water experiments Commonwealth Edison and a group of associated companies a r e planning a boiling water reactor plant in. northern Illinois. Another boiling water power reactor, rated at 22,000 kw. of electricity, is planned by Rural Cooperative Power in Minnesota. General Electric is also building a reactor—similar i n many respects to EBWR—in California for i t s program of private industrial development. According to Northern States Power, additional companies are considering joining t h e group of utility companies which are already in on A-C's reactor. Participating companies in addition to Northern States Power are: Mississippi Valley Public Service and Otter Tail Power of Minnesota, Interstate Power in Iowa, Iowa Power and Light, Iowa Southern Utilities, Wisconsin Public Service, Northwestern Public Service in South Dakota, St. Joseph Light & Power in Missouri, and Central Electric Gas in Nebraska.
Calculated Risk Pays Off Grace turns a profit on ammonia two years after plant start up —acetylene may come next I T I S N ' T EASY n o w a d a y s to start a n e w
plant operation based on ammonia. The field is crowded, t o say t h e least. But Grace Chemical made t h e grade last year on two products—ammonia and urea. Some producers, hard-pressed to get rid of their ammonia, tried exporting itOthers found a n outlet via ammonium sulfate sales abroad. Grace, however, broke through the ranks in domestic ammonia markets, a n d successfully introduced urea in Latin America. Plant engineers at Memphis are working to g e t maximum production from a 250-ton-per-day unit (C&EN, Jan. 19, 1955, page 212). T h e plant
Reactor core structure in Argonne's E B W R holds fuel elements in proper p o sition a n d guides t h e cross-shaped control rods. T h e lower part, where t h e reaction takes place, is zirconium; the upper part is made of stainless steel
design is n o w running 2 5 % capacity. • Struggle for Profits. Newcomers in t h e ammonia business have good cause to worry about profits. Nationwide, sales have fallen short of installed plant capacity by about 2 5 % . Many producers have a rough time maintaining a large sales volume. No one h a s made a move t o convert his ammonia plant for methanol production, nor is such a m o v e likely. This year six companies a r e building new methanol units: Celanese, Commercial Solvents, Du Pont, Escambia, Hercules, a n d Rohm & Haas. Everyone, i t seems, is counting on farmers' using more ammonia, and they're trying to ride out t h e storm. It may b e three t o five years, however, before demand catches up with plant capacity. Meanwhile, ammonia salesmen are knocking heads to move their products. • Five-Point P r o g r e m . Grace's success is due t o many factors, of which "supersalesmen" are only a part. Firstrate management w a s responsible for a five-point program. • Grace planned for a diversity of products—40% of its ammonia goes into urea (C&EN, June 20, 1955, page 2 5 9 6 ) . A solid form of nitrogen fertilizer, urea can also be used as a protein source for cattle feed; it has a large industrial market. Urea's major market in Latin America is bananas. • C o m p a n y officials picked an ideal plant location, near a good natural gas source. T h e Memphis plant has access to water transportation. It straddles a rich farm market of t h e Mid-South and is within striking distance of the Corn Belt. • Grace h a d a full sales staff on the job almost two years before production came from the plant. During this time, company salesmen w e r e out beating t h e bushes for customers. • Salesmen aimed at a diversity of markets, both in the class of customers and in geographical location. Grace sells to big and little customers, agricultural a n d industrial. • Executives tied company products to t h e parent organization's (W. R. Grace & Co.) century-old merchandizing outlets. ( W . R. Grace got its start exporting guano from Peru to Europe and the United States.) Widely recognized as a big factor in FEB.
2 5,
1957
C&EN
23
INDUSTRY
D u Pont Grasselli
Chemical
Briefs N e w Safety Grip . -. another exclusive feature added to DU PONT REAGENTS A n e w safety and
grip
convenient
that provides a
hold
o n the
secure
bottle
is the
l a t e s t f e a t u r e y o u ' l l find on D u Pont
5-pint
r e a g e n t bottles. C o u p l e d
w i t h the
dripless
p o l y e t h y l e n e s l e e v e i n t r o d u c e d b y D u Pont last y e a r , t h e n e w g r i p m a k e s h a n d l i n g safer and easier.
Latin American markets, W. R. Grace & Co. found eager a n d interested cus tomers when it introduced urea into South America. Urea is the most con centrated solid form of nitrogen avail able, an extremely important factor in countries where internal transportation is a problem. N o other urea plant in the world is nearer this market than Grace's Memphis installation. • Suggestions of More to Come. In recent weeks t h e word got out that Grace officials a r e setting their sights on acetylene. This isn't surprising, though. Two years ago J. Peter Grace, president of W. R Grace & Co., inti mated the company's ammonia-urea plant was only t h e beginning (C&EN, Jan. 17, 1955, p a g e 212). H e said, "We are concentrating our efforts to locate in the South, Southwest, and Far West." What G r a c e plans to make wdth acetylene h a s n ' t been announced. Grace officials state that any future plans a r e still i n t h e drawing board stage a n d will n o t b e announced until process and production problems are worked out.
Both reactor-grade and commercial grade zirconium in the form of plate lets will b e supplied from the facilities which are expected to go on stream this spring. About the size of a quarter, these flakelike pieces of metal (report edly m a d e by vacuum melting) are stated to offer high-purity as well as shipping advantage. Company officials state that there are no restrictions on shipment of the plate lets w h i l e the ICC requires that zir conium sponge (which can be pyro phoric) must be shipped in packages of no m o r e than 75 pounds with defi nite packing requirements, including argon blanketing. This can be q u i t e inconvenient for a tonnage item. In addition, the platelets are ex tremely p u r e ; USI claims they are al most completely free of sodium as well as other impurities. USI quotes prices as low as $4.75 per p o u n d for hafniumfree zirconium platelets, saying that this is less t h a n half the current price. N o n nuclear commercial grade will sell for about $1.50 less per pound than like quantities of the hafnium-free material.
US1 Expands Zr Capacity
For extra convenience a n d
economy
Du P o n t r e a g e n t s a r e p a c k e d in single-trip,, t h r o w - a w a y c a r t o n s . Y o u b e n e f i t f r o m these advantages: • N O DEPOSIT
· LESS S T O R A G E SPACE
• N O RETURNS
· LESS FREIGHT
Zirconium production capacity at National Distillers, USI division's Ashtabula, Ohio, plant has been in creased by one third-from 1.5 to 2 million pounds per year—before the new facility even goes on stream. Key impetus to the expansion is increased industrial need for t h e metal, in addi tion to a five-year contract with AEC for the company to supply 1 million pounds of reactor-grade zirconium annually.
• LESS BOOKKEEPING · SAFER H A N D L I N G A d d i t i o n a l Du Pont s a f e t y f e a t u r e s include· color c o d i n g . Distinctive c o l o r e d l a b e l s , with» matching
b o t t l e c a p s , insure
unmistakable*
identification o f reagents.
BETTER THINGS FOR BETTER L I V I N G . . . THROUGH CHEMISTRY
Borden HCHO Plant Opens Borden has opened its second formal dehyde plant on the West Coast. Ca pacity of this plant at Kent, Wash., 36 million pounds p e r year, makes Borden the largest producer in the area. Its other p l a n t is at Springfield, Ore. The Kent plant will b e the first to use Borden's Karl Fischer process. It leased U . S. rights last year from Apparate und Rohrleitungsban in Ger many. Borden says the process permits a high yield in formaldehyde produc tion a n d lower utility a n d steam re quirements for processing. It expects a 9 3 % yield, as compared with a na tional average of 82 to 88%. Opening the Kent plant brings Bor den's W e s t Coast chemical operations to five a n d its chemical plant total, foreign a n d domestic, to 25. Borden uses formaldehyde in making phenol, urea, and resorcinol resins; it also sells it commercially.
E. I. du Pont d e Nemours & Co. (Inc.) Grasselli Chemicals Dept., Rm. N - 2 5 3 9 Wilmington 9 8 , D e l a w a r e Π Please send product bulletin on Du Pont Reagents. Name Firm Address City
24
Zone
C&EN
FEB. 2 5,
State
1957
Zirconium "platelets" of this type will be made by USI when i t completes its Ashtabula, O h i o , plant i n the next few months. USI says platelets are not only superior to sponge i n purity but, safely shipped and h a n d l e d , a r e free from rigorous shipping restrictions applied to sponge ( w h i c h c a n b e pyrophoric)
Expansion Plans • Richfield Oil has bought some 1000 acres on Puget Sound, 14 miles north west of Everett, Wash., for a North west refinery site. The site, which in cludes Kayak Point on Port Susan, is accessible from two improved roads
Model of the ALCO Packaged Power Plant. Nuclear power plants of this size — in which one charge of uranium may be sufficient for a year or more—range in output from 1800 to 2500 kus, or more.
Honeywell
console used in the
Army
< Packaged Power Reactor.
Honeywell controls will operate Army Packaged Power Reactor a new solution to t h e problem o f pro Tviding power for radar, office machines, power HERE'S
tools, and all t h e other accoutrements of a modern army in the field. It's the Army Packaged P o w e r Reactor, all of whose parts—reactor core, shield ing, instrumentation, generator, enclosure—caji be airlifted to a site. T h i s packaged power plant can provide power in remote or occupied areas, where conventional fuels may be unobtainable or too costly, and where existing generating ca pacity may be inadequate.
Built by ALCO Products, Inc., t h e Army Pack aged Power R e a c t o r will b e o p e r a t e d by a Honeywell control system. This control s y s t e m is now being tested a t Schenectady, Ν . Υ . Honeywell's Industrial Division designed a n d assembled the complete control console. The unit includes the exclusive Brown Safety Amplifier with fast-acting relays to initiate irreversible scram, a combined Log-N and Period Amplifier, an improved A I D Linear Amplifier, and otrier
outstanding Honeywell products. Embodied in t h e syste are t h e experience and know-how gained by Honeywell nuclear engineers in design ing control systems or components for reactors at Battelle Memorial Institute, N o r t h Carolina State University, and all major Atomic Energy Commission installations. This is experience t h a t can be applied to advan tage in your own reactor project. Your nearby Honeywell sales engineer is ready t o work with you o n instrumentation techniques for any nu clear project. Call him today . . . he's as near as your phone. MINNEAPOLIS-HONEYWELL
REGULATOR
Co.,
Industrial Division, Wayne and Windrim Avenues, P h i l a d e l p h i a 44, P a . — i n C a n a d a , Toronto 17, Ontario. 4 V « P
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(VII
Ν
Ν
Ε Α
Ρ Ο L I S
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Honeywell B R O W N
I N S T RR UU Μ M Ε E Ν N Τ T S S
FEB.
2 5,
1957
C&EN
25
Y O U GET
Lower
V A C U U M Pump MAINTENANCE
Cost
and
Increased Vacuum with
the
HILCO O I L RECLAIMER
INDUSTRY
and fronts on water of sufficient depth to accommodate tankers of any size. C r u d e oil will be received b y tanker or pipeline connection with Trans-Moun tain Canadian pipeline which now ex tends to within 2 5 miles of t h e new refinery site. • Shell Oil plans a multimillion dollar Platformer at its Wilmington-Dorninguez refinery in California. Construc tion contract goes to Kaiser Engineers.
Under Construction . . . HILCO OiL RECLAIMER For c o m p l e t e o i l r e claiming. Removes sol ids, acids and v o l a t i l e i m p u r i t i e s ; moisture, sol vent's, gases, etc. b y heat--vacuum process.
A simple, economical and efficient m e t h o d or restoring contaminated lubricating and sealing oil to t h e full value of N E W O I L . T h e H I L C O will produce and maintain oil f r e e of solids, water, gums and acids in a continuous, all-electric, a u t o m a t i c operation. Be S u r e o f CLEAN OIL i n y o u r H I G H V A C U U M PUMPS
KEEP YOUR HYDRAULIC HILCO HYDRAULIC
- 0 4 i iiyTER
N o M o r e Varnish and Sludge Deposits •No M o r e Flushing and ^ M a n u a l Cleaning
Spf! No More Accurriul- , ^ I - ation of Dirt ' ^ p | : B . : • FiIter; life v up f ο a"yéar ' Μ Β ^ Λ . eliminates usual f r e 1 i quê^t draining, refill>)r. ••:'.-' ;'• ing" of systems. 7^^% ^ V / r | t e i o r ^ complete "details in the tree ^.obligation :'/-; ^.; ;
MILLIÀRD
:
;
Cpτψρταtion
146 West Fourth St.
Elmîra, Ν. Υ.
In Canada
UPTON-BRADEN-JAMES LTD. 8 9 0 Yonge St., Toronto
26
CSEN
·
FEB.
3464 Park Ave., Montreal
2 5. 1 9 5 7
• Dow Chemical bas started construc tion of terminal distribution facilities a t Grants, Ν . Μ., t o serve chemical requirements of uranium producers in the Southwest. I t will b e equipped to h a n d l e storage and distribution of 5 0 % caustic soda solution, soda ash, and other D o w chemicals for the min ing industry. • C a r p e n t e r Steel is expanding its cor rosion research laboratory at Reading, Pa., t o b r o a d e n its work o n corrosion problems in the atomic energy and guided missile fields.
In O p e r a t i o n · . . • Dow Chemical is now i n full scale production of Styrex 767, a plastic based on styrene and acrylonitrile. It is being m a d e in a n e w plant at Mid land, Mich. • Minnesota & O n t a r i o Paper has put
its new multimillion dollar high-pres sure boiler and topping turbine into op eration a t its specialty paper and Insulite fiber board mill at International Falls, Minn. With addition of the new boiler, t h e mill's s t e a m generating ca pacity i s about 960,000 pounds of steam p e r hour.
Patents. · · • Chas. Pfizer & Co., has acquired a process p a t e n t for a new m e t h o d of making allethrin. This process, cov ered in P a t e n t 2,768,967, begins with an acetone dicarboxylic acid ester which Pfizer makes from citric acid. Although Pfizer does not plan to make the insecticide, it believes that the new process will b e of interest to prospec tive licensees seeking either another source of starting material for allethrin, or a possible future m e a n s of making it more economically.
U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for t h e Third- District. The court states that of t h e two p a t e n t s held b y Plax on the process, only one is valid a n d in n o case did Lamex infringe on this patent. • H y g r a d e Food Products' Kingan di vision has w i t h d r a w n its appeal from the judgment h a n d e d down b y federal court in Richmond, Va., holding that Patent 2,513,094 held by Hall Labora t o r i e s , a subsidiary of Hagan Corp., is valid and infringed. Royalties are t o be paid for all past use of the Hall process covering use of certain phos phates in the curing of meat.
Contracts · · · Apache P o w d e r , Benson, Ariz., has contracted with Girdler Co., for t h e design, equipment, and starting up of an anhydrous ammonia plant which is scheduled to b e i n operation by October. A p a c h e has been making its requirements of nitric acid and am monium nitrate from purchased am monia at its explosives works a t Curtiss, about nine miles southeast o f Benson. The ammonia unit's projected capacity of 30 tons p e r day will p e r m i t sale of part of t h e production. Because Apache already has physical and staff facilities, cost of the new operation will b e at a minimum. • Stanford Research Institute has r e ceived a contract from the Economic Development Administration of t h e Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to study the feasibility of an experimental 1000square-foot solar air heater. The hot air would b e used t o dry candy. • T a k a m i n e Laboratory has completed
an arrangement whereby R. R. Street & Co. has exclusive license to distribute and develop t h e sales of Takamine's enzyme digester products in t h e laundry a n d d r y cleaning industries. These digesters are used t o remove proteinaceous a n d carbohydrate stains. • Beckman Instruments has received an order for a 200-channel Beckman 112, transistorized data-processing sys tem, from Douglas Aircrafft to help speed research on t h e Thor intermedi ate range ballistic missile.
• Firth Sterling has signed a contract with Kolcast industries, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thompson Prod ucts, covering induction vacuum melted superalloys. Firth will process ingots p r o d u c e d by Kolcast into mill products such as billets and hot and cold finished bars. F i r t h will also as sume complete responsibility for mar Kolcast will • Lamex Chemical did not infringe on keting these products. patents held b y Plax Corp., for making expand its capacity t o serve the com polyethylene bottles, according to the bined requirements of t h e companies.
