India's Fertilizer Prospects Look Brighter - C&EN Global Enterprise

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India's Fertilizer Prospects Look Brighter New pricing policy of Indian government likely to bring in more foreign capital for fertilizer industry More foreign capital may begin to flow into India's fertilizer industry because of a new pricing policy of the Indian government. All fertilizer produced in India is sold to a government pool, but till now the price paid to government-owned fertilizer plants and to private plants has differed. Now, thj government has ensured private funis the same price as will be paid to government plants. This ruling applies only to nitrogenous fertilizers. Phosphatic and other fertilizers will still be sold outside the pool. Also, the government has recognized the right of private firms to sell in the open market at uncontrolled prices, but the pool system will probably continue till the shortage of fertilizer in the country is filled. Another move by the government will bring all fertilizer plants under one management, Hindustan Chemicals & Fertilizer, Ltd. This, the government hopes, will ensure better control and more efficient operation of the units.

By 1965-66, India expects to boost its annual fertilizer production to 1 million tons of nitrogen and 500,000 tons in terms of phosphorus pentoxide. Government firms will make 800,000 tons of nitrogen; the balance of 200,000 tons of nitrogen and the entire quantity of phosphorus pentoxide will be made by private firms. As a result of these rulings, at least five foreign companies, including four American ones, are competing to collaborate in a complex fertilizer plant to be built at Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). The plant will use refinery gases as raw materials and will cost $50.4 million. Also, two or three other companies are interested in the planned Hanumangarh plant in Rajasthan which will produce 350,000 tons of ammonium sulfate per year. This plant will cost $54 million. In New Delhi, the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry has received applications from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh to build fertili zer plants. Uttar

DRYERS AND COOLERS. Ammonium sulfate crystals are dried and cooled in these drums then sent off to storage at the Sindri Fertilizer plant at Bihar

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Pradesh plans to set up three units with a total capacity of 60,000 tons per year (nitrogen content). Madhya Pradesh plans a $42 million plant with a minimum capacity of 60,000 tons per year (nitrogen content). Messrs Chembiebau Dr. A. Zieren Gambell, a West German firm, and Koln am Rhein, will collaborate in setting up a plant at Cuddalore for Premier Fertilizers, Ltd. The plant will have a capacity of 40,000 tons of superphosphate and 16,500 tons of sulfuric acid and is expected to go into production early in 1962. Raw materials, sulfur and rock phosphate, will be imported. England has also gotten into the picture with a $1.68 million loan to East India Distilleries and Sugar Factories, Ltd., of Madras. The loan, supplied by Commonwealth Development Finance Corp., Ltd., will be used by the two companies as part of the financing of a phosphate fertilizer plant. The plant will be built at Ennore, near Madras, and will have a capacity of 51,000 tons per year. The Indian government will build a $65 million plant, which will have a capacity of 1200 tons of ammonium nitrate per day, at Nangal in Punjab. If the plant goes into operation as planned, in April 1961 (this is governed by the availability of electric power from the Bhakra hydroelectric scheme), it will be the second such unit. The only other unit of this type is the Sindri Fertilizer unit at Bihar which is now in operation. Two fertilizer plants scheduled to go into operation in 1962 and 1963 are the Rourkela (Orissa) and the Neyveli (Madras) plants. At Trombay (Bombay) a manufacturing unit for the Nahorkatiya project is being built. This unit will use raw materials from Barauni and Gauhati refineries to produce 32,500 tons per year of nitrogen and 50,000 tons of urea and ammonium sulfate. A loan from the U.S. Development Loan Fund is expected to be used for the

CHEMICALS OUTLOOK

November, 1960

This news bulletin about Wyandotte Chemicals services, products, and their applications, is published to help keep you posted. Perhaps you will want to route these and subsequent facts to interested members of your organization. Additional information and trial quantities of Wyandotte products are available upon request . . . may we serve you?

FROM WYANDOTTE FOR URETHANES: NEW HEXOLS...

Wyandotte's line of Pluracols for urethanes continues to lengthen. Just out: a Pluracol® SP-760 hexol (OH number 490). Developed especially for use in rigid urethane foam systems as well as in urethane elastomers and coatings, this new hexol differs from our Pluracol diols, triols, and tetrols in that it is based on sorbitol. At present, Pluracol SP-760 is the only sorbitol-based member available, but additional ones will be developed shortly. Pluracol SP-760 is available in commercial quantities and meets the strict standards prescribed by the urethane industry. If you are working in this field, you'll want to investigate this polyether. We'll be happy to send you samples for laboratory evaluation, along with suggested formulations.

... AND NEW AMINE CATALYST

To induce moderately rapid reaction rates in urethane formulations, Wyandotte has developed a new catalyst . . . 1,2,4trimethylpiperazine. It is a liquid tertiary amine with excellent solubility in water, acetone, methanol, and benzene. It offers a number of important advantages: handling ease, low vapor pressure at polymerization temperatures, lower odor level, and comparatively low cost. Pilot-plant quantities are available now. If the properties of this new catalyst suggest that it might be useful to you in the preparation of urethane foams, elastomers, or coatings . . . get in touch with us. The more fully you can detail your requirements, the more helpful we can be in the preparation of data for you. So give us all possible facts. For prompt attention, address your inquiry to Department CO.

nyanJotte

CHEMICALS

WYANDOTTE CHEMICALS CORPORATION WYANDOTTE, MICHIGAN • OFFICES IN PRINCIPAL CITIES

SODA ASH • CAUSTIC SODA • BICARBONATE OF SODA • CALCIUM CARBONATE • CALCIUM CHLORIDE • CHLORINE • GLYCOLS • SODIUM CMC • ETHYLENE OXIDE ETHYLENE DICHLORIDE • POLYETHYLENE GLYCOLS • PROPYLENE OXIDE • PROPYLENE DICHLORIDE • POLYPROPYLENE GLYCOLS • SURFACE-ACTIVE AGENTS DICHLORODIMETHYLHYDANTOIN • CHLORINATED SOLVENTS • URETHANE FOAM INTERMEDIATES • DRY ICE • OTHER ORGANIC AND INORGANIC CHEMICALS

ISOTOPES for Your Development Work

Oak Ridge National Laboratory offers more than 300 radioactive and stable isotope products.

RADIOISOTOPES Processed Solutions — 90 processed radioisotopes may be obtained, including many carrier-free and high specific activity products. Now Available — Iridium-192 gamma sources with specific activity up to 100 curies per gram, and cobalt-60 radiography sources 1/8 and 1/16-inch in diameter with specific activity greater than 100 curies per gram. At a reduced price, carbon-14 barium carbonate is available at $9.50 per millicurie.

imported machinery at this project. In West Bengal, the state government and the Japanese firm, Mitsui Bussan, are negotiating for a fertilizer plant at Durgapur. The plant, which would have a capacity of 75,000 tons of nitrogen and 32,000 tons of phosphate annually, is estimated to cost $52.5 million. The Japanese firm is expected to cover a third of the cost, the West Bengal government a minimum of 5 1 % , and the balance would be supplied by private Indian investors. Although the proposal for setting up the plant was made in July, the offer by the Japanese firm has not met with earlier expectations and the project has stalled. Fertilizers & Chemicals, Travancore, Ltd., in Kerala has a $10 million expansion program under way. The first stage of the program will double output of ammonia to increase ammonium sulfate production to 225 tons per day and also produce 100 tons of ammonium phosphate per day. The additional hydrogen required will be produced by the electrolytic process. The second stage of the expansion will provide hydrogen by oil gasifica-

tion rather than by the firewood process which is now used. The firewood process involves carbonizing wood to produce carbon monoxide, then the carbon monoxide is cleaned of tars and reacted with steam over a bed of iron to produce hydrogen. The whole expansion program will give the plant a total annual capacity of 100,000 tons of ammonium sulfate, 33,000 tons of ammonium phosphate, 44,000 tons of superphosphate, 97,000 tons of sulfuric acid, and 8000 tons of ammonium chloride by the end or 1961. The company has already completed a sulfuric acid plant which has a capacity of 160 tons per day. Also, a unit to recover acid plant tail gases which will produce 10 tons of liquid sulfur dioxide per day has been added to the sulfuric acid plant. Foreign capital is also flowing into other parts of the chemical industry in India. Many of these new ventures may eventually offset the imports now needed by the chemical industry. India's need for citric acid, which has been met by imports from the U.S. and Europe till now, will be partly filled by a new company, Citric India,

STABLE ISOTOPES More than 200 stable isotopes available from 50 elements Chemical processing and target fabrication services also offered. . . . Ultra-high isotopic purity in a number of isotopes. For information or literature, write t o : Isotopes Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box X , Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

OAK RIDGE N A T I O N A L LABORATORY Operated by UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION for the U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION

International Congress Draws U.S. Visitors American Day at the X X X I I Congres International de Chimie Industrielle at Barcelona, Spain, drew many American visitors, including Albert E. Forster (left), president of Hercules Powder Co. He told the group of the important part agricultural chemicals are playing in increasing the world's food supply. With Mr. Forster (left to right) are Dr. Paul Toinet, president of the Societe de Chimie Industrielle, Dr. Andre Ellefsen, vice president of the Societe, and Max Riemersma, consultant.

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New compounding guidebook shows how 25 Monsanto Plasticizers can help solve many adhesives problems EXAMPLE: Monsanto plasticizers help tailor PVAc emulsion properties to specific needs Monsanto Plasticizer Heat Quick Tack Flexibility Performance Relative Sealability Cost AROCLOR 1211 Good Excellent Low Excellent Good Good Low AROCLOR 1232 Good Excellent Good AROCLOR 1242 Good Good Good Good Low SANTICIZER 140 Good Good Good Excellent Medium Medium SANTICIZER 141 Good Good Excellent Excellent SANTICIZER 160 Good Good Good Good Medium TRICRESYL PHOSPHATE Good Good Medium Good Excellent Good DIMETHYL PHTHALATE Excellent Excellent Good Medium Good DIETHYL PHTHALATE Excellent Excellent Good Medium Good Dl BUTYL PHTHALATE Good Excellent Good Medium SANTICIZER B-16 Good Good Excellent High Good SANTICIZER M-17 Good Excellent Good High Good SANTICIZER 1-H Excellent Good High Excellent SANTICIZER 8 Good Excellent Good Good High SANTICIZER 9 Excellent Good High Good DIPHENYL PHTHALATE Excellent Good Good High TRIPHENYL PHOSPHATE Excellent Good High Excellent FOR EVERY TYPE o f synthetic-resin adhesive . . . emulsion , hot-melt, delay ed-tack, solution, pressure-sensitive, nontoxic . . . M o n s a n t o gives cornpounders t h e widest choice of q u a l i t y plasticizers a v a i l a b l e a n y w h e r e . Just state y o u r specifications . . . M o n s a n t o c a n p r o v i d e a plasticizer system t o m e e t y o u r c o m p o u n d i n g needs exactly.

tl Monsanto Plasticizers in Synthetic-Resin Adhesives," new Technical Bulletin PL-307, contains up-to-date plasticizer performance data . . . plus detailed discussion of 51 specific adhesive formulas. Send for your c o p y , today.

Aroclor, Santicizer: Monsanto T.M.'s, Reg. U. S. Pat. O f f .

MONSANTO CHEMICAL Organic Chemicals Division

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D e p t . 2715, S t . Louis 66, M o . Please send me Technical

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Don't be hoodwinked... insist upon

KEWAUNEE AIRFLOW

FUME HOODS Our hero, after making extensive tests (inside, of course), unbiasedly reports that no other FUME HOOD, regardless of cost, performs like hisen's ! Space doesn't permit details so just send for complete information on laboratory FUME HOODS.

The "inside dope'* is getting his "two scents worth".

Note: We have 4 ft., 5 ft., and 6 ft. stainless steel lined Airflow Fume Hoods in stock. They are available for immediate shipment. *·* If you have a group who'd like to see the real "inside dope" on fume hoods, there's a 20 minute movie available.

K-S-E

KEWAUNEE SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT ADRIAN, MICHIGAN

4 0 3 Θ Logan Street

You state the problem^-We do the rest A R L I C by any other

name...

Well, no, for when a client brought us a pint of extra potent garlic juice to be deodor­ ized, we succeeded in masking the odor. He didn't tell us what he wants to use this garlic incognito for, and we tactfully didn't ask, so we can't tell you. Professional ethics, you know. Counterfeit theatre tickets were a headache to one Snell client — until we fixed him up with a specially-formulated ink containing a chemical tracer. A simple test now makes the counterfeits stick out like a do-it-yourself carpenter's thumb. Even for us, such problems as these (taken from our house organ, The Chemical Digest) are a little out of the ordinary. For more than 40 years we have been solving problems, big and little, plain and fancy. We have a staff of 150 experts and a million dollars worth of facilities to put to work on yours. If you would like to know more about how Snell supplies technological progress without capital investment, ask us to send the Chemical Digest. Better still, tell us in confidence about your problem and we'll submit a proposal at no obligation. ^

Foster CONSULTING

^__

CHEMISTS

B A : - 3 R i D G E , N.Y. · BALTIMORE

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D. S n e l l , i n c . AND CHEMICAL ·

NewYorkllNewYork

ENGINEERS

WORCESTER NEW YORK

NOV. 21, 1960

2 9 West 15th Street

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Ltd., being set up in the state of Maharashtra. The company will make 1500 tons per year of citric acid and citrates from sugar cane molasses when it goes into production in 1962. The West German firm of Standard-Messo Gesellschaft fur chemietechnik, Duisberg, will supply the plant and machinery at an estimated cost of $1.9 million. Bharat Pulverish Mills Private, Ltd., in collaboration with the Japanese firms, Itoh & Co. and Kureha Chem­ icals Industry Co., will make pesticides and insecticides, such as benzene hexachloride, malathion, zinc phos­ phide, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, and mercury compounds at Thana, near Bombay. Scheduled to go into operation by 1962, the plant will be the first in India to make malathion. Tata Chemicals and Imperial Chemi­ cal Industries, which between them produce 4000 tons of benzene hexa­ chloride a year, will be the only larger producers of this item. The project will cost an estimated $1 million. Union Carbide's $9.5 million proj­ ect at Trombay, near Bombay, will produce 15 million pounds of indus­ trial organic chemicals and polyethyl­ ene worth $5.25 million per year. This plant, nearing completion, is the larg­ est manufacturing unit in India for pro­ ducing alcohol-based chemicals. Car­ bide's initial plans call for making ace­ tic acid, butyl alcohol, butyl acetate, ethyl acetate, and polyethylene. Nepa Chemicals, a new company, is setting up a plant at Nepanagar in the state of Madhya Pradesh to make 12 tons of caustic soda and 10 tons of chlorine per day. The south In­ dian firm, Mettur Chemicals, will provide technical advice and assistance for this $1.5 million project. DIA Invest, an East German firm, in collaboration with Travancore Elec­ trochemical Industries, Ltd., is setting up a 10,000 ton-per-year calcium car­ bide plant near Kottayam in Kerala State. Cost of the project is esti­ mated at $525,000. Two months ago, Industrial Chem­ icals, Ltd., completed its plant at Coimbatore (Madras). The plant makes 10,000 tons of calcium carbide per year. Phillips Petroleum Co., together with Duncan Brothers of Calcutta, will set u p a plant at Durgapur (West Bengal) to make carbon black and related by-products from coal tar. The plant will have an annual capacity of 22 million pounds of carbon black and

SUPERIOR QUALITY

EA UREA Cyanamid's new facilities assure you of a continuous supply of Urea. Cyanamid Urea is superior in quality and color—low in biuret content. Whether you order Cyanamid Urea in 20-ton minimum carloads or 10-ton minimum truckloads, you will receive prompt attention, courteous service and a uniformly high quality product. Send coupon today.

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SOME PRODUCTS OF C Y A N A M I D ' S PROCESS CHEMICALS DEPT.: A C C O B O N D ® Resins · AEROMET® M e t a l l u r g i c a l A d d i t i v e AEROSOL® Surfactants · Ammonium Sulfate · M i n e r a l Acids CYQUEST 40® S e q u e s t e r i n g A g e n t · A l u m i n u m S u l f a t e Products marketed under the trademark AERO are: Calcium Carbide · Calcium Cyanamide · Cyanuric Chloride · Dicyandiamide Glycolonitrile · Guanidine Hydrochloride · HCN (Liquid Hydrocyanic Acid) Maleic Anhydride · Melamine · Metallic Stéarates · Phthalic Anhydride

American Cyanamid Company Process Chemicals Department 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York 20, Ν. Υ.

CENP-1121

Please send me. additional information about UREA Name

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Company Address

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CYANAMID

COMPANY

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PROCESS CHEMICALS DEPARTMENT · 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, Ν. Υ.

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WHY SELECT ACE FIBER GLASS SINTERED

FILTERS ? Qualify and Greater Abrasion Resistance. Ace filters, the first American made sintered glass filters, feature a glass fiber structure, more abrasion resistant because it is fused together on a larger area. Particles do not detach from the filter body as easily as spherical granules. The shock and chemical attack resistance of glass is unimpaired as the Ace fiber glass sintered filter is made entirely of glass. You are assured of Ace Glass quality: each filter plate is individually tested for porosity and hardness. Selection and Economy. Ace fiber glass sintered filters are economically priced. For instance, the Filter Funnel (Cat. #7305 in the 20 ml. cap. with 20 mm. disc), shown in photograph above, is listed at $3.20. Ace fiber glass sintered filters have been incorporated into a wide variety of Ace .glassware described in our new filterware brochure. Get it for your files! Write Dept. C for your copy of Filterware Brochure No. 6050.

ACE GLASS I N C O R P O R A T E D

Louisville, Ky.,

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S p r i n g f i e l d , Mass.

will cost an estimated $3.5 million. At present most of India's carbon black is imported. This amounted to 27.7 million pounds in 1959. Distillers Co., Ltd., of the United Kingdom, and Shaw Wallace & Co., Ltd., of Calcutta have joined to form India Yeast Co., Ltd. A plant is already being built at Calcutta to make dried and compressed bakers' yeast from molasses. Distillers Co. will provide technical know-how for the design and construction'of the plant and for its operation. The process will involve a strain of pure yeast which is grown by Distillers' research labs. At present, all yeast used by bakers in% India is imported. India's first synthetic pine oil plant, set up by Prabhat General Agencies, has gone into operation at Hoshiaxpur (Punjab). The plant will produce 300 tons of pine oil annually from turpentine by a process developed at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, and perfected at the Shri Ram Institute for Industrial Research. At present more than 900 tons of pine oil are imported yearly to meet the country's needs. The Glamorgan (Wales) firm P. Leiner & Sons will build a gelatin plant at Nagpur in collaboration with Kapurthala & Northern India Tanneries (KNIT) of Kapurthala (Punjab). The new company, LeinerKNIT Gelatine Co., Ltd., will have capital totaling $1.05 million held jointly by the parent companies. The plant will produce 2000 tons a year of edible and pharmaceutical gelatins, and also bone glue, using sinews as raw material. Production is expected by June 1961. The steel works at Durgapur has started up its second of three coke oven batteries. The steel works, built by the British Consortium, ISCON, will produce 3900 tons of coke daily. Each battery has 78 ovens. The ovens are designed to use blast furnace gas as well as coke oven gas for fuel. The Rourkela steel plant, set up with West German collaboration, is producing 300 tons of oxygen per day for making steel ingot. The 540 tons of nitrogen produced will be used by a fertilizer plant now under construction. National Oxygen Corp., Ltd., a new company, will build a $2.1 million plant at Bhandup, near Bombay, to make oxygen, acetylene, calcium carbide, and urea. Machinery will be imported from East Germany.