Foster Grant will begin building a polystyrene plant in Peru, 111., this month. An initial capacity of 20 million pounds a year will go on stream by September 1963, boosting the company's estimated polystyrene capacity to about 95 million pounds a year. Foster Grant now has a plant at Leominster, Mass., with an estimated annual capacity of 75 million pounds. Monomer for the Peru plant will come by river from the company's Baton Rouge, La., plant.
Union Carbide Chemicals' 50 million pound-per-year phthalic anhydride plant at Institute, W.Va., has been completed. Badger Co. did the construction. The plant uses SherwinWilliams' fluid bed process, which is licensed through Badger.
C&EN PROGRESS REPORT
Houdry Process and Chemical has started making triethylenediamine (DABCO) at Paulsboro, N.J. The new plant more than doubles Houdry's production capacity for DABCO, a urethane foam catalyst. Catalytic Construction built the new plant.
Shell Oil has started operating a new plant for recovering sulfur from sour natural gas in Karnes County, Tex. The plant, owned jointly by Shell, Standard Oil Co. of Texas, Brazos Oil and Gas Co., and others, is designed to produce 12.2 long tons of sulfur a day and 12.3 million cubic feet of sweetened dehydrated gas. It was built by Delta Engineering Co. of Houston. Shell operates another such plant in Cass County, Tex.
FINANCE Matheson Co. will pay a quarterly cash dividend of 5 cents a share on Aug. 15. This will be the company's first cash payment since it became publicly owned in November 1960. Last December a 3 % stock dividend was paid. FMC Corp. is splitting its common stock two shares for one effective Aug. 24. At the same time, company directors have increased the quarterly cash dividend by 5 cents to 40 cents a share (20 cents a share on the stock outstanding after the split). Witco Chemical's common stock has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol WIT.
EXPANSION IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Here are companies making news last month, adding to the chemical process industries by PUNNING... Company and Site Abbott Laboratories, Inc. Wichita, Kan.
Plant or Unit Cyclohexylamine
American Oil Co. Texas City, Tex. Consumers Cooperative Association Hastings, Neb.
Ammonia
International Minerals & Chemical Corp. Northern Natural Gas Co. Nitrin Cordova, III. Monsanto Chemical Co. St. Louis, Mo. National Distillers & Chemical Corp. Phillips Petroleum Co. Alamo Polymer Corp. Houston Ship Channel, Tex. St. Paul Ammonia Products, Inc. Pine Bend, Minn. Skelly Oil Co. El Dorado, Tex.
Union Carbide Corp. Linde Co. Monessen, Pa. Union Carbide Corp. Union Carbide Chemicals Co. Institute, W.Va. Valley Nitrogen Producers, Inc. Helm, Calif. 32
C&EN
AUG.
6,
1962
Ammonia Ammonia
Saccharin Polypropylene resin and film
Ammonia Phenol, acetone, and aromatics
Oxygen Acrylic
acid, butyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, and 2ethylhexyl acrylate Sulfuric acid
Remarks Expanding capacity by 5 0 % . Output to be used in making cyclohexanesulfamic acid, Sucaryl noncaloric sweetener Capacity to be 600 tons a day Expanding recently completed 200 tonper-day plant to 400 tons a day. To be completed by mid-1963 Capacity to be 400 tons per day. Construction to start this summer and be completed by mid-1963 New plant to replace existing unit will increase capacity 5 0 % New plant to be completed in the third quarter of next year Expanding capacity from present 265 tons a day to 390 tons a day To have capacity for 50 million pounds a year of phenol and 30 million pounds a year of acetone plus units for cumene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, and naphthas On-site plant for Pittsburgh Steel. Capacity for 400 tons per day. To be completed in December 1963 Probable completion date: third quarter. Expanded capacity is estimated at 45 million pounds a year Chemical Construction will build the 200 ton-per-day plant
STARTING CONSTRUCTION . . . Abbott Laboratories, Inc. North Chicago, II Air Reduction Co., Inc. Albion, Mich. Beaumont, Tex. Atlas Chemical Industries, Inc. Atlas Point, Del. Borg-Warner Corp. Marbon Chemical division Washington, W.Va. Cabot Corp. Ashtabula, Ohio E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. Charleston, W.Va. International Minerals & Chemical Corp. Bonnie, Fla. Shamrock Oil & Gas Corp. Dumas, Tex. Standard Oil Co. (Ohio) Atlas Chemical Industries, Inc. Solar Nitrogen Chemical, Inc. Joplin, Mo. Union Carbide Corp. Linde Co. Essington, Pa. Witco Chemical Co., Inc. Chicago, III.
Cyclohexanesulfamic acid Liquid and gaseous oxygen, nitrogen, and argon Liquid and gaseous oxygen, argon, and nitrogen Mannitol Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene polymer Titanium dioxide a,a'-Azobisisobutyronitrile Sulfuric acid
Ammonia Ammonia
Liquid oxygen and nitrogen Polyether resin
Expanding capacity for the noncaloric sweetener Capacity for 200 tons of products a day. Part of the oxygen will be piped to adjacent Corning Glass plant Capacity will be 130 tons a day. Part of the nitrogen will be piped to Du Pont's adjacent plant Expanding capacity by 6 0 % Expanding capacity. Crawford & Russell and W. H. Heiby Co. are doing the construction Eventual capacity of 40,000 tons a year. To be on stream in mid-1963 New unit for product used to catalyze vinyl polymerizations Will have capacity for 600 tons a day. To be completed by the end of 1962. Chemical Construction is the builder To be completed in October. Capacity to be 160 tons a day Expanding capacity to 390 tons per day
Increasing capacity by 230 tons a day to 690 tons a day. To be completed in January 1963 Increasing capacity at a cost of $250,000
STARTING PRODUCTION... American Cyanamid Co. Wallingford, Conn. Armour & Co. Armour Agricultural Chemical Co. Cherokee, Ala.
methacrylate molding powder Ammonia, nitric acid, urea nitrogen solutions, ammonium nitrate, and ammonium phosphate
Gulf Oil Corp. Philadelphia, Pa. Northwest Cooperative Mills Pine Bend, Minn.
Benzene and cumene
Socony Mobil Oil Co., Inc. Mobil Chemical Co. division Beaumont, Tex. Standard Oil Co. (N.J.) Humble Oil & Refining Co. Bayway, N.J. Stauffer Chemical Co. Green River, Wyo. Union Carbide Corp. Linde Co. Youngstown, Ohio Wyandotte Chemicals Corp. Wyandotte, Mich.
Methyl
Ammonium phosphate
Benzene Methyl
New unit at existing plant Daily capacity for some 1400 tons of products. M. W. Kellogg managed construction and built urea and ammonia units; Chemical & Industrial built nitric acid, nitrogen solutions, and ammonium nitrate units; and Chemical Construction built the ammonium phosphate unit Has capacity for 12 million gallons per year of benzene Capacity is 100,000 tons a year. Austin Co. designed and built the plant, which is jointly owned by five farm cooperatives New 30 million gallon-per-year unit
isobutyl ketone and methyl isobutyl carbinol
Soda ash
Trona mine and refinery cost $10 million
Oxygen
On-site
Propylene oxide
plant to supply Youngstown Sheet & Tube's steel plant. Capacity is 280 tons a day Triples company's capacity
AUG. 6, 1 9 6 2 C & E N
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