Veniamin Levich (who was finally permitted to emigrate after waiting nearly seven years). Expulsion of an academician (by a required two-thirds vote of the 250 members in a secret ballot) would be unprecedented. It also would increase enormously the likelihood that Sakharov subsequently would be put on trial for subversion, von Hippel and Stone note. And this, in turn, would represent "a terrible signal" that no dissent will be tolerated, and Stalinist methods might return, they say. It also would indicate politicization of the academy. "This is the best place to stop that process" before it starts, by a strong response from U.S. scientists, von Hippel emphasizes. FAS thus at tributes great significance to the re sponse so far in its poll of NAS members. It intends to poll its own 5000 members on the same options, and hopes to induce other scientific organizations to conduct similar polls of their members. b
Ban on phosphates to Soviets criticized Few who follow the foreign and do mestic fertilizer markets really be lieve the Soviet Union stands to suffer much from the Carter Administra tion's indefinite embargo last week of shipments of superphosphoric acid to the U.S.S.R. As Commerce Secretary Philip M. Klutznick said in an nouncing the decision, it was "taken in interest of U.S. foreign policy." It was simply a symbolic act of dis pleasure over Afghanistan. Klutznick told Congress that Oc cidental Petroleum chairman Ar mand Hammer characterized the Feb. 4 preliminary decision to sus pend shipments as an "act of states manship." Occidental, and its sub sidiary Hooker Chemical, arranged the 20-year, $20 billion deal with the Soviets as an even exchange of phos phoric acid for Soviet ammonia. It may be good statesmanship, but Hooker president for agricultural products James Galvin thinks it is bad business. "The biggest argument I cap make against the ban is that the [Soviet] crop cannot improve anyway, with or without the shipments," he says. "Using phosphate rock two years ago, they produced their record crop of 237 million tons of grain." Last year, when they had some superphosphoric acid they also had bad weather and their crop went down to 179 million tons. Galvin feels that the embargo also negates the balance of payments ad
vantage to the U.S., since ammonia imports will have to be paid for while phosphate shipments are stopped. He thinks it also could jeopardize re payment of the U.S.S.R.'s $180 mil lion Export-Import Bank loan used to finance the swap. In addition, ac cording to Galvin, the ban only ac celerates the Soviets' move to selfsufficiency in superphosphoric acid production. Moreover, the volume of super phosphoric acid going to the Soviet Union is simply too small to make much difference in an extremely tight U.S. market. Acid exports to the So viet Union in the second half of 1979 were 175,000 tons measured as P2O5, just 9% of total U.S. acid exports (as P2O5) in all forms and 3% of U.S. production. Hence, a cutoff of ship ments to the Soviet Union will not materially help the very tight U.S. supply situation in P2O5 materials for fertilizer. The pattern of exports will shift, but total export volume may not drop significantly, since Hooker may find other large markets. The main question now is what will happen to ammonia. The Soviet Union could cut the U.S. off, leaving a gap of 1 million tons in U.S. supply, or about 6 to 7% of U.S. use. However, the U.S. has up to 3.6 million tons of ammonia capacity currently shut down as a result of depressed market conditions over the past two years. Even a slight price rise in the U.S. over the current $120- to $150-perton range (for producers on the Gulf Coast) would draw out enough of this latent capacity to fill demand. In any case, Occidental and Soviet officials are meeting in Helsinki this week to discuss ammonia. Most fertilizer industry sources think that the Soviets will continue to send ammonia to the U.S. through Occidental, its distributor. The U.S.S.R. needs the hard currency to finance its other ambitious techno logical projects and, anyway, has to pay off the Ex-Im loan to maintain its reputation as a good international creditor. On the other hand, sources say the U.S.S.R. would have no trou ble selling its ammonia elsewhere, thereby retaliating against the U.S. while continuing to earn the income. What is sure is that President Carter will get little help from the interna tional business community in en forcing the ban. He did break a con tract. Occidental contends that the U.S. farmer will be hurt by any Soviet curtailment of ammonia shipments. Current price to the U.S. farmer is $164 a ton, says Galvin. By this time next year, he says, the price would go up to $370 a ton. Ammonia simply costs more to produce in the U.S. π
Monsanto and Uniroyal make shifts at the top Two U.S. chemical producers, Mon santo and Uniroyal, have announced realignments of their top manage ment. Monsanto, where some operations have shown declining profits, pro moted Louis Fernandez to vice chairman and Richard J. Mahoney to president, a position that has been held by John W. Hanley, along with the titles of chairman and chief ex ecutive officer. And at Uniroyal, which has had more than its share of problems in the past few years, Jo seph F. Flannery, president and chief operating officer, was given the ad ditional duties of chief executive of ficer. At Monsanto, the change comes after a period of reorganization and divestitures of some unprofitable lines. And UniroyaPs change follows some years of divestiture coupled with losses. Mahoney, the new Monsanto president, seems to be a fast comer. Now only 46, he joined Monsanto in 1962. In 1971 he was made sales di rector for agricultural products. Four years later he became managing di rector and vice president of the agri cultural chemicals unit. Since 1977, Mahoney has been vice president, responsible for three operating units—plastics and resins, agricul tural chemicals, and industrial chemicals. In addition, he has been overseeing Monsanto International. In his new position as president and chief operating officer, Mahoney will supervise the worldwide activities of Monsanto's five operating units— agricultural products, plastics and
Mahoney: new president at Monsanto March 3, 1980 C&EN
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resins, chemical intermediates, industrial chemicals, and textiles. Fernandez, 55, Monsanto's new vice chairman, will succeed H. Harold Bible, who will retire in January 1981. Fernandez has been executive vice president since 1976 in charge of two operating units—chemical intermediates and textiles. He also has had responsibility for environmental policy staff, corporate research and development, marketing coordination, and corporate plans. Under the new management system, Fernandez will be chairman of the corporate administrative committee, the com-
pany's senior policy group. He will continue his supervision of the technical operations and will share management responsibility of the corporate staff departments with Mahoney and James J. Kerley, chairman of the finance committee. At Uniroyal, Flannery, who has been president of the company since 1977, will now be in charge of all operating divisions as well as financial and planning functions. Flannery succeeds David Beretta, 51, as chief executive officer. Beretta will continue as chairman of the board and director. D
EPA issues hazardous ir lustrial waste rules The Environmental Protection Agency has issued three final rules under the 1976 Resource Conservation & Recovery Act that provide the infrastructure for managing hazardous industrial wastes. At a press conference, EPA Administrator Douglas M. Costle called the new rules an "essential first step" in prevention of future Love Canal incidents, and in the creation of a "national road map" for tracking wastes. EPA estimates that 750,000 generators produce 57 million tons of waste annually, of which 90% is disposed of improperly. These regulations apply to generators and transporters of hazardous waste. First, the generator determines if the waste is hazardous. If hazardous, it notifies EPA and obtains an identification number before transporting, treating, storing, or disposing of the waste. If the generator chooses to ship the waste to a treatment facility or disposal site, it packages and labels the waste according to Department of Transportation shipping rules, and prepares a manifest that designates the facility to which the waste is to be shipped. The waste transporter signs a copy of the manifest, acknowledging acceptance of the waste, delivers the waste to the designated facility, and receives from that facility a signed copy of the manifest. The facility also returns a signed copy of the manifest to the generator. If the generator does not receive a copy within 45 days, it notifies EPA, which then takes appropriate enforcement action. Costle says that violators are subject to civil penalties of up to $25,000 per day, and criminal fines of up to $25,000 per day plus one year in jail. Compliance costs are high. EPA estimates a onetime initial notification cost of $7.3 million, and manifest system compliance cost of $16 million to $24 million yearly. According to 8
C&EN March 3, 1980
Costle, 60% of all hazardous waste originates in the chemical industry. He estimates annualized new cost for compliance with the program at 2 to 3% of total sales of 17 major industrial categories tagged as hazardous waste generators. Other hazardous waste rules are forthcoming. In April, EPA will define hazardous wastes and set standards for treatment, storage, and disposal facilities, and issue rules for issuing permits for those facilities and for granting states authorization to run hazardous waste programs. By July all firms handling hazardous waste must notify EPA. By October, when the hazardous waste program takes effect, all firms that store, treat, or dispose of these wastes must apply for a permit. D
Adamcik wins post on ACS board Joe A. Adamcik has won a special interim election for director-at-large on the ACS Board of Directors. The election was conducted among ACS councilors to fill the position vacated by Albert C. Zettlemoyer when he was elected 1980 president-elect (C&EN, Jan. 28, page 55). Ballots counted last week indicate that Adamcik, with 170 valid votes, narrowly defeated Edwin R. Shepard, who received 165 votes. A third candidate, J. Kenneth Craver, received 61 votes. Adamcik, who was nominated by petition for the election, is a professor of chemistry at Texas Tech University, Lubbock. He is an ACS councilor representing the South Plains Section and is a member of the Council Policy Committee. As director-at-large, he will serve the balance of Zettlemoyer's term, which expires at the end of 1980, followed by a full three-year term, 1981-83.
Two processes boost chemicals from coal Adoption of coal as feedstock for production of organics may pick up speed from two developments at Halcon International. The engineering firm has signed an agreement with Eastman Kodak to combine technologies of both firms for production of acetic anhydride from carbon monoxide and methanol. In addition, Halcon says it shortly will announce a process to make vinyl acetate entirely from synthesis gas as the next of several carbonylation processes under development at its Montvale, N.J., research center. Eastman has announced an acetic anhydride plant based on synthesis gas at Kingsport, Tenn., scheduled to come on stream in 1983 (C&EN, Jan. 14, page 6). Under the new agreement, Halcon will license the combined technology package internationally. Synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, comes from reaction of coal with steam. Alternative sources are gasification of oil refinery residues or biomass, as well as natural gas. Processes long have been known for making methanol from hydrogénation of carbon monoxide and acetic acid from carbonylation of methanol. Halcon won't confirm details of its acetyl chemistry sequence. But the process may involve reaction of methyl acetate with a metal carbonyl catalyst complex to form a methyl complex. Carbonylation of the methyl complex at 150° to 200° C and only a few atmospheres' pressure could give an acetyl complex. From there, alternative products could form according to how the acetyl complex is decomposed. Acetic acid may react to give acetic anhydride; water to give acetic acid; hydrogen to give acetaldehyde; and hydrogen and acetic acid to give ethylidene diacetate. Ethylidene diacetate can be pyrolyzed to vinyl acetate at 120° C using acidic catalysts. John L. Ehrler, Halcon's director of development, says conditions could be varied in the vinyl acetate process to give acetic acid and/or acetaldehyde as coproducts. He sees coproduction of acetic acid and acetaldehyde as possibly attractive options for potential joint venture partners. Halcon has had discussions with Air Products & Chemicals, a big vinyl acetate user, about such a joint venture, but Ehrler says these talks have been suspended. Halcon also has spoken with present and potential producers of vinyl acetate and methanol. D
