ing completion of Coastal's ammonia plant) to make ammonium phosphate and sulfate. Ammonium sulfo-phosphate is combined with potash in t h e mixing section to make u p to 350 tons per day of high analysis fertilizer. Coastal is experimenting with a n "A" frame type storage building to see if it works as well as more expensive storage silos commonly used for phosp h a t e rock. Other plant facilities include docks, a grinding plant, and bulk a n d bagged fertilizer storage.
More LPG Goes UG Esso Standard gouging out big storage caverns under its Bayway refinery St. Gobain wet process phosphoric acid unit is feature of Coastal Chemical's new plant. It uses a large, single reactor, can make 75 tons a day
Coastal Chemical Starts Up New $ 6 . 5 million fertilizer plant uses St. Gobain ammonium phosphate unit; ammonia plant to come Now
O N STREAM at Pascagoula, Miss.,
is Coastal Chemical's $6.5 million, high analysis fertilizer plant. Included are sulfuric acid and (St. Gobain) phosphoric acid units, an ammonium phosphate unit, and fertilizer mixing and granulation facilities. Coastal started shakedown trials t h e last week in January, 10 months after construction b e gan. This month, it will start building its own, 150 ton-per-day ammonia plant. The plant is located on Bayou Casotte Harbor, east of Pascagoula. Recently, the Jackson County (Miss.) Port Authority completed a channel in the Bayou, 3 2 feet d e e p , through which Coastal will receive raw materials. Barges bring in phosphate rock from Florida a n d molten sulfur from Louisiana. Company officials say studies under w a y include plans for receiving water shipments of potash, now brought in by rail from New Mexico. • Big Converter. First unit of Coastal's plant to ship product was its sulfuric acid plant. T h e acid plant's single sulfur dioxide converter and absorption train has a capacity of 600 tons per day measured as 1 0 0 % sulfuric acid. Besides making 989o sulfuric acid
for fertilizer manufacture, t h e acid plant makes 60° and 66° Be. acid for sale to other phosphate fertilizer makers. Officials of these companies own stock in Coastal as do some Mississippi farmers (C&EN, Nov. 19, 1956, p a g e 5702) . Stockholders may b u y Coastal Chemical products in proportion t o their share in the company—an arrangement similar to that of Mississippi Chemical, Coastal's parent company. Sulfuric acid will go also to Coastal's oleum plant, still under construction. It will have a design capacity of 80,000 tons p e r year and is scheduled to start up in April. Company officials indicate their oleum will b e sold for drying use in making insecticides. Next t o the acid plant is storage for 4000 tons of molten sulfur—more than adequate to handle the 2500 tons of molten sulfur shipped per barge. • St. Gobain. Coastal's start-up includes a St. Gobain unit t o make w e t process phosphoric acid; capacity is 7 5 tons per day. Heart of t h e unit is a large single reactor as compared with several smaller reactors in other phosphoric acid units. Phosphoric acid and sulfuric acid are used with anhydrous ammonia furnished b y Mississippi Chemical (pend-
BEFORE THE END of this year, Esso Standard Oil will boost storage capacity for propane a n d butane at its Bayway refinery, Linden, N . J., by 28 million gallons—all underground. T h e added refinery storage space will not only m a k e larger quantities available, a n d t h u s improve customer services, b u t will also decrease the danger from fires, storms, and corrosion of surface storage. In addition, underground storage costs less. High pressure storage facilities above ground for propane cost $ 2 0 to $30 p e r barrel, low pressure facilities for butane from $12 to $20. Standard says its underground storage capacity will cost only a fraction of this per-barrel cost. Also, much less operation and maintenance is needed for underground storage than for conventional equipment. The caverns, now being mined at a minimum depth of 300 feet below t h e refinery, are a honeycomb of interconnected tunnels, drilled, blasted, a n d scooped out of solid, dark r e d shale. T h e first cavern, to hold 300,000 barrels of propane, is virtually complete. T h e second, which will hold 375,000 barrels of butane, will be finished in the near future. In all, there will be 6000 linear feet of tunnels (most of which are 13 feet wide and 22 feet high), resulting from removal of 134,000 cubic yards of rock. These are the first mined caverns for storing petroleum products on t h e East Coast. In Texas, LPG was first stored successfully in underground salt cavities in about 1950. At present, total underground storage totals about 33.9 million barrels. Of this, 28.6 million is in salt domes, 4.2 million in FEB.
10,
1958 C & E N
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