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Petrochemicals "Arrive" in P. R· Puerto Rico's first ammonia plant — costing $12 mil lion — officially goes on stream at Guanica Jr ETROCHEMICALS are expected to pro
vide t w o thirds of Puerto Rico's heavy industrial growth in the next few years. A major step in that direction is a n e w $12,250,000 ammonia plant just opened at Guanica. This plant, designed to make 40,000 tons of anhydrous ammonia a year, is owned by a new Puerto Rican firm, Gonzalez Chemical Industries. T h e Gonzalez family, owners of Ochoa Fer tilizer, u p t o now Puerto Rico's largest fertilizer firm, holds a controlling inter est in t h e new chemical company. Four U . S. insurance companies have invested in mortgage bonds, while Puerto Rican government development agencies have acquired $4,750,000 in stocks and bonds. Raw material for the ammonia plant,
which uses the Texaco synthesis gas process, is crude oil from Venezuela. Besides turning out 40,000 tons of ammonia, the Gonzalez plant will also make 115,000 tons of sulfuric acid. Major end product of the plant will b e 130,000 tons of ammonium sulfate. It, along with smaller quantities of aqua and anhydrous ammonia, will supply Puerto Rico's growing fertilizer market. Annual sales a r e expected to b e about $6 million—the same as Puerto Rico's current fertilizer imports. Gonzalez Chemical received 10-year full tax exemption u n d e r the Bootstrap industrialization p r o g r a m implemented by the Economic Development Admin istration. Since 1950, E D A has signed u p more than 400 Bootstrap plants. However, Gonzalez is t h e largest plant controlled by Puerto Ricans. Λ recent survey b y t h e E D A indi cates that petrochemicals will play t h e leading role in t h e island's development of a $1.5 billion h e a v y industry by 1965. Heavy industry of this size would double Puerto Rico's n e t in come (to $2.4 billion) a n d increase income from manufacturing fivefold (from $172 to $845 million). This, the survey indicates, should include about 20 basic plants in pulp and paper, shipbuilding, m e a t packing, and grain milling. Of this possible 20, eight are already b e i n g built or con sidered, including W . R. Grace's $8
By 1 9 6 5 Puerto Rico M a y Have . . .
This n e w ammonia plant has just been finished a t Gonzalez Chemical Indus tries' plant at Guanica, P . R. In left foreground is the compressor building; the right is the ammonia synthesis converter. The hydrogen box a n d pipeway a r e in the cei 'e a companion unit. T h e reactor will have the same food-sterilization ca pacity as the accelerator. A food processing plant will com plete the main units a t the center. Thie primary purpose of t h e center is to de termine the relative value and costs of gamma rays and beta rays for pasteuri zation and sterilization purposes. It will also develop other information con cerning preservation of foods and treat ment of other materials by radiation.
Wyandotte Plans Oxides Construction is starting on a large plant to make oxide products at Wyan dotte, Mich. Wyandotte Chemicals says it will b e a multipurpose plaot capable of increasing company outpiat of Pluronic and Tetronic polyoLs. These polyethers are used as noniontc surfactants and as intermediates for APRIL
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calls the largest catalytic reforming unit in the world on stream. The unit is a 45,000-barrel-per-day Houdriformer. It has also placed what it calls the world's largest hydrodesulfurization plant in operation. • W. R. Grace's Davison Chemical di vision has just completed a new office building at Bartow, Fla., for its Florida phosphate division. • Southwest Research Institute has let
a contract for a $252,000 general serv ices and administration building which is expected to be complete next August. • Goodrich-Gulf
Chemicals
has
awarded an engineering and construc tion contract to Girdler for converting one of three production lines at its In stitute, W. Va., plant to a cold rubber process. • Celanese is now in commercial pro duction of trimethylolpropane at its aldol condensation plant at Bishop, Tex.
φ How St Will Look Looking over part of a scale model of new units being added to the Standard Oil (Ohio) refinery at Toledo are company officials George C. Knepp (left), Edward N. Marsh, Howard F. West, and I. L. Peterson. Ground was broken for the $40 million expansion early this month. When the new units, which increase capacity of the refinery from 29,000 to 60,000 barrels a day, are completed next April, all present units will be "mothballed" except two alleviation units and a rerun unit.
polyurethane foam. The new plant, scheduled for completion late this year, will be designed for future expansion. Wyandotte's three polyethers, al ready field tested, are now available in commercial quantities. Others are in process of development and will b e available within the next few months when laboratory and field work have been completed.
sible for the manufacture and sale of all company products outside the U. S. as well as all foreign licensing arrange ments entered into by the company.
• Parke-Davis has purchased three acres of industrial property for a new building site in Bohannon Industrial Park, Menlo Park, Calif.
• Η. Κ. Porter Co. has c o m b i n e d t w o divisions—Laclede-Christy a n d McLain
• Foster D. Snell # lnc. # is offering a new service which provides chemical mar keting information. Called Compre hensive Chemical Reports, they contain all published data on production, con sumption, foreign trade, etc., of any specific chemical, company, or related industry.
Fire Brick—under a common manage ment. This new refractories division • Chem-Pure Service Co. has occupied will also include the newly acquired a new building in San Carlos, Calif., to Mullite Refractories, Shelton, Conn. accommodate its work in the field of • Raymond Laboratories Inc., a wholly water conditioning equipment for nu owned subsidiary of Rayette, Inc., is clear power plants. now known as Rayette's chemical di • ACF Industries has combined its nu vision. clear energy products and Erco divi • Dexter Chemical has acquired a twosions in order to consolidate its work in story building for making thermosetting the nuclear energy field and to make resins for the textile industry. It ad use of complementary facilities. joins the company's other production and office facilities in N e w York City. • Witco Chemical has formed an inter national division that will be respon • Tidewater Oil has placed what it 22
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• Bowaters Southern Paper is starting construction of a new pulp mill at Catawba, S. C. The proposed 400-ton sulfate pulp mill will cost $38 million and be completed by the end of 1959. The state constitution has be amended to permit a foreign corporation (such as Bo water) to own as much as 500,000 acres of land; the limit has been 500 acres. ί Carbide & Carbon will double its acrylonitrile production by the second quarter of 1958 at its Institute, W. Va., plant. • Air Reduction Sales will build a multimillion dollar air liquefaction plant at Acton, Mass. Investment in the new plant and related distribution facilities will be in excess of $9 million. • American PetrochemSeal's Mol-Rez division at Minneapolis has just placed a new reactor capable of producing an additional 40 drums per day of syn thetic resin in operation. • General Electric has started construc tion of a 32,000-square-foot nuclear fuel manufacturing facility at San Jose, Calif. Completion is scheduled for De cember. It is in addition to the 15,000square-foot fuel development facility completed late last year. • Koppers plans to increase the scope of its dye business. The program in volves integration of its subsidiary, American Aniline Products, with its chemical division; building a new lab at Lock Haven, Pa., for development of new dyes and chemicals; and ex pansion of its service lab facilities.
