CHEMICALS
ECONOMICS OF POTASSIUM METAPHOSPHATE COMPARE LIKE THIS DJammonium Phosphate
Product
Capacity in Short Tons Per Day Net Processing Cost Credit for Differential Fuel Cost Raw Material Cost Cost of Product to Storage Warehousing & Shipping, Bulk
Triple Superphosphate
Fla.
La.
Fla.
UL
250
250
350
350
$6.69
$6.69 -0.12
$6.67
i
$6.67
47.71 54.28
24.29 30.96
|
-0.16 28.41
1.48
1.48 4.22
43.71
General Overhead & Sales
50.40 1.48 4.65
Total Manufacturing Cost & Expenses f f.o.b. Works—Bulk Shipment Cost Per Unit Plant Food Cost Per Unit with $5.00 Freight Cost Per Unit with $10 Freight
56.53 0.885 0.962 1.040
i
I
4.81
!
60.57 0.946 1.025 1.110
36.66
Potassium Metaphosphate
Mixed Fertilizer
La.
Fla.
170
170
$17.14
$17.14
310 $4.90
61.00
-0.49 63.80
33.13
34.92
78.14
80.95
1.48 4.37
1.48 6.11
1.48 6.24
38.39 1.48 4.54
88.67
44.41
Fla.
0.797
1
40.62 0.884
85.73 0.903
0.905 1.015
'
0.987
0.955 1.005
1.100
0.933 0.985 1.040
La.
310 $4.90 -0.08
0.855 0.950 1.045
32.57 36.75 1.48 4.47 43.70 0.842 0.936 1.031
Potassium Metaphosphate May Compete Scottish Agricultural Industries process has improved economics of this high-analysis fertilizer 145TH
ACS
NATIONAL
MEETING
Fertilizer and Soil Chemistry
Potassium metaphosphate could be produced in the United States and compete with other concentrated fertilizers, according to S. Strelzoff and Taylor Darden of Chemical Construction Corp. Because of its high content of both P and K, and its lack of chloride ion, potassium metaphosphate had been made as an experimental fertilizer material by TVA earlier. But no satisfactory manufacturing process was available until Scottish Agricultural Industries, a subsidiary of Imperial Chemical Industries in the U.K., took the wraps off its process early this year. Now Chemicals & Phosphates, Ltd., of Haifa, Israel, has a 1 ton-per-day pilot plant in operation. The product is nonhygroscopic and noncaking, without the need for surface treatment or modification. It is compatible with other materials needed for N-P-K fertilizer formula66
C&EN
SEPT.
2 3,
1963
tions, according to Dr. H. Bernstein of Chemicals & Phosphates. In the SAI process, potash (KC1) is finely ground and mixed with phosphoric acid to form a slurry. The slurry reacts on a bed of hot recycled potassium metaphosphate, kept at about 932° F. Product is removed as a granular potassium metaphosphate. The process overcomes the difficulties with corrosion which occurred in earlier processes. The plant in Israel is in a very favorable position for making potassium metaphosphate. Both potash and phosphates are available within 20 miles of each other—a situation which exists nowhere in the United'States. To present the economics of potassium metaphosphate manufacture in the U.S., Mr. Strelzoff calculated costs of product made at two plant sites—Tampa, Fla., and New Orleans, La. Since potassium metaphosphate is not available in commercial quantities and has no market price, he calculated costs per unit of plant food to the manufacturer, f.o.b. works, and also delivered. The plants were as-
sumed to be parts of integrated complex fertilizer plants producing the fertilizer formulations required for their markets. The plants were assumed to make as intermediate products sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, and, for granular mixed fertilizer, run of pile triple superphosphate. Costs per unit of plant food were $0,903 for potassium metaphosphate made at the Florida site, and $0,933 at the Louisiana plant. Generally, these costs were higher than those for diammonium phosphate, triple super, and mixed fertilizer. However, when the product is shipped and freight charges are added, a point is reached beyond which potassium metaphosphate becomes competitive. The calculations show generally that the product is competitive if shipped beyond the $10-per-ton freight range. For the Tampa, Fla., plant this is the area beyond a circle running roughly through Shreveport, La., Lexington, Ky., and Lynchburg, Va. For the New Orleans plant the circle runs through Lubbock, Tex., Bloomington, 111., and Winston-Salem, N.C.
New Explosives Have Low Detonation Pressures 145TH
ACS
NATIONAL
MEETING
Fuel Chemistry
Explosives with low detonation pressures are the result of work at Sandia Corp., Albuquerque, N.M., and at Aerojet-General Corp., Downey, Calif. Discrete high-explosive particles dispersed in plastics give reliable detonation pressures under 100 kilobars, according to Dr. M. T. Abegg of Sandia. Detonation pressures of most explosive materials in wide use today range from 150 to 350 kilobars, Dr. Abegg says. He points out that lower pressures should offer engineering advantages where high pressures are not needed or desired. The explosives developed by Dr. Abegg and Dr. H. J. Fisher, Dr. H. C. Lawton, and W. T. Weatherill of Aerojet combine plastics commonly used in solid propellants, in which pressures are low, with several high explosives. The plastics are polyurethanes, nitropolyurethanes, and dinitropropyl acrylate. The explosives are pentaerythritol tetranitrate ( P E T N ) , superfine grade; cyclotrimethylene trinitramine (RDX), acetone fine; 8-hr. ball-milled dextrinated lead azide (PbN G ); coarse dextrinated PbN 6 ; and thallous azide (T1N 3 ). Particle size distribution in the high explosives is critical in the propagation of detonation from particle to particle through the continuous plastic medium. Tests on a composition consisting of 60% lead azide in polyurethane show this. Initiation was not achieved at an average particle size of 1 micron. The same initiating charge achieved detonation at an average particle size of from 5 to 10 microns. Composition of the plastic explosives ranges from 10 to 70% discrete phase (high-explosive particles). Detonation pressure, as measured using a modified plate dent test, is proportional to high-explosive content. For formulations containing PETN in nitropolyurethane, detonation pressures range from about 25 kilobars at 10% PETN to about 130 kilobars at 25% PETN (1.875-in.-diameter charge confined in 0.0625-in. copper). Detonation velocity, as measured using a streak camera, also increases as content of high explosive increases.
Polyurethane-lead azide systems ( P U / P b N 6 ) permit very low pressures. At 60% PbN 0 the system will just sustain detonation. At 70% PbN 6 , detonation is sustained, generating a pressure of about 22 kilobars. Dr. Abegg points out that these low-detonation pressure explosives have the capability of being extruded or injection molded into difficult configurations, then polymerizing in place. This capability, low detonation pressures, and low impact sensitivities make the plastic/explosive formulations a means to explore the gap between low-pressure deflagrating solid propellants and high-pressure explosives, Dr. Abegg concludes.
Catalyst Lowers Cost Of Making Hydrogen 145TH
ACS
NATIONAL
MEETING
Petroleum Chemistry
A new catalyst has been developed to lower the cost of making hydrogen. Now offered commercially by M. W. Kellogg, it permits up to a fourfold reduction in steam requirements for steam-naphtha or steam-olefin reforming. Thus, it can improve hydrogen process economics by reducing these requirements. The steam-naphtha reforming catalyst was developed, according to J. M. Fox of M. W. Kellogg, to overcome several undesirable alternatives met when making hydrogen from feeds other than natural gas. These include: • H i g h steam-carbon ratios (8:1 or higher for naphthas or olefmic gases) needed to keep carbon deposition low, resulting in high fuel costs and large reforming furnaces. • Cyclic operation to burn off carbon on catalyst beds with the inefficiencies and limits on pressure inherent in such processing. • Partial combustion processes which require an investment in an oxygen plant or the purchase of outside oxygen. Besides good reforming activity, the Kellogg catalyst, called KSR-3, loses little of its activity on aging and retains its strength well, Mr. Fox says. The catalyst will handle a variety of feeds at low steam-carbon ratios, yet has stable operation.
The KSR-3 catalysts will permit operation very close to the thermodynamic carbon deposition boundary, according to Mr. Fox and his associate, J. C. Yarze. As long as the catalyst temperature is above the temperature of the carbon-steam or carbon-C0 2 equilibrium, a driving force exists for carbon removal. This driving force can be quite small at the limiting steam-carbon ratio.
Line of Ultrapure Chemicals Prepared by Chromatography A line of organic chemicals intended for use as purity-reference standards or in chemical reactions that can't tolerate impurities is now available from Eastman Organic Chemicals Department of Distillation Products Industries. The line, which includes 29 chemicals, was introduced at the ACS New York Section's Chemical Exposition U.S.A. The chemicals in the line are prepared by gas chromatography from raw materials already classified as being at least 99% pure, according to Eastman. Eight categories of materials make up the line: alcohols, aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, ketones, esters, ethers, halides, and oxygen heterocyclics. According to James T. Fuess, manager of the Eastman department, the company feels that less than 0.01% impurity would be found in any of the chemicals. Eastman expects the chemicals to find application in a number of areas in analytical, organic, pharmaceutical, and biochemistry. Studies of catalytic and inhibitor effects, instrument calibration, and comparison of the effects of impurities in the medical and drug field are some specific uses. Each vial is supplied with an analytical curve of its contents. Price is about $30 for a 5-ml. vial, sealed under nitrogen. Eastman says it plans to expand the line, designated as G, as need for other chemicals becomes evident.
BRIEFS Water-softening salt automatically removes iron as well as scale-forming calcium and magnesium. It was developed by Diamond Crystal Salt Co., St. Clair, Mich., in cooperation with General Ionics Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa. CI SEPT.
2 3, 196 3 C & E N
67
C&EN PROGRESS REPORT
INDUSTRIAL CHEMICAL SPECIALTIES
Companies added these products to their lines during the past month Material Adhesives (3683 and 3694)
Polyethylene latex emulsions (Series P.N. and P.A.) Tungsten carbide alloy (MetcoXP1139) Gasoline additive (Pitt-Consol M-24)
Company American Adhesive Mfg. Co., Inc. New York, N.Y. Borden Chemical Co. New York, N.Y. General Electric Co. Schenectady, N.Y. Girdler Catalysts Department, Chemetron Corp. Louisville, Ky. R. M. Hollingshead Corp. Camden, N.J. Metco, Inc. Westbury, N.Y. Pitt-Consol Chemical Co. Newark, N.J.
Ceramic-filled Teflon (FluoroRay)
Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. Manheim, Pa.
Strontium oxide single crystals
Semi-Elements, Inc. Saxonburg, Pa.
Expandable plastisol (Stan-Pack)
Stanley Chemical Division, Stanley Works East Berlin, Conn. Union Carbide Chemicals Co. New York, N.Y. U.S. Industrial Chemicals Co. New York, N.Y.
Acrylic emulsions (Polyco 2715 and 0150) Thermosetting powders (Alkanex) Hydrogenation catalyst (G-73)
Polyethylene oxide resins (Polyox WSR-N) Polyethylene resins (Petrothene 4731C and 4941C)
Features and Uses For adhering labels to glass and polyethylene bottles For use in paints, adhesives, and coatings; 0150 is a vinyl acrylic Polyester-based, for insulation processes for electrical apparatus For treating raw ethylene or mixed ethylene-propylene streams For textile finishing, paper sizing, and floor polish applications Applied by plasma spray process to give fused coating Liquid antioxidant that stabilizes against gum formation, oxidation, and lead precipitation Stronger, harder, and more dimensionally stable than unfilled Teflon Doped with rare earth and transition elements for use in fluorescent studies and as laser materials Forms protective, strippable coating when applied and heated to 400° F. Nonstringy character and resistant to degradation by shear and aging For the blow-molding of bleach and detergent bottles
Available in commercial quantities unless otherwise noted.
Commercial quantities of diglycolamine are now available from Jefferson Chemical Co., Inc., Houston, Tex. It is similar in structure to diethanolamine but is more reactive, undergoes reactions typical of alcohols and primary alcohols. When diglycolamine and fatty acids are reacted a less complex mixture results than when fatty acids react with diethanolamine. Diglycolamine also can be used in place of diethanolamine in gas scrubbing, and in the preparation of foam stabilizers, condensation polymers, and wetting and emulsifying agents, the company says. C2
Polyvinyl acetate resin adhesive, designed for high-speed, heat-sealing operations, has been introduced by Morningstar-Paisley, Inc., New York, N.Y. It is intended primarily for use on stay tapes and header labels in packaging operations. C3 68
C&EN
SEPT. 2 3, 1963
Polyethylene resins, distinguished by their narrow molecular weight distribution, are being marketed by Celanese Polymer Co., New York, N.Y. Their advantage is the elimination of warpage, particularly in large, flat pieces, according to the company. Known as Fortiflex N resins, they are available in homopolymer and copolymer series for use in injection molding. C4
A chemical deicer, which melts snow and ice much faster than salt, has been developed by Pace Products, Inc., Kansas City, Mo. Known as Propellant 49, it is designed for use on sidewalks, drives, and parking areas. It is harmless to all building materials and plants, the firm says. C 5
Completely water-soluble phenyl mercuric acetate powder is offered by
Guard Chemical Co., Ossining, N.Y. Designated Guardsan 667, it contains 40% mercury. High purity and solubility assure uniform distribution and availability of its antimicrobial properties, according to the company. C6
Flame retarder for reducing white pigment needs is now available from M&T Chemicals, Inc., Rahway, N.J. Called Thermoguard S, the material is recommended by the company as a pigment for plastic film and sheeting, paints, and specialty plastic formulations. C7
Further useful information on keyed Chemical items mentioned is readily available . . . Use handy coupon on page 78
