; others may not be f a r off X in: computer-controlled plant is getting closer to reality for t h e technical industry. D u r i n g 1959, both Monsanto and B. V. Ooodrieh Chemical will use computers for direct, on-line process control. A n d other companies are pushing their own systems engineering programs. Both Monsanto and Goodrich will use Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge's R\Y-30() electronic digital computer. Goodrich's installation a t Calvert City, Ky., will exercise closed loop control over a vinyl chloride monomer unit. Operation is scheduled for June. Monsanto isn't revealing on Wiiat process or wnere it is putting computer control, except that the plant is an existing one and already highly instrumented. In addition to Monsanto and Goodrich, many other chemical companies are known to b e experimenting with computer control of processes. Dow, for example, says it has been working in the area "for some time," b u t gives no details. Du Pont is also active b u t is keeping m u m , too. Union Carbide is using a computer to help design airseparation plants. A n d according to one expert, most companies that use computers in their business operations (sales, payroll, for example) are using computer "free-time" to experiment with process control. In the chemical process industries, the consensTis is that petroleum companies are furthest along in systems engineering. It's a rare oil company that isn't considering putting a part of its refining operation under computer control, says one observer. Texaco is installing an R W - 3 0 0 computer in its Port Arthur, Tex., refinery, will "close t h e loop" in the next two months or so. Riverside Cement near Yictorville, Calif., will use an RW-300 t o guide operation of a mechanized rock blending plant. The computer will also log operating data from kiln operations and other aspects of cement making, representing t h e first step toward fully automatic c e m e n t manufacture. T h e steel industry is considering computer control of open hearth processes. Electronic? and instrument firms like Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge, Beck-
man, and International Business Machines say they have projects going with many chemical a n d allied process companies. TRW"s Joseph F. Manildi says, "We have sold and have a number of installations under way in the chemical, oil, nuclear reactor, cement, and aircraft industries.'* Beckman owns u p to two projects. One is concerned with a reformer o p eration at a petroleum company; the other with a petrochemicals producer's ethylene purification unit. • Improve Yield, Q u a l i t y . Aim of process control via computer is to improve product ViCua ùiKi (iliâiit) , tiïuS make an operation more economical. Monsanto expects to get maximum productivity from its plant investment with minimum operating cost. And Goodrich says, "Savings expected are in the increased efficiency of utilization of materials and uniformity of product." Early in the computer game, some believed that cost reductions would be due mainly to labor savings. Since then, says an automation expert, the manpower cost estimate has proved unrealistic, forcing a shift in thinking toward the product and yield improvement angle. Goodrich is a case in point; the computer-controlled unit calls for the same number of operators as does a conventional vinyl chloride production unit. Cost of such controls can vary quite a bit—from $95,000 up, says Beckman. The Goodrich computer plus installation, programming, and personnel training will cost almost $200,000, the company reports. The t y p e of system used determines the initial cost to a great extent. T h e RW-300. for example, includes built-in analog-digital conversion equipment, transistorized circuitry, printed wiring, modular construction, and a magnetic drum memory. It logs operating data and computes values. Future computer applications, at least by Monsanto and Goodrich, will probably hinge on results obtained with the systems now going in. Both companies are looking at their installations as research tools as well as production techniques.
