development
OUTHWE
GEORGE F. RUGAR DIAMOND ALKALI CO., PIIMBSVILLE. OHIO
P.
RIOR to World War 11,
Following a survey of consumel. markets, transportaGood public relations had become apparent tion, labor, raw materialsavailability, and other pertinent should be made a part of the that the southwestern part factors, the Diamond Alkali Co., in 1946, chose Houston, progrsm in a field survey. of t.he United States was an Tex., as the site for a new caustic noda-chlorine plant. With this in mind, the first area that offered many opRecently announced plans for an expansion of 50% of interview in each area BUIportunities for the develop the Houston plant’s capacity are indicative of the rapid veyed was held with the local growth of industries in the Southwest. Chamber of Commerce. The ment of the chemical industry. The fundamental rearea8on for the survey was exson far this was the availplsined and the company’s ability of tremendous quantities of several chemical raw mateidcntity was establishrd. In Some instances the Chambers rials. Natural gas, relinery gases, salt, and sulfur may he menchecked with Diamond’s home office, and this worked to sdvantage in severs1 situations. tioned in paint. The well-known fact that caustic soda is one of the intermediates on which the chemical industry and many reIn the matter of public or human relations Diamond made onr lated industries are based and the further fact that chlorine is mistake which plagued salmmen for years. For remons not a t a11 also a basic chemical led the Diamond Alkali Go. in the early clear now, calls were made on some chemists and engineers withpart of 1946 to consider locating a caustic soda-chlorine plant out contacting their purchasing departments. Diamond was not in the Southwest. the first company t o mako thisfaw: pas and probably will not be A review of reports on markets for caustic soda and chlorine in the last; the resentment of purchasing personnel wa8 somewhat this area revealed little that wa8 up-tc-date and authoritative. embarrassing in later contacts. The principal reasons for this were that (1) there were no puhCarrying out the field survey in territories where Diamond had lished statistics t o give reliable indications of the market potential jobber representatives pre8ented another difficulty. Jobbers do not want principals interviewing his (the jobber’s) customers. in this area or the extent to which the demand was unsatisfied, He is always a little suspicious of the prineipsl’s presence in his and (2) Diamond had not previously solicited business in this area and hence had no first-hand information on the charitcteristerritory snd apprehensive that the principal may he getting ideas tics of thi6 market. It was obvious, therefore, that a field survey about eliminating the jobber and taking over the territory himmust be made to develop the information required to determine self. This is again a problem in public relations and if recognized the best location for the plant. a8 such and handled on that level, the understanding and cooperThe purpose of this survey was t o acquire answer8 to several atian of jobbers can be secured. questions: Each field man working on the survey established headquarters in a antrally located city and the surrounding territory was eov1, was there an unsatisfied demand for eauusticand chlorine ered from there. The field aork was done in 3 weeks. The data in the Southwest? developed by the field men was sent to the home office where i t 2. How great was this demand? 3. Where were the markets located? was assembled and correlated. 4. What industries made up these markets? It was obvious that the location of a caustic soda-ehlorine plant in the Southwest offered opportunity for expansion into The answers to these questions would point the way t o a deciderivatives, particularly of chlorine because of the availability of sion as t o the capacity of the plant and its location. natural gas and petroleum. Although the survey was concerned It did not require much study to show that the industries t o he with soda ash, caustic soda, and chlorine, information was also canvassed were textile, pulp and paper, petroleum relining, catgathered on other Diamond products and some products that tonseed oil processing, chemical, and soap. were being considered for production. In the formal field survey at least one departure from accepted I n Diamond’s original thinking, two possible locations were procedure was made in that regular salesmen were used in certain considered-Mobile, Ala., and Houston, Tex. It should be area8. These men were available because the chemicals demandpointed out here that the markets in the South 8s well as the supply situation a t the time did not require intensive sales efSouthwest were given attention, because at that time the South forts. They were coached on the subject matter to. be covered was considerably more advanced than the Southwest a8 a market and were well grounded in how the work was t o be done. The for chemicals. Outlets for soda ash, caustic sods, and chlorine calibre of the work done by the salesmen and the results obtained were in the pulp and paper industry, textiles including rayon, justified using them in the program. glass, soap, metals, vegetable oils and chemicals. The location of Other details closely follou.ed the usual pattern for such work. these “southern” consuming industries favored a plant a t Mobile Lists of prospects were obtained from trade directories, and a over Houston from the standpoint.of freight costa. 3 X 5 inch card giving the name of the company, the individual to I n the sale and distribution of alkalies and chlorine, freight seen and his p&tion was made out far each prospect. There equalization charges help determine the degree of attractiveness was space t o record current product requirements and an estiof a given location. Obviously, it is most advantageous to locate mate of future requirements. It was gratifying t o find that prosa plant so that competitors have to bear most of the burden of pecta were quite willing to answer these questions; they welfreight equaliattion, and from this standpoint Houston wm a corned the possibility of an increase in supply of the chemicals in question. better location than Mobile. It
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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 43, No. 8
petroleum were available. Both areas are rich in these resources. Transportation facilities also were adequate. Several railroads, including feeder lines, serve both areas. Water transportation has already been discussed and, in this respect there was littlc advantage for either location over the other. Houston seemed to offer a somewhat better situation from the labor standpoint. Because of' the well-established petroleum refining industry and more recently established synthetic rubber and chemical industries, skilled labor was being attracted in force to Houston. I n both locations, the native labor force appeared capable of being trained readily for technical operations. There n-ere some chlorine derivatives which were given attention. An electrolytic chlorine plant can always manufacture anhydrous hydrochloric acid or muriatic acid, or both, because of the availability of hydrogen for which uses are not usually present. The big competitor for muriatic is, of course, sulfuric acid. Even so and in a situation where the latter is available, there are still Diamond Alkali C o . , Houston, Tex. possibilities for muriatic acid taking some of the Brine storage reservoir in foreground: caustic soda equipment. center: turbomarket. It was found that markets did exist for generator building, right. muriatic, and it was decided consequently to utilize some of the hydrogen for the production Since freight equalizat'ion costa depend not only on the location of this commodity. of consumers but also on the location of competitors, a discussion Another chlorine derivative u hich seemed to offer possibilities TI as perchloroethylene. Both ethylene and ethylene dichloride of this point is in order. Plants which could be considered as nere available. These are really the same raw material sincr competitors for the two locations, Mobile and Houston, were t o be found in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Diamond had chlorine and could obtain ethylene; ethylene dithe lower part of the gulf coast of Texas. On caustic soda, the chloride could be purchased if desired. Perchloroethylene can be plants competitive with Houston appeared to be about t,he same produced through dehydrochlorination of ethylene dichloride ones as those which could be considered competitive with Mobile. followed by chlorination. lZlthough the principal markets for perchloroethylene are located in the Korth and East, still there On this basis, there was no particular advantage inherent in either was a good possibility of getting some of this market because of proposed location. Because of the existence of soda ash plank the excess demand over supply. There was some demand in the with installed capacity for lime soda caustic, the supply of caust~ic South and Southwest, and possible new outlets in the Southwest considerably exceeded the supply of chlorine. Of course, the outwere envisioned which made the production of this solvent rather put of caustic soda from the electrolytic process is always greater than output of chlorine by the ratio of 1.126 to 1.0. This inattractive. It should be mentioned too that shipment could br flexible ratio is always causing trouble for the electrolytic promade by barge to customers contiguous t o the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. ducers because industrial demands for caustic soda and chlorine do In addition to the production of perchloroethylene from ettivlnot follow stoichiometric relations. ene dichloride, it has been known for a long time that vinyl chloLocation on a seaboard raised the possibility of water shipment, t o t.he West Coast, of alkali speciahies for use in cleaning-prodride monomer may also be obtained by the partial dehydrochlorination of ethylene dichloride. At first glance, it would seem that ucts which are used in laundries, bottle washing, metal cleaning, the Southwest was not a favorable location for the manufacturr of and related industries. Diamond was unable to carry out a comthis plastic raw material. The fact that the consuming center for plete survey of this potential, but a limited amount of work polyvinyl chloride is in the northeastern part of the country showed that this outlet had promise and that it would be possible to move a substantial tonnage of these items into the West Coast would seem to put a tremendous freight charge on material produced in the Southwest and, therefore, make it impossible to comstates. pete successfully in the northern market. However, the economA plant on seaboard in the Southwest would also have advantages for exporting to Mexico and Central and South America. ics of PI oduction by way of acetylene plus anhydrous hydrochloric acid versus the dehydrochlorination of ethylene dichloride dc,The distance to the Central and South American markets is short, termine the final delivered cost of the monomer. There was the permitting more rapid delivery at lower costs. To supply these possibility too, that the availability of monomer in the Southwest markets, it would be necessary to produce caustic soda in anhymight induce a polymer producer and fabricator to locate in the drous or solid form, the usual type for export. Diamond's plant a.t Painesville, Ohio, is certainly not advanarea to supply the demands for these products by an ever-incrrasing local population and constantly expanding industrial potmtageously located for export business. Shipment has to be made tial. Based on these facts and beliefs, it appeared that the proby rail to a coast port with attendant freight and handling duction of vinyl chloride monomer in the Southwest was a sound charges. A plant on the Gulf would overcome these disadvanproposition. Diamond is now producing monomer a t Houston, tages and offer much better opport.unities for this type of business. competing successfully in the eastern market, and has indications An additional poesibility for both locations was water shipment that there may soon be outlets in the Southwest area itself. t o the eastern market. This, however, was not given much The most important and weighty factor in determining the acweight in the final decision. tual location of the plant, however, was announcement by the The raw materials situation was about equally attractive at the Shell Development Co. that it had succeeded in synthesizing glyctwo proposed locations. ildequate supplies of salt,, water, fuel erol using the now familiar procrss starting n ith propylene and in the form of natural gas, and hydrocarbons from nat,ural gas and
Augvat 1951
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
chlorine. The prooezss wae 80 outstanding that the Well Development Co. received the Chemical Engineering Award for a&ievem n t in 1948. The success of the commercialieation of tbb procem obviously depended on the availability of a reliable m c e of chlorine near the supply of hydrocarbon, and naturally Shell wanted ita glyoerol p h n t in Houstan where it had an adequate supply of propylene. When Shell’s and Diamond's interesta were considered togetber it wen clear that Diamond should locate at Houetoo and not at Mobile. Born of the di5cultiea encountered in deciding the capacity of the Houston plant may be of interest. Early planning envisioned a daily capacity of 20 tona of chloriue, but it wan became evident that the potential of the marketa in the fesbgrowing Southwest made it advisable to increase this p r o j 4 capacity to 50 tons per day. Then, ae investigations continued and plans began to tgke ehape, the propoaed capacity of the new plant was inueased from 50 tons to 80 tons to 100 tous to 145 tons per day-more rapidly than d d g n studies could be written.
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A t this point, however, PICcurement of the necesasry equip ment and prepamtion of actnsl dedp drawings for the plant were started, closaly followed by prelkohusy construction operations. While this work was getc ting well under way, contraat armgemta were completed for supplying additional quentitien of chlorine and caustic Bods to other new planta being built in the area. This resulted in again stepping up the E& of the plant, this t h e to its present capacity of 220 tons of chlorine per d87 The fact that Diamond r e m t l y announced plans for an expansion of 50% of ita capacity is evidence of the Boundness of its decision to locate a plant in Houston. RIEEIV~D Msmh 80, 1851.
Economics of Ammonia Production in the ‘Southwest R. C. T W M A N LION OIL CO., BL DORADO, ARK
A .
Sitrogen Products, LM., was DEQUATE and inexThe 0-!a Ordnance W o * b at El Dorado. Ark., was built operating a. plant based on penrave raw materials, and operated by t h e Lion Oil Co.. for production of nia favorable g e o g r a p h i c a l trattlll and a m m o n i a for the war effort. A t the e n d of natural gasatCalgmy. But the bulk of synthetic amWorld War 11 its value i n helping t o fill the d e m a n d for l o c a t i o n , an a m p l e labor agricultural nitrogen in the Southwest wan obvious. A mania at that time was prcsupply, favorable c l i m a t i c conditione, and a reliable market nvsey of the a n a resulted in the leasing and fiduced by Solvay Process Division (Allied Chemical 6: nally the p w h a n e of t h e plant f m m the Government. financial background are imA redew of the present status of the over-all nitrogen econDye Corp.) and by Du Pont portant attributes in any company seeking to enter a o m y with muggeations as t o its f u t u r e development. is in the cod area where hydronew line of manufacturing acincluded. gen was generated by the familiar water gas reaction. tivity. These inducements However, in spite of the lack were offered by Lion Oil Co. in 1941 when it urged the location of a government-sponsored of experience with natural gas, six of the ten ammonia plants erected by the Government were based on this raw material and ammonia plant to be operated by the company at ita home h a looated in the Southwest where gas is abundant and inexpensive. tion of El Dorado, Ark. At that time the company, although one of the larger indeOne of these, the Oaark Ordnance Works, was located a t pendenta, was small in compsrison with the major oil comEl Dorado, Ark. Lion Oil Co., after wartime operation, lessed thw plant from panies. It was, however, a completely integrated petroleum the Government in 1946 and purchased it outright in 1948 (see company. Its activities in the synthetic ammonia field fit lodillustration, page 1750). The original capacity of 300tonsper day cally into Lion’s operations because i t produces natural gas, the prime raw material for ammonia m u f a c t u r e , from the same of anhydrous ammonia, 180 tons nitric acid, and 330 tons amwells which provide the refinery’s raw material, crude oil monium nitrate has been expanded ta a rated capacity of 670 tons daily of ammonia, 400 tons of nitrate and, with addition of a sul(Figure 1). furic acid plant, 400 tons per day of ammonium sulfate. Nitrogen Before Pearl Harbor it seemed likely that t h i s country would fertiliaer solutions are also made from these basic chemicals. become involved in a war. Of the m y d b i l i t i e a surveyed by the Liou Oil Co. for aiding the war~effort,the prospect of MARKET ANALYSIS making ammonia from the readily available, law cost natural From a market analysis viewpoint, producing ammonia den”& gas seemed most suitable. These findings coincided with those tives for guaranteed government consumption is rather difof the Army Ordnance Department which was searching for ferent from independent operation. However, foreseeing the suitable sites for the location of plants to make ammonium probability of postwar private operatiou, the facton involved in nitrate for use in explosives. profitable peacetime operation were studied. Manufacture of ammonia with hydrogen derived from hydroGeographically, the most important factor in pastwar cancarbon gases was not a common p r o o w in 1941. Hercules sideration wae the location of El Dorado with reapect to the Powder Co. and Shell Chemical Co. at Pinole and Shell Point, nitrogen deficient agricultural South. The chsrsoteristioally Calif., respectively, were operating on natural gas in plants heavy rainfall in tbia region during the winter u-hen there is little which were small as ammonia plants go. Similarly Alberta
