INTERNATIONAL Mexican Chemical Industry Grows Mexico is making more chemicals, but growth lags behind needs in some fields ABOUT
$200 M I L L I O N
is invested
in
the Mexican chemical industry. Roughly 25,000 persons work in the 6 5 0 to 750 firms which turn out such products as plastics, synthetic fibers, rubber, glass, fertilizers, and insecticides. Annual sales are estimated at more than $160 million. But while the Mexican chemical industry has been growing, it has not kept pace with consumption in some fields, according to a report by Chemical and Rubber Division, U. S. Department of Commerce. Mexico is importing increasing amounts of industrial and agricultural chemicals to meet its needs. Some 1956 imports: $11.5 million for insecticides and disinfectants, $6.7 million for cellulose salts, $13.3 million for fertilizers, $8.2 million for synthetic resins and plastic materials, and $7.4 million for antibiotics. Mexico's chemical future is being studied by German, British, Italian, F r e n c h , and American companies. All have agents on t h e scene studying market potentials a n d new product possibilities. Belgium and Japan are also interested in t h e Mexican market. Caustic soda production in 1957 was about 28,000 tons, b u t consumption was 58,000 tons. Increased capacity is planned in t h e next four years. Sulfur output soared from 73,636 tons in 1954 to an estimated 1 million tons in 1957. Capacity includes more than a million tons annually from salt domes and 45,000 tons from oil field gases. Exports of Frasch sulfur are rising. T h e y totaled 871,996 tons in 1957, 471,468 tons going to the U. S. which is the largest buyer. Fertilizer production is far below requirements. Anhydrous ammonia output was about 19,000 tons in 1957, b u t consumption was 35,000 tons. N e w plants, however, are being built. Fertilizantes de Monclova, S. A., will complete a 33,000 ton p e r year ammonia plant this year. • More Integration. Lack of integration is a big problem, says Chemical 88
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and Rubber. Valuable by-products are often wasted, causing uneconomical production. Efforts are being made to induce companies to use more unified production patterns. Petroleos Mexic a n o s ( P E M E X ) , for example, is adding sulfur-recovery units to its major petroleum installations. • Better Raw Material Use. Greater use of Mexican raw materials would help chemical industry development, says Chemical and Rubber. T h e Coatzacoalcos area is growing more important rapidly and could become an integrated chemical producing center. Natural gas lines and a new highway are being completed, and the region has large reserves of salt, natural gas, sulfur, and petroleum. Mexico needs a petrochemical industry to supply domestic demands and possibly manufacture for export, says Commerce. Lack of capital, among other problems, has slowed development. • Outlook. Mexico's chemical industry has great possibilities for development, Chemical and Rubber says, but coordinated economic a n d fiscal planning is badly needed. Achieving a large, well-rounded chemical industry will b e a slow process, especially because of the small domestic market for many products. T h e slowly rising standard of living in Mexico also retards growth. But rapid progress h a s been made since World W a r I I , a n d development should be even greater in t h e next decade.
Gas by Lurgi Process Britain will try t h e Lurgi process in its efforts to make a cheaper fuel. Lowgrade coal will be gasified in Lurgi generators with oxygen and steam to give a town's gas of about 300 B.t.u. per cubic foot. Enrichment b y a shift reaction and oil hydrogenation follow. Britain is also trying a Texaco Development process to get gas from coal (C&EN, March 31, page 1 0 4 ) . Low-grade coal, formally unusable
for gas-making, will be used in a $18.5 million plant, to be built for the Scottish Gas Board by H u m p h r e y s & Glasgow, of London. Coal with u p to 25% ash a n d 1 6 % moisture will be fed into the plant by conveyor belt from an adjacent National Coal Board site. When completed in 1962, the plant should produce 30 million cubic feet of gas p e r day. Coal will b e gasified in Lurgi generators at about 340 p.s.i. in a continuous stream of oxygen and superheated steam. Heat from the c r u d e gas produces steam in waste h e a t boilers. Tar, oils, benzene, and ammonia are recovered from the crude gas. T h e ammonia is concentrated to a 2 0 % solution for sale. The 300 B.t.u. per-cubic-foot gas is enriched by a shift reaction which forms hydrogen from the carbon monoxide a n d water in the gas. After scrubbing, t h e gas has a 400 B.t.u. per-cubic-foot heat value. Further enrichment by oil hydrogenation raises the figure to about 700 B.t.u. The gas is diluted with nitrogen to about 450 B.t.u. p e r cubic foot before distribution. Both the Lurgi a n d Texaco processes are aimed at one goal—a cheaper fuel than Britain's good quality coal. T h e Lurgi process uses less oxygen than the Texaco and gives chemical by-products. But more gas enrichment is required, and only noncoking coal c a n b e used. T h e Texaco method may give higher gas volumes from given amounts of coal than t h e Lurgi technique, says Arthur J. Stewart of U . S. Bureau of Mines. But Texaco equipment is more expensive. Only continued operation will indicate the most economical process, says Stewart.
Poland to Boost Chemicals Poland is improving h e r economy under a current Five-Year Plan ( 1 9 5 6 1960), says the Polish C h a m b e r of Foreign Trade. Principle aim is a 30 % increase in wages over 1955. One facet of the program is industrial expansion; the goal is an overall production increase of 49 % by 1960. A few 1960 output goals for t h e chemical industry: 40,000 tons of sulfur, 176,000 of caustic soda, 298,000 of nitrogenous fertilizers, 20,000 of synthetic rubber, 306,000 of cellulose. Poland intends to double chemical industry output. This is t o be done by heavy exploitation of her r a w materials. Biggest investment is to g o into sulfur mines in t h e Tarnobrzeg region of
Rzeszow wojewodship a n d the Piaseczno region in Kielce wojewodship. The mines are to be built with financial aid from Czechoslovakia and technical assistance horn t h e Soviet Union. First to b e operating will be the Piaseczno mine, with an estimated 1958 output of 10,000 tons of sulfur. Output for 1961 is to be 100,000 tons. Poland expects to b e producing a million tons of sulfur per year by 1970. Other tasks set for the chemical industry: startup of synthetic rubber, polyvinyl chloride, and polystyrene plants, a n d much higher output of viscose fibers. Pharmaceutical production is to rise 2 4 0 % , fertilizer output 81.5% by 1960.
As you lower the pressure above a liquid, you also lower the liquid's boiling point — thus a corollary of Charles' L a w . This corollary is the very essence of h i g h - v a c u u m distillation of heat-sensitive molecules. Currently, you c a n p u t t h e corollary to work i n your research with either of two types of C E C h i g h - v a c u u m stills.
Concerning
vacuum distillation and a corollary of Charles' Law
EVACUATION
Pechiney's Sales Up
1. CEC Centrifugal Molecular Stills have lower thermal hazard than any other highvacuum stills now in use. With them you can distill up to MW 1200 easily, swiftly, safely. You feed distilland to the center of a rapidly revolving concave cone. As the liquid spreads out over the heated surface of the cone, lighter fractions are evaporated into a cooled bell jar, where they condense and pass into a receiver. Centrifugal force keeps the film moving rapidly so that the liquid is exposed to heat for just a fraction of a second. Since the whole system is under high vacuum, distillation proceeds at relatively low temperatures. These stills have proved invaluable in work with resins, plasticizers, waxes, fatty acids, sterols, hormones, oils, and perfumes.
PORT
ROTOR COUECTING
GUTTER
BASEPLATE
Pechiney's sales, minus taxes, climbed 22% during 1957. Profits were $5.6 million, u p $ 1.1 million from 1956. Chemical sales were $54 million, aluminum sales $69 million. Business during the first months of 1958 is up 25% over the same period last year. Graphite sales rose 40% during the year. Nuclear power plants at Marcoule have been supplied, and Pechiney is now filling orders for the Chinon plant. Pechiney continues to b e the largest polyvinyl chloride producer in France. Polystyrene is made chiefly from monomer imported from Germany and U . S. Domestic production, however, will soon be available. Pechiney has an interest in both high pressure process and Ziegler polyethylene ventures in France. During the year an agreement was signed with Société Nationale des Pétroles d'Aquitaine and Electricité de France for a power plant to make electricity for a new 50,000 ton-per-year aluminum plant.
DISTILLATE RECEIVER
FEED TUB!
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- IOWEB
RESERVOI8
GEAR PUMP
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CEC Brush Stills are the most efficient fractionating stills in the high-vacuum field, producing much finer fractions than centrifugal molecular stills. Usually you can get the fraction you want in a single pass. A unique feature of this still is an internallyair-cooled condensing brush. This brush revolves rapidly inside a heated column. It serves as a condensing surface and also sweeps the surface of the column eliminating streaming and channeling. Distilland evaporating from a boiler at the base of the column condenses on the brush. The brush instantly flings the condensate out to the heated column where re-evaporation takes place. The process repeats itself u p the length of the column moving the more volatile fractions of the distilland toward the top where they are collected as distillates of high purity. Brush stills are recommended for use with materials of MW 250 to 900. They have been used to distill tall oil, microcrystalline wax, citral, cedarwood oil, polyethylene glycol, peppermint oil, and ionone. For further information on these stills, write us for bulletins.
PUUEY
GAUGE FOKT .
VACUUM
SEAl
-VACUUM
UNE
rONOENSlNG SECTION—7 COOIINC
COU
DISTItlATK_ STOPCOCK FRACTIONATING COtUMN HEATiNC JACKET COOlED
SHAFT
BRUSH
THERMOMETER BOHER HEATING JACKET AGITATO»
- RESIDUE D R A I N
• Norton Casali, S.A., has been formed by Norton Co. and Carbometal, S.A., of Mendoza, Argentina, to produce silicon carbide for the Argentine market. Construction of a $500,000 plant will start in May, with completion scheduled for late this year. • Mitsubishi Oil of Japan enters the petrochemical field with the startup of a 7 5 0 barrel-per-standard-day Udex unit for making benzene, toluene, and xylenes. Universal Oil Products designed and engineered t h e unit.
Consolidated
Electrodynamics
Rochester SALES
AND
D i v i s i o n , R o c h e s t e r 3 , Ν. Υ .
SERVICE
OFFICES
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