INTERNATIONAL
Britain Gets New Petrochemicals Complex British Hydrocarbon Chemicals, Ltd., has started operations at a $36.5 million petrochemicals complex—its second in Britain
British Hydrocarbon Chemicals, Ltd., has started operating plants at its $36.5 million petrochemicals complex at Baglan Bay, in Wales. The plants will produce 125,000 tons of petrochemicals during the first full year of operation. The main products will be ethylene (50,000 to 60,000 tons a year), ethylene dichloride (64,000 tons), propylene (capacity not disclosed), butadiene (5000 tons), and isobutylene (capacity not disclosed). BHC has another large petrochemical complex at Grangemouth, in Scotland. Several other companies have built, or are building chemical plants at Baglan Bay. One of them, Forth Chemicals (a joint subsidiary of Monsanto and B H C ) , has a styrene monomer plant within the BHC site. Other companies with plants at Baglan Bay include W. R. Grace and Chas. Pfizer. Feedstock for the BHC complex is available from the nearby refinery of British Petroleum at Lkndarcy—only three miles away. BHC's plants are a closely integrated operation, not only because there are adjacent chemical plants which will buy BHC's petrochemical products, but because many of those chemical plants are operated by subsidiaries of Distillers Co., Ltd. And BHC is owned jointly by Distillers and British Petroleum. Operation. BP's Llandarcy refinery supplies light petroleum distillate to B H C s complex by pipeline. Products of BHC's cracker—ethylene, propylene, and a C 4 stream—are separated by fractionation. A raw cracked 112
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COMPLEX. The $36.5 million petrochemicals complex of British Hydrocarbon Chemicals has facilities to make 125,000 tons a year of chemical products. Most of this will be supplied to adjacent plants of other chemical companies
spirit from the cracker goes to a gasoline treating unit (an integral part of the ethylene plant) and after treatment it is returned to British Petroleum to be blended into gasoline. BHC uses fuel oil separated from the raw cracked spirit and surplus cracker gases for steam generation. BHC converts its ethylene to ethylene dichloride. Most of the ethylene dichloride is shipped to a 54,000 tona-year polyvinyl chloride plant operated by British Geon, Ltd., at Barry. British Geon is owned jointly by Distillers Co. (55%) and B. F. Goodrich (45%). Ethylene from BHC is converted to
styrene monomer in Forth Chemicals' new 50,000 ton-a-year plant at the BHC complex. Forth Chemicals also has a 50,000 ton-a-year styrene monomer plant at Grangemouth, in Scotland. Among the potential customers in Wales for styrene monomer from Baglan Bay are Monsanto, at Newport, Distrene Ltd. (a Distillers-Dow subsidiary), and British Resin Products (a Distillers subsidiary) both at Barry. Another potential customer for the styrene monomer is International Synthetic Rubber, which makes styrenebutadiene rubber at Hythe, near Southampton.
BHC will supply propylene over the fence to Pfizer's new propylene oxide plant at Baglan Bay. This plant is expected to be in operation soon. Pfizer will polymerize the propylene oxide to polyethers and sell them to polyurethane foam producers. BHC uses the Shell acetonitrile process to extract its butadiene at Bag lan Bay. This is the first time that the Shell process is being used in Brit ain. The residue of the C 4 stream from BHC's cracker is rich in isobutylene. This stream is piped to W. R. Grace's plant where the isobutylene is ex tracted and polymerized. Grace makes a range of polybutenes. Ca pacity of its plant is 8 million pounds a year, but modifications are under way to increase this. Grace sells its polybutenes to companies making lube oil additives, caulking compounds, and rubber extenders. The plants that BHC has built at Baglan Bay occupy only a small por tion of its 1000-acre site. Eventually, BHC will expand its operations there. A company spokesman says that Bag lan Bay could well become "the Grangemouth of Wales." Grangemouth is one of the largest petrochemical complexes in Britain. There BHC produces ethylene (130,000 tons a year capacity), propylene (110,000 tons), butadiene (20,000 tons), isobutylene (capacity not avail able), and ethylene dichloride (64,000 tons). There are also plants there to make polyethylene, phenol, styrene monomer, methanol, and phthalic an hydride.
National Distillers Starts Up Polypropylene Film Plants National Distillers moved into the European market for packaging film with the dedication of plants of two overseas affiliates. Shorko-Thomassen & Drijver, S.A., Bornem, Belgium, will produce oriented polypropylene, cast polypropylene, and polyethylene film for sale in the European Common Mar ket nations. Shorko-Metal Box., Ltd., Swindon, England, will manufacture oriented polypropylene film and lami nates for distribution in the U.K. Both Thomassen & Drijver and Metal Box currently produce plastic and metal containers. The Shorko companies were formed in 1960 by National Distillers and Royal Dutch/Shell to promote plastic
packaging operations outside the U.S. and Canada. Sansho Jushi, K.K., another Shorko company, expects its polyolefin film plant at Ami, Japan, to be in operation sometime in 1964. In the U.S., National will get into polypropylene production early next year through Alamo Polymer Corp., which is owned jointly with Phillips Petroleum. Alamo's polypropylene resins plant is under construction at Phillips' site on the Houston Ship Channel. Its film plant is going up at Stratford, Conn.
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BRIEFS Olin Mathieson will make its highanalysis fertilizer know-how available internationally through an agreement
with
Chemiebau
G.m.b.H.,
Dr.
A.
Zieren,
Cologne, West Germany.
Ethyl Corp. has formed a new division —Ethyl lnternational-to handle its foreign operations. Ethyl Corp. of Canada, Ltd., will not be affected by the action. A. B. Horn, Jr., was named vice president and general manager of the new division. Julian J. Frey, who has been directing Ethyl's export sales and will continue as assist ant vice president of Ethyl, will serve as assistant to Β. Β. Turner, Ethyl president. C. D. Carter has been named vice president of Ethyl Inter national, reporting to Mr. Horn.
fhiokol Chemical Corp. has formed a subsidiary, Thiokol, Ltd., in Coventry, England. The new subsidiary will sell Thiokol's line of waterproofing compounds in Europe. The com pounds are based on polysulfide poly mers and are used mainly by the building and shipping industries.
Witco Chemical's Canadian subsidiary plans to produce alkylbenzene sul fonic acid and other sulfonate deriva tives at its Brantford, Ont., plant. A new unit to make the detergent inter mediates will be installed at Brantford and production should start early in 1964. Witco's Canadian subsidiary,
Witco Chemical Co., Canada, Ltd., makes dry and liquid detergents as well as emulsifiers, surfactants, and other products at Brantford and Oakville, Ont.
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