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AN INDUSTRY TRANSFORMED Sohio acrylonitrile process receives historic chemical landmark status Madeleine Jacobs C&EN Washington
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he Sohio acrylonitrile process, a catalytic process developed in the 1950s that revolutionized production of a key building block of fibers and plastics, became the 11th National Historic Chemical Landmark last month. Designation of historic landmark status by the American Chemical Society was celebrated on Sept. 13 with speeches and tours of laboratories at the Warrensville Heights, Ohio, facilities of BP Chemicals, which acquired Standard Oil Co. of Ohio (Soliio) in 1987. A crowd of
about 300 employees, former employees, industry representatives, and VIPs attended. Later that day, BP Chemicals hosted a dinner honoring those people involved in the original acrylonitrile process. The Sohio acrylonitrile process has been improved continuously through the years and is now the basis for 95% of all acrylonitrile made in the world today. BP Chemicals took the opportunity at the landmark ceremony to announce a new, less expensive process for making acrylonitrile, one based on propane as a feedstock rather than propylene (C&EN, Sept. 23, page 18).
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Workers (right) pose in front of Sohio's first acrylonitrile plant in Lima, Ohio, circa 1960. BP Chemicals' Green Lake, Texas, acrylonitrile plant today (above).
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ACS President Ronald Breslow, who presented the landmark plaque to BP Chemicals on behalf of ACS, noted that the acrylonitrile process "was a brilliant scientific discovery made in response to a time challenge. The people who were involved rose to the challenge and have continued to develop catalyst after catalyst that has beaten the competition. And, as evidenced by the new process for making acrylonitrile, this company continues to make brilliant discoveries." Accepting the plaque on behalf of BP Chemicals were Robert Mesel, chief executive of BP Chemicals Inc., and Chris S. Gibson-Smith, deputy chief executive officer and chief operating officer of BP Chemicals Ltd., London. "We create the future by changing the present," said Gibson-Smith. "Forty years ago, a small group of people changed the future. People have invented and reinvented this process and created new markets. It's been an enormous endeavor." Mesel commended Mark C. Cesa, a BP Chemicals chemist and past chairman of the ACS Cleveland Section, which put together the application for landmark status, and current section chairman James Murtagh, a chemist at Ben Venue Laboratories in Bedford, Ohio. First synthesized in 1893, acrylonitrile did not become an important industrial product until the 1930s, when it started to be used in acrylic fibers for textiles and synthetic rubber. For many years thereafter, acrylonitrile was made by an expensive process using acetylene and hydrogen cyanide. All of that changed in the 1950s. Prior to 1953, Sohio had not carried out any research on commodity chemicals or petrochemicals. According to the official
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Members of the acrylonitrile research team are shown in 1971 (from left): Callahan, Milberger, Idol, Veatch, and Cross.
Celebrating at the dinner in Cleveland are (from left) Callahan, Cross, Milberger, Hughes, and Idol.
Shown with the plaque commemorating the designation of the Sohio acrylonitrile process as a National Historic Chemical Landmark are, (from left) Heindel, Breslow, Mesel, Gibson-Smith, and Murtagh.
history, "The picture changed when Franklin Veatch, a research supervisor reporting to E. C. Hughes, director of research, proposed that converting light refinery gases such as the aliphatic hydrocarbon propane to oxygenates could be profitable. Veatch's idea was to use metal oxides to convert hydrocarbons to oxygenates." Sohio funded the research; however, when early work did not yield results, the company gave him six weeks to come up with something or drop the project. But Sohio had a "dream team." In ad-
dition to Veatch, that team of chemists and engineers comprised James L. Callahan, Ernest C. Milberger, James D. Idol Jr., and Gordon G. Cross. Others involved in the early and later stages of development of the process included Robert W. Foreman, Evelyn Jonak, Emily A. Ross, Robert K. Grasselli, Arthur F. Miller, and Edward F. Morrill. Before the deadline was up, Veatch's team had successfully made acrolein by passing propylene over a modified vanadium pentoxide oxidant. With one more oxidation step, acrolein could be con-
verted to acrylic acid. In 1955, the team began testing oxidants as direct oxidation catalysts. The group was working around the clock, recalled Callahan, who is now retired. "There never was a long day, there never was a long week, there never was a boring week or a month that didn't see progress," he said at the dinner. In an experiment designed by Callahan and carried out by Ross, the group was able to produce acrolein in yields of more than 40% using bismuth phosphomolybdate. Callahan, Foreman, and Veatch received key patents on that catalyst. Idol, Callahan, and Foreman simultaneously developed and patented a phosphomolybdic acid catalyst for oxidizing acrolein to acrylic acid. Next, Idol suggested acrylonitrile as a derivative of acrylic acid and successfully carried out catalytic conversion of the ammonium salt of acrylic acid. Acrylonitrile also was made by feeding acrolein, ammonia, and air over the catalyst that produced acrylic acid from acrolein. He then conceived that acrylonitrile might be made directly from propylene by carrying out the entire reaction in a single step with bismuth phosphomolybdate. Idol designed the experiment, Jonak carried it out in March 1957, and the result was the process that produced acrylonitrile in about 50% yield with acetonitrile and hydrogen cyanide as coproducts. Idol holds the basic patent for the process. The rest really is history, and memorable history at that. Veatch pressed for strong development and commercialization. A pilot plant was constructed under the direction of Cross at Sohio's thennew laboratory in Warrensville Heights, where the landmark plaque will be displayed. Milberger was instrumental in designing large laboratory-scale reactors and obtaining process design and development data from them. "It was fun, just fun," Milberger said to colleagues at the dinner. "Everyone was working together. It was a golden age." Idol also attended the landmark events. Now a professor of materials science and director of the Center for Packaging Science & Engineering at Rutgers University, New Bmnswick, N.J., he told event organizers: "I count it the privilege of a lifetime OCTOBER 7, 1996 C&EN 41
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to have had a role in such a remarkable team and company. I think of the Sohio-BP Chemicals acrylonitrile process as a monument to chemical industry research and enterprise in the best tradition." Creating these feelings is one of the benefits of the landmarks program, said Ned D. Heindel, professor of chemistry at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., and chairman of the ACS Advisory Committee on National Historic Chemical Landmarks. Speaking at the landmark ceremony, Heindel said that one major purpose of the program is to "increase public awareness and appreciation of chemistry in our daily lives. These landmarks are a source of pride for everyone in the chemical profession." The ACS National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program began in 1992, initiated by the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry and the ACS Office of Public Outreach. ACS local sections and divisions submit nominations for landmark status to an international advisory committee that determines which landmarks merit designation. The Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia serves as the archives for the program documents and assists with the preparation of nominations.^
New career planning brochure available Undergraduate majors in chemistry, biochemistry, and related disciplines will have some extra help mapping out their careers, thanks to a new American Chemical Society brochure, "Planning for a Career in Industry." Developed by the ACS Committee on Professional Training (CPT) and ACS Corporation Associates, "this brochure assumes that you have chosen a major in chemistry or biochemistry and are thinking seriously of getting a job in industry after graduation." The range offieldssuggested in the brochure includes materials science, polymers, biochemistry and molecular biology, biotechnology, environmental chemistry, and pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry, as well as the more traditional subdisciplines of organic, inorganic, physical, and analytical chemistry. It is "intended to give you some ideas about this range of career possibilities," the brochure continues, and "to make suggestions about what you should be doing now to prepare for your career, 42 OCTOBER 7, 1996 C&EN
Marks honored for Publications leadership
At the ACS national meeting in Orlando, the Society Committee on Publications (SCOP) presented a plaque of appreciation to Robert H. Marks (second from left) for his years of leadership as director of the ACS Publications Division. Marks will retire at the end of this year. The plaque was presented to Marks by ACS past-President Ned D. Heindel, who was chairman of SCOP when Marks came on board ACS in 1988 and who has been supportive of Marks's many innovative publishing ventures, such as the agreement signed with the American Society of Pharmacognosy to copublish the Journal ofNatural Products. Also pictured are current SCOP Chairman Joseph A. Dixon (far right), and ACS Executive Director John K Crum (far left). The Publications Division will have about $72 million in sales this year with an estimated return to the society of about $6.1 million.
Wanning for a Career in Industry Suggestions for Undergraduate Majors in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Related Disciplines
American Chemical Society Committee on Professional Training ACS Corporation Associates
and to point out some of the many resources that are available to help you decide and plan." So far, response to the brochure has been excellent, says Cathy Nelson, manager of the ACS Office of Professional Training, which helped initiate, plan, and publish the brochure. Of 45,000 copies from
an initial print run, she says, supplies are starting to run low. Single copies of the brochure are available by contacting Nelson via e-mail at:
[email protected]. The 12-page booklet covers a variety of career choices, what to look for in undergraduate education, career counseling, and career opportunities in both the public and private sectors, as well as in education and public service. The section on undergraduate education in the new brochure suggests that it is "important to have a solid foundation, including laboratory experience in all the subdisciplines of chemistry." Moreover, the pamphlet points out the growing emphasis on communication skills by today's employers. "Work in industry is seldom solitary," the brochure says. "Employers want workers who can contribute to solving complex problems while working and communicating effectively in teams." At the back of the new brochure is a bibliography of career resources, including many other brochures available from ACS. A quick glance shows that from just about every angle—from starting a career to changing careers and retirement planning—ACS has useful information on hand. William Schulz
