CHEMICAL RESOURCES offhe SOUTHWEST* W. A. FELSING The University of Texas, Austin, Texas
B
Y T H E term "Southwest," as used in this paper, shall be denoted that region comprising the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. In this region the majority of the population is still engaged in agriculture and cattle and sheep raising. What can such a region offer in the way of important chemical resources? To gain some idea of the general chemical activity in the Southwest, as defined, some statistics may be quoted. During the two-year period including the years 1936 and 1937, new construction for the chemical industry for the entire United States totaled $350,000,000. Of this amount, $57,500,000 (or 16.4 per cent.) was expended in the Southwest; $21,560,000 of this was spent in Louisiana and $25,000,000 in Texas. It is quite natural, therefore, to ask, "What chemical industries require such a large amount of new construction?" This question is answered under the different headings that follow. PETROLEUM
The most important chemical raw material and the one of greatest monetary value in this region is petroleum (and its associate, natural gas). Petroleum is found in a e r y state of the Southwest in fairly large to extremely large quantities. It is necessary to mention merely such names as Eldorado, Shreveport, Tulsa, Lea County, Oklahoma City, Spindle Top, and East Texas to stir the imagination of the oil fraternity. No attempt will be made here to go into actual production figures, much less to mention what these figures could
* A paper prepared from an address presented at the luncheon of the Division of Chemical Education at the ninety-filth meeting of the American Chemical Society, Dallas. Texas. April 20. 1938.
and probably would rise to if production were not controlled. However, i t may be stated that within easy reach by overnight travel-from the city of Dallas are located wells producing almost eighty per cent. of the petroleum for the entire United States. Thus the southwestern petroleum industry furnishes the major portion of the automotive fuel, fuel oil, and lubricating oils for the nation. However, the petroleum industry is potentially a source for a large number of chemical products of unit value far greater than that of the gasoline, kerosene, and lubricating oil furnished thus far. The growing list of chemical products produced often from the by-products of the industry is becoming impressive; only a few items need be mentioned to point out the importance of the list. Thus, there may be mentioned iso-octane and other polymerization products from the "cracking" process byproducts for special automotive fuels; resins of high molecular weight, such as Vistanex; acetylene and other olefms useful as starting materials for numerous organic syntheses; alkylated paraffins and aromatics (phenols); ethers, ketones, and alcohols (over ten million gallons of ethyl alcohol from cracking process gases last year) ; fatty acids by oxidation for the manufacture of soap; and halogenated and nitrated compounds of all sorts. It is not to be inferred that all of these products are now being made here in the Southwest. However, the Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Company is erecting a plant a t Texas City for the manufacture of Prestone. If Dame Rumor may be relied upon, the total cost of the plant will be approximately ten million dollars. Polymerization is being camed on a t various refineries, some naphthenic acids are being extracted for the soap manufacturers, and alkyl sulfides
are being saved as malodorants for the natural gas industry. he next decade will witness, no doubt, the growing importance of the "chemical division" of the refineries of the Southwest. NATURAL GAS
Natural gas is also found in every state of no other natural resource can it be southwest. said that it is wasted as much as natural gas, Throughout the East Texas field the =. rich also in orooane and
SODIUM SULFATE
In the Panhandle region of Texas are found a number of saline lakes of essentially constant level containing as chief saline constituents the ions of sodium sulfate. From such water and from the deposits adjoining, the Ozark Chemical Company a t Monahans, Texas, is producing sodium sulfate a t a rate of one hundred tons per day or thirty thousand to thirty-five thousand tons annually. The Arizona Chemical Company has two plants: one near O'Donnell and one near Brownfield. Rumor has i t that a third concern (of national
never extinguished flares. In the Panhandle field of that same region. At present this salt is being utilized in glass and Kraft Texas, the world's largest known reservoir of natural paper and pulp mills of the Southwest, though a little is gas, over 200,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas escape being marketed as "Mineral Crystals," the "sal unused daily. However, part of the natural gas is mirable" of Glauber. Production seems to be limited utilized for the manufacture of carbon black. The by the Southwestern demands, for very little is shipped theoretical yield is about 33.5 pounds Der one thou.. . . . polnts to sand cubicfeet; the actual yieid is o& about one and one-half pounds of a high-grade, finely divided black. The rubber industry absorbs most of the anTHE ALKALI INDUSTRY nual production of one hundred thirty thousand to one The Southwest boasts of its modern alkali plants hundred forty thousand tons. Texas produces ninety a t Corpus Christi, Texas, and a t Lake Charles, per cent. of this and Louisiana nearly all the rest. Waste has certainly not been eliminated in this indus- Louisiana. Both of these plants are located on navitry. However, a t numerous research laboratories, both gable waters, assuring them of cheap ocean freight rates educational and industrial, intensive work is being di- to points along the Atlantic coast. The plant of the Southern Alkali Company a t Corpus rected toward a better utilization of this raw material. Christi is located on Corpus Christi Bay. The company owns its own docks and turning basin. It obtains its fuel, natural gas, from its own five thousand POTASH acre reserve about five miles west of Corpus Christi. and the cost of the The total potash-bearing area of Texas and New Mex- This gas averages 915 B.T.u./cu.~~. ico, the two states of the Southwest where potassium power used by the company falls far below that of the salts are found, is about 40,000 square miles, though the cheapest coal. Salt is obtained from the Palangana Dome, some sixty most promising portion underlies an area of about one hundred square miles. Near Carlsbad, New Mexico, miles west of Corpus Christi. Hot water is sent down there is an estimated area of about thirty-three square into the salt deposit to produce a saturated solution; miles under which there runs a stratum of Sylvinite this saturated solution is pumped to the surface where (KCl) four or more feet thick a t an average depth of it is directed into a fourteen-inch cast iron line through one thousand feet below the surface. The proven area which i t flows by gravity to the plant. Lime is obcontains reserves estimated a t 100,000,000 tons, one- tained locally from washed oyster shell or from limefourth of which will average twenty per cent. KpO. stone shipped from San Antonio or New Braunfels, some Two companies are now operating in the Carlsbad one hundred sixty miles distant. The cost of the plant is said to have been about seven region and a third is contemplating the sinking of a million dollars, which is about three quarters of a milshaft. In West Texas there have been proven up by core- lion dollars below the cost of the plant of the Mathieson drilling many square miles, in different counties, of Company a t Lake Charles, Louisiana. This latter potash-bearing minerals, chief of which is polyhalite company also has a very advantageous location not only (2CaSOrMgSOn.K2SOc2HeO). The eventual utili- for raw materials but also for product shipment. zation of the potash from these enormous deposits The Southwest has plenty of salt, limestone, and cheap will depend upon the economic utilization of the other fuel: expansion will depend only upon demand. components of the ore (i.e., CaSO* and MgS04). Development work which has been carried on for sevTHE SALT INDUSTRY eral years a t The University of Texas and in private laboratories seems to point to an early solution of the Common salt is plentiful in the Southwest. Two of polyhalite utilization. These and other potash sources the most important deposits in the Western hemisphere should make the United States indcpcndent of foreign are those of Avery Island in Louisiana and the deposit sources. a t Grand Saline in Texas. The latter is perhaps the
world's largest known deposit of common salt. There are numerous other deposits, a small fraction of which are being utilized. Hydrochloric acid is being produced in fairly large quantities. Recent hydrochloric acid plant installations have been reported by the Consolidated Chemical Company of Fort Worth, Texas (fifteen tons per day), by the Southern Acid and Sulfur Company of Shreveport, Louisiana (fifteen tons per day), and by the Ozark Chemical Company a t Tulsa, Oklahoma (sixty tons per day). Most of this hydrochloric acid is being used in oil-well treatment in limestone stmctures. SULFUR AND
SULFURIC ACID
The largest known deposits of sulfur are found along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas. Too much has been written about these to necessitate repetition here. The sulfur as mined goes into dusting compounds, and sprays, into the rubber industry, into sulfur dioxide and sulfites for the paper and other industries, into many minor industries, and into the sulfuric acid iudustry, mostly outside the confines of the Southwest. However, quite a number of sulfuric acid plants are operating in this region to meet the demands of the oil and fertilizer industries. CERAMIC MATERIALS
Among the many ceramic and related materials may be mentioned gypsum (for plaster of Paris), scattered over wide areas of Western Texas and New Mexico; limestone and oyster shell for the manufactureof chemical and common lime; cement rock for portland cement (about ten per cent. of the production in the United States); and clays, kaolin, and fuller's earth. Bentonite deposits are being exploited in several localities. In the Southwest the clay-products industry is limited essentially to brick, floor tile, common pottery, sewer pipes, and fire-clay products. However, the raw materials for fine pottery, white ware, and decorative tile are not missing.
Excellent sand deposits for clear glass manufacture are found throughout the Southwest; common glass articles, bottles, milk bottles, fruit jars, and so forth. are being produced in quantity, especiallywhere natural gas is available as fuel, as i t is a t Three Rivers and Wichita Falls, Texas. THE
COTTON-OIL INDUSTRY
The entire Southwest is dotted with cotton-oil extraction and hardening plants; approximately onehalf of all the cotton-oil produced in the United States is produced in the Southwest. The major portion of this is used for food; however, together with a large local packinghouse industry which furnishes tallow, the cotton-oil industry furnishes the other raw material for a large and flourishing soap industry, both of the laundry and toilet type. OTHER RESOURCES
Space does not permit the complete enumeration of all the chemical or quasi-chemical resources of this region. However, there may be mentioned in quick succession some of the minerals mined in this territory. There is bauxite in Arkansas, lead and zinc in Oklahoma, copper, silver, and carbon dioxide (to produce dry ice) in New Mexico, niercury and graphite in Texas, and salt brines in Louisiana. There should also be mentioned the naval stores, the soya bean, and the pulp and paper industries in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. CONCLUSION.
The future of the Southwest will continue to be closely connected with its citrus fruits, its cotton and corn, its fresh fruits, bemes, and vegetables, its rice, its wool and hides, and its meats. However, the chemical industries, based upon the partial list of chemical resources that have been mentioned, will continue to grow in importance and volume and will aid in the establishment of a commonwealth of states very nearly self-sufficient.
