to ever-widening installation of continuous methods. These advances will ii* no small part be due to the tremendous strides made in instrumentation for process industries, several developments of which were in evi dence at the show. These instruments showed greater adaptability to varied problems, due to increased simplification in construction and better corrosion resist ance of the moving parts. Indication alone seems to be little reason for the use of an instrument nowadays; it must also control and often from a remote position.
Pilot-Plant
Chemical Exposition Draws Record Crowd V J V E R 60,000 persons jammed NewYork's Grand Central Palace during t h e week of Feb. 25-March 2 t o witness t h e 20th Exposition of Chemical Industries., the largest single presentation of chomicals and chemical processing equipment ever shown in this country. Many -were a t tracted b y the atomic energy exhibit of t h e
for α specific use or, as the case may be, for a scries of uses. A chemical need will b e studied, all the desired properties are listed, and then a molecule is designed t o d o the job. This is due, no doubt, to t h e more aggressive applied research philoso phies that were adopted during the war.
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, but all four
Continuous
floors were filled day and evening by visi tors who came to view the industry's newcontributions which had been kept under cover during t h e war. It would have been difficult for an o b server t o take in this array of products, processes, and equipment without noticing some interesting and highly important trends. In the field of industrial chemicals, for instance, one n o longer ^thinks strictly-ini terms of producing them or refining t i e m , but more in terms of designing them, either
It w a s perhaps only natural that war time's increased demands for chemical products made manufacturers of process equipment more interested in continuous processes a s opposed to batch methods. This w a s especially true where a totally ne-w chemical w a s t o be made b y a given company that had no capital investment in existent batch process equipment. Al though there are some cases where the use of a continuous method would not be ef ficient, there is no doubt that increased engineering theory and practice will lead
766
Processes
CHEMICAL
Equipment
Pilot-plant equipment appears to be coming into its own. The system, labora tory to pilot plant to production unit, was long known and used by engineers and chemists, but equipment people tended t o divide into two sharp classes of size of product: laboratory and plant scale. The use of the pilot plant increased tre mendously during the war, not only as a "test model" but also as an actual produc tion unit for chemicals vitally needed but only in small quantities. I t was this de mand, perhaps, that made some produc tion equipment people turn out a line of products of a size suitable for installation in a pilot plant while at the same time sev eral laboratory equipment firms scaled up various models of theirs to the same end. A trend toward standardization of process equipment was also noticed. Wartime conditions required several "special jobs" to be fabricated b y manufacturers, which resulted in a crowding of production facili ties and heavy burdening of engineering designing facilities. After conditions calmed down somewhat a review of the blueprints showed that these jobs in the main were not so "special", and 80 or 9 0 % of the demand could be met by standard equipment if its design wrere made flexible enough t o permit its use in variable instal lations.
CHEMICAL EQUIPMENT Laboratory
Instrument
Developments
Ultra Sonorator. T h e Fisher Scientific Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., in collaboration with Crystolabs, Inc., offers an instrument which will enable laboratories to investi gate the effect of supersonic sound waves on various materials. The instrument makes use of an oil bath to iransmit the impulse to the material under observa tion. Interesting effects have been ob tained in using this instrument t o accel erate chemical reactions and in agglomerizing fine particles. Climatizer. The American Instrument Co. displayed its Climatizer, a laboratory instrument for the production of condi tioned air of a desired humidity. This will enable physical strength test and bac teriological determinations t o be made ui' 1er controlled conditions. Use of the i· trament t o give desired atmospheres r packaging and storage operations on
AND
ENGINEERING
NEWS
small scale is also indicated. The unit is made in three different models, all of the same physical size (49 X 33 X 4 4 inches high) but differing in the line voltages and phase specifications on which t h e blower motor may be used. Leak Detector, Spectrometer Type. The General Electric Corp. is offering a special mass spectrometer for use in locating small leaks in any evacuated metal or glass system. This instrument is able t o detect one part of helium in 200,000 parts of air and can locate small leaks in the presence of large leaks. In addition to electric power, tap water, dry ice, and helium are required. Infrared Spectrophotometer. Although not available for immediate delivery, the National Technical Laboratories, Pasadena, Calif., are marketing a new wellintegrated infrared spectrophotometer. Control analysis requirements in the synthetic rubber field resulted in many advancements in infrared analytical techniques. This instrument is a distinct improvement over the previous Beckman models because it brings together t h e moving parts, light cells, and luminous source into one unit. Provision is also made for a connection t o a recorder. Process
Instrumentation
Halogenated Hydrocarbon Analyzer. T h e Industrial Instruments Co., Newark, N. J., exhibited a halogenated hydrocarbon analyzer developed by t h e Westvaco Chlorine Products Corp. This instrument will afford a continuous determination of the concentration of halogenated hydrocarbons. A constant stream of air mixed with hydrogen i n a fixed proportion is passed through a quartz combustion tube maintained at about 800° C. D e composition of the original material results, with the formation of a corresponding hydrogen halide—e.g., hydrogen chloride or hydrogen bromide. This hydrogen halide is absorbed into a measured stream of water, the electrical conductivity of which is then measured and recorded. From previously drawn curves, Among Solvents
VOLUME
2 4,
NO.
6
The American Chemical Society exhibit on nftclear energy proved to be the hit of the show. Crowds like this were almost cons tan tly congregated around the display t h e a m o u n t of the original halogenated hydrocarbon m a y b e read. Besides usual laboratory analysis, this instrument .can b e used b y health and safety departments for t h e detection and determination of injurious halogenated vapors. Bin Level Indicator. T h e Bin-eye, a level indicator ' designed t o show the height of solid materials in a bin, is being offered t o t h e chemical industry by the Jeffrey Manufacturing Co., Columbus, Ohio. T h e s e "bin-eyes" are installed . a t various levels along tbie side of the bin. Pressure of t h e material against the diaphragm will trip a mercury switch which may be used t o turn o n a light at that level, showing the height of the material or i n the · case of the highest and lowest "bin-eyes" it may control t h e feeding or evacuation equipment for that bin. Thy-Mo-Trol. I n its new electronic control instrument, the Thy-Mo-Trol, the General Electric Co. is offering a device which can adjust or proportion the power input into t w o separate units. This will
a number of chemical Corp. and the Koppers
exhibitors were Co. whose booths
» » » M A R C H • 2 5;. 1 9 4 6
make possioie tne· slowing a o w n ui tins pump motor furnishing one ingredient to a chemical process in a proportionate scale to the slowing down of a second pump furnishing another ingredient. T h i s will prevent the mixing of ingredients in nonproportionate amounts, if for any reason t h e feed from one is curtailed. Extended application of this instrument in other fields is also foreseen. Portable Oxygen Detection Unit. A portable instrument capable of measuring oxygen in t h e atmosphere in the range of 0 t o 0 . 5 % or 0 t o 2 5 % w a s announced b y t h e Mine Safety Appliances Co., P i t t s burgh, Pa. Aside from the safety-use importance of this instrument, it is believed it will b e valuable in production work, especially in the field of hydrogénation. T h e instrument can also be used as a recorder, and is adaptable for panel mounting. Flowmeters. T h e Fischer & Porter Co., Hatboro, Pa., displayed three i n teresting developments in its rotameter
the Commercial are shown below
767
line. T h e Magna-Bond makes use of a magnetic clutch which picks up the move ment of the metal float and transmits it by proportional air pressure out/iut to a recorder or t o a recorder controller mecha nism which can adjust the· flow of material through a system. This in stallation will be especially valuable in processes where dangerous, flammable vapors may be present. A sanitary rotam eter working on a somewhat similar principle but constructed entirely of stain less steel was also announced. This latter instrument will probably find considerable application in the food and dairy products industries. Borrowing somewhat from the rotameter principle, the Fischer & Porter Co. has developed a continuous viscometer which will find considerable use in operations where viscosity measure ments of blends of materials are desired. This instrument uses t w o floats—one can be brought to any viscosity index o n the tube, while the other will rise or fall as viscosity changes occur in the fluent material.
York, Pa. The filter bed of these filters consists of a series of partitions which divide i t into a row of nanow compart ments, each of which is connected to a separate effluent and backwash port. The actual backwash operation is accom plished by a slow-moving motor-driven carriage wliich traverses the length of the filter bed, making contact with each of these narrow compartments in turn, pumping out the filtrate from the effluent channel, and pumping it back through the sand bed. The back washing is done at a rate of about 10 gal. per square foot of filter bed per minute. Karbate Products. The National Car bon Co., N e w York City, announces a program in which karbate products— i.e., cascade coolers, heat exchangers, piping and fittings—will be standardized. This will enable t h e user to have available a wide selection of units from which he may construct equipment peculiar to his own needs.
Process
A fairly wide list of new chemical prod ucts were shown a t the exposition. Some, such as Phillips' petroleum-base cyclohexane and Socony-Vacuum's Sovabead, are new forms of familiar products, while others such a s Hercules.' Dresinate soaps 731, 212, and 214 had been available for restricted use during the war and were given their first public showing at the exposition. Still others are entirely new products. T h e petroleum-base cyclohexane an nounced by Phillips Petroleum Co. is the first nonbenzene source product to be offered in tank-car quantities. Impurities (15%) are paraffinic. Other products shown b y Phillips included the Soltrol solvents, new low-odor or odorless naph thas that boil in the mineral spirits range, and a new series of tertiary alkyl mercaptans and tertiary dialkyl disulfides. Also shown was 2,3-dimethyl butane which had been on restricted use during the war and only recently released for general use. Too n e w to b e included in the show was Phillips' most recent development, 9 9 % τι-heptane, which will soon be offered in commercial quantities. Socony-Vacuum's Sovabead is a new form of silica gel, uniform beads 4- to 8mesh, which i s offered as a solid desiccant for use i n process drying, refrigeration, airconditioning, and packaging. Hard and durable, the beads can be regenerated b y heat at 300° F . A new form of tabular alumina, T-61, in dense, more uniform balls, was shown b y the Aluminum Co. of America. T h e booth of t h e Lithaloys Co. was de voted almost entirely to new products. Shown for t h e first time were lithium borohydride (L1BH4) and diborane (BiH e ), products that can be used as sources of hydrogen (generating 6 6 and 78 cu. ft. per lb., respectively, with water) and in syn
Equipment
Pilot-Plant Centrifuge. A new 26-inch suspended centrifuge for pilot-plant opera tions has been developed b y the Toi hurst Centrifugal Co., a division of American Machine and Metals, Inc., East Moline, ΠΙ. . This unit has a variable speed range from 670 to 2,150 r.p.m. instead of t h e fixed 1,800 r.p.m. of centrifuges of this size. It also makes possible interchangeability of perforate and imperforate baskets. Aside from pilot-plant use, i t is expected to find application in t h e paint, food, and pharmaceutical produc tion fields. Pilot-Plant Filter. The Niagara Filter Corp., Buffalo, N. Y., has developed a movable filtering device which may b e used for either pilot-plant or large-scale laboratory operations* I t can handle capacities from 10 to 1,500 gal. per hour through its Type 304 stainless steel filters and leaves. Small Gear Pumps. T w o sizes of small gear pumps capable of delivering against rather high pressures without lubrication are announced by the Eastern Engineering Corp., N e w Haven, Conn. T h e smaller one can deliver 0.6 gal. per minute against the pressure of 250 p.s.i. while the larger can deliver 1.2 gal. per minute against a pressure of 150 p.s.i. When a larger motor than the Ve horsepower usually furnished with this pump is used, delivery can be made against pressures of 300 p.s.i. The pump gears are especially hardened stainless steel and the total weight of pump and motor is 26 lb. It is available in models which will operate on either 110 or 220 volts A.C. Rapid Backwash Sand Filter. Rapid backwash sand filters ranging in dimen sions from 3 b y 16 feet t o 10 b y 100 feet are available from the Hardinge Corp.,
768
CHEMICAL PRODUCTS
CHEMICAL
thetic work. Lithium borohydride is a crystalline compound, stable in dry air. Diborane, formed from lithium boro hydride with boron tri fluoride, is a gas at room temperature and can be shipped in cylinders or bottled at low pressure in ice. Both products are available from pilotplant production. Other lithium com pounds shown were lithium peroxide with 3 5 % available oxygen by weight, lithium amide—a stable, pulverizable solid— lithium carbide, and lithium methylate. Two new forms of the metal were also shown, lithium sand and lithium wire, offering better control and greater con venience in syntheses. Zirconium
Compounds
Showing a variety of products including a new series of zirconium toners, com pounds of zirconium with organic acid dyestuffs, the Titanium Alloy Manufac turing Co. announced a stabilized zirconia for refractory applications in which crystal line inversions, occurring at 1200° to 800° C. in normal zirconia, have been elimi nated. High-temperature applications such as smelting platinum metals and manufacture of fused quartz are visual ized, since the new product extends the range of available refractories by several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Continuing its development of products from sorbitol and other sugar alcohols, Atlas Powder Co. showed isosorbide and a series of its mono- and diesters with fatty acids—stéarates, laurates, oleates, etc. A didehydro derivative of sorbitol, isosorbide is a dicyclic compound with two free hydroxy 1 groups. The monoesters show promise as surface-active agents. Six compounds that are being made commercially available for the first time were shown by Winthrop Chemical Co.; 3,5dibromaniline, phenyl acctamide, diphenylacetic acid, and furfurylacrylic acid are of interest for synthetic use, while acetyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride and 9-aminoacridine are offered as germicides and antiseptics. A number of synthetic amino acids were also shown. Other products shown that are new t o commerce were ρ(α-phenylethyl)phenol by Neville Co., and distearoylethylenediamine and hydroxyquinoline salicylate by Evans Chemetics, Inc. Magnus, Mabee and Reynard, manufacturer and importer of essential oils, exhibited a new garlic concentrate, one ounce of which is claimed t o have t h e flavor equivalence of 3,200 ounces of garlic. High-Potency
Penicillin
High-potency penicillin, the result of intensive research and modifications of ex traction and purification processes, was shown by Commercial Solvents Corp. The industry has been turning out penicillin with a potency of around 1,000 t o 1,100 units, and less than a year ago 1,200-unit penicillin was considered a marvelous achievement. T h e specimen displayed by
AND ENGINEERING
NEWS
Commercial Solvents, a pure white prod uct, tested 1,460 Oxford units per milli gram, and the penicillin now in production by the company ranges from 1,300 to 1,550 units. Now that a new culture has been made available, the industry is expanding peni cillin production rapidly. Output for March is estimated at about 1,800 billion units, a new high record. High-potency penicillin lessens the possibility of unfavor able reactions following administration. Other new products of Commercial Solvents research displayed included diisopropyiamine, a raw material for syn thetic organic work ; a primary amine, isopropylamine ; a new addition to the Alkaterge line; and hydroxy lammonium chloride. The latter is not exactly new, but it has emerged from the status of a laboratory curiosity selling at $5 per lb. to a fine chemical in commercial production at $1.75 per lb. It is a laboratory reagent. Diisopropylamine currently is being produced only in pilot-plant operations, but has a number of promising applications where a secondary amine is required. It is expected to find outlets in the prepara tion of rubber chemicals, photographic materials, dyestuffs, detergents, and textile specialties. Isopropylamine, an aliphatic primary amine now in commercial production, is a starting material in the synthesis of dyes, insecticides, explosives, corrosion inhibi tors, and surface-active agents. Anhy drous isopropylamine may be employed as a solvent and reaction in place of ammonia. Reactions obtainable through the am monia system may be carried out without the use of high-pressure equipment. Solvent relationships are modified to an extent through the replacement of one hydrogen of the ammonia molecule by an alkyl radical. The new cationic surface-active- agent, Alkaterge-C, is nonvolatile and miscible with mineral and vegetable oils and most common solvents. In aqueous solutions only a minute proportion, 0.002% by
weight, is present but it is sufficient t o lower the surface tension t o less than 3 5 dynes per cm. The presence o f 1% in oil reduces the interfacial tension against water to 1 or 2 dynes. Less than 1% of t h e new agent in a hydraulic oil is said to re duce gum formation. It is also a pigment grinding assistant, and as a flotation agent it floats nonmetallics in a neutral o r alka line circuit. Diversity
of
Production
A number of exhibits revealed expansion policies and the entry of s o m e manufac turers into new or related fields. Koppers Co., Pittsburgh, for the first time i s offer ing styrene produced from benzene via ethylbenzene. The product will be offered to Buna S polymer plants a s well as to polystyrene plastics manufacturers. Kop pers was an important producer of butadi ene during the war at its Kobuta plant. It exhibited important industrial uses for tar acids, o-cresol, and o-dinitrocresol and other products for insecticides. Reichhold Chemicals, T n c , Detroit, is marketing a line of phenolic bonding resins for laminates under the name of Plyophen. Reichhold has been providing alkyds and phenol-modified alkyd coating materials to the Detroit automobile industry, nonphenolic resins, organic and inorganic colors. In manufacturing alkyd resins the company supplies i t s own phthalic anhy dride. D a v is ο η Chemical Corp., Baltimore, em phasized some of the more recently de veloped silica gel humidity indicators, an outgrowth of its original gel hu midity control materials for this purpose. The newer gels show
Right, the booth of Hercules Ponder Co.; below, right, displays of Charles Pfizer & Co. and Dow Chemical
VOLUME
2 4, N O .
6 » » » MARCH
relative humidity at points other than 0, 20, 40, and 60%, for example, atO, 2, 3, and 4%. A widely utilized humidity indicator made by Davison is a sealed envelope con taining some 12 grams of 6- to 16-mesh silica gel impregnated with cobalt chloride. The gel has a deep blue color when freshly activated, changes through violet to light pink as the water content is decreased. As the humidity increases the color chang ing process is reversed. New Fine
Chemicals
Chas. Pfizer & Co., manufacturer of citric acid, tartaric chemicals, vitamins, penicillin, displayed streptomycin, new antibiotic mold derivative, as well as highpotency penicillin. A full flow sheet of the penicillin process also was shown, prob ably for the first time, and attracted con siderable attention. The streptomycin was in the form of a sulfate containing ap proximately 450 micrograms of active ma terial per milligram. Pfizer showed samples of its newest product, itaconic acid, and dimethyl itaconate, raw materials for resins and plastics. A new plant for their production is planned. BiCap flour enrichment materials were among other new Pfizer products. These cont ain vitam ins, i run salts, and phosphorus in proper proportions for use by the flour industry. Riboflavin or vitamin B 2 also is combined with starch for stock feeds and renders it more assimilable.
teffto Co.
2 5, 1 9 46
769
