British Petro Chem Expansions - C&EN Global Enterprise (ACS

Nov 5, 2010 - THE British petroleum chemicals industry will double its consumption of feedstock and refinery gases over the next two or three years. P...
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INTERNATIONAL British Petro Chem Expansions Millions invested in new plants; consumption of refinery gases to double in next few years T H E British petroleum chemicals industry will double its consumption of feedstock and refinery gases over the next two or three years. Present consumption is about 750,000 short tons. Rated oil refining capacity is now 32 million tons a year, and, as it will rise substantially in t h e next few years as a result of projected expansion schemes, the raw material base for an even larger output of organic chemicals will be available. Capital investment in petroleum chemicals production will increase by about $85 million by 1958, it is predicted. Largest scheme contemplated is that of Esso Petroleum, which will spend about $25 million on a new chemicals plant to adjoin its 8-million-ton refinery at Fawley. It will be the raw material base of Britain's first general-purpose synthetic rubber plant. This company is the last a m o n g the large British oil refineries to enter the chemicals field. The Fawley plant will process 270,000 tons of raw material into a variety of chemicals including ethylene, propylene, butylene, a n d butadiene. Most of the butadiene will go to the synthetic rubber plant to be built near Fawley by International Synthetic Rubber Co., which plant will t>roduce 55,000 tons of GR-S from 1958 on. Negotiations are said to be under way with Monsanto* concerning erection of a polythene plant on an adjoining site which would provide a bulk outlet for ethylene. • Scotland. Capital expenditure on new plant for production and use of petroleum chemicals at Grangemouth, Scotland, will probably be nearly as large as the one at Fawley. Raw materials will b e obtained from the nearby British Petroleum refinery. British Hydrocarbon Chemicals, also at Grangemouth, is virtually duplicating its original cracking a n d gas separation units and will double output of olefins; increase in t h e production of industrial alcohol at Grangemouth last year already enabled the closing down of two of its distilleries based on imported molasses. A plant for making detergent alkylates under contract with Oronite Chemical has begun operation at 2164

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Grangemouth by Grange Chemicals with an annual output of over 10,000 tons. New units are being built at Grangemouth for extracting butadiene and producing tetrapropylene. The styrene monomer plant of Forth Chemicals is being doubled and its output may reach 25,000 tons and make further imports unnecessary, • Imperial Chemical Industries will this year p u t into operation installations for olefin production and butadiene extraction, further p-xylene and polyester fiber units, and new plant for making a range of copolymers to be used in paints and shoe-soling products. A second oil cracking unit which will almost double the raw material supply is scheduled to go on stream by the end of this year. • Shell h a s acquired the plant of Petrochemicals at Partington and has thus reorganized its interests in petroleum chemicals. Last fall it opened a $2-million epoxide plant designed for production of over 2000 tons of resin for paints and laminates near its oil refinery at Stanlow. The company is now erecting an 80,000-ton ammonia plant near its Shellhaven refinery, at a cost of $18 million. Most of this petroleum-derived ammonia will b e processed in another new plant being built by Fisons at a cost of $13 million. A 20,000-ton alkyl benzene plant will open soon a t Shellhaven. Shell is also said to be working on additions to its solvents production at Stanlow and the production of polythene by the lowpressure process.

Water Hyacinth Control American Chemical Paint Co. recently shipped 80,000 gallons of Weedar to the Belgian Congo as part of a $2 million campaign b y the Belgian government to eradicate the water hyacinth. The hyacinth, which stalls river navigation, causes an annual estimated loss of $15 million to navigation and agriculture in the Gulf Coast area of the U. S. It was first noticed on t h e Congo five or six years ago. As 60% of the world's uranium sup-

ply is carried on the Congo River, (most of it consigned t o t h e U. S.) and as the Congo also produces 90% of the world's radium and floats its greatest shipments of industrial diamonds, the navigational problems brought on by the hyacinth have assumed international economic importance. The hyacinth spreads by being broken from the banks by currents and floating in clumps to another location. One plant can reproduce 1000 new ones in 60 days. The flower grows densely, an estimated 800,000 plants to an acre. In 1948 the Boyce Thompson Institute of Yonkers participated with Tulane University and the U . S. Corps of Engineers in experiments to control t h e situation in coastal areas of southern U. S., and last year Henry Kirkpatrick, Jr., Boyce Thompson superintendent, was invited by the Belgian government to study the Congo problem. Tests with Weedar and other formulations resulted in an order for the Weedar shipment. An armada of small craft is being assembled to do the gigantic spraying job. Every one of the millions of hyacinth plants in the Congo wall have to be sprayed. An estimated 35,000 miles of bank will have to be sprayed along the river's course and around islands where the flowers impede landings and choke irrigation and drainage ditches.

Asian Nuclear Center The Asian nuclear center proposed by the U. S. at the Colombo Plan meeting in Singapore last fall will b e located in the Philippines. The U. S. through the International Cooperation Administration, will provide funds for laboratory facilities and equipment and will supply a reactor to serve research and training purposes. The center will supplement existing facilities for the basic training of engineers, chemists, and physicians at the college level and will offer facilities for research in medicine, agriculture, and industry. The Brookhaven National Laboratory of the U. S. AEC has developed preliminary technical proposals as to how the center can best serve t h e needs of the region and as to what facilities will be required, and is sending survey teams to consult with scientists and government officials in Asia. A 10-man team has been briefed at headquarters of International Cooperation Administration i n Washington and is now in Manila to inspect possible sites and facilities before visiting the various participating countries to discuss with them their principal fields of interest and plans for using the center.

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• Sun Oil reports that 1955 drilling operations in Canada h a v e raised t h e company's Canadian reserves of crude oil a n d natural gas liquids 6 7 % a n d increased production 5 6 % over t h e previous year. • Canada's NRX reactor was displayed, through models, in Paris, France, a n d in Toronto, Ont., last month. U N E S C O ' s science exhibit, entitled "Energy a n d Its Transformations," includes one N R X model, which will soon b e shown in t h e Far East, including India, Ceylon, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, t h e Philippines, and other countries. • Imperial Paper a n d Color Corp. will manufacture a line of chemical pigment colors in Canada. A subsidiary Canadian corporation is being formed and a plant purchased in St. Johns, Que. Production will b e started as soon as special equipment can b e installed. • Indian t e a growers a r e using Aramite, a miticide m a d e by U. S. Rubber's Naugatuck Chemical Division, to control foliage-eating r e d spider mites t h a t have been cutting down yields for years. Several attempts at chemical control have been m a d e in the past b y the India T e a Association, which h a s been testing Aramite at t h e Tockali experiment station. Heretofore successful chemicals also tainted t h e taste of t h e tea, a n d it is said that Aramite does not. • Brazil w i l l h a v e its first m e t h a n o l

plant a n d will h a v e its production of formaldehyde a n d synthetic resins substantially increased as a result of a $3.5 million expansion program undertaken by Alba, a chemical company in which Borden International is a majority stockholder. T h e plants will b e a t Cubatao. • Raffinerie Beige d e Petroles of Antwerp, Belgium, has awarded a contract t o Kellogg International Corp. for the design a n d construction of a combined catalytic desulfurizer a n d reforming unit. T h e unit will utilize t h e new Sinclair-Baker RD-150 platinum reforming catalyst. C&EN Foreign Correspondent Contributing t o This Issue: G. ABRAHAMSON, Great Britain