A general view of the plant layout at the Trenton Valley Distillers Corp., Trenton, Mich.
Ethyl Alcohol Operation by Trenton Valley Distillers Corp. \J^T AB. has brought back into production the model distillation plant of Trenton Valley Distillers Corp., long an inexplicable "orphan' ' of the industry. Under the active direction of B. Clark Boeckeler, widely known chemical and distillery engineer, this million-dollar whisky plant has been converted to the production of ethyl alcohol under government allocation for synthetic rubber and smokeless powder. Output was started in September and has now reached the rate of approximately 3,000,000 gallons annually. B y early 1943 the rate will have been stepped up to between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 gallons annually. The million-dollar plant, located at Trenton, Mich., a down-river suburb of Detroit, was constructed shortly after Repeal. Plagued from the start by lack of working capital, it suspended operations ID 1937 after manufacturing and marketing only a few million gallons of whisky. For the past five years the plant, one of the finest and largest in the Middle West, has stood idle. The trouble was that the company had lavished too much money on fine equipment. After construction costs were paid, the original company, capitalized at $1,250,000, had only $100,000 left as operating funds. Efforts to get additional capital were complicated by the indictment in 1939 of a former president and former vice president of the company on charges of irregularities in the sale of the company's stock. 1690
The company never has gone into receivership. Since 1927 its affairs have been entrusted by the stockholders to Glenn D. Curtis, of the Detroit law firm of Bulkley, Dickinson, Wright & Davis, who has recently been elected president and chairman of the board of directors. Curtis' efforts to effect a reorganization were fruitless, however, until the possibilities of the plant in the war-boomed industrial alcohol field attracted the attention of Boeckeler early this year. Boeckeler at that time had been for 10 years with the Luramus Co., N e w York engineering firm which specializes in the erection of chemical plants, oil refineries, and distilleries, and was head of its chemical division. His duties familiarized him with the equipment of most of the country's modern distilleries. Previously he had been a research engineer for Commercial Solvents Co. from 1929 to 1931, working on the distillation of grains in that company's distilleries at Peoria, 111., and Terre Haute, Ind. Recognizing a rather peculiar value of the Trenton Valley plant as a possible producer of high-proof industrial alcohol, Boeckeler gathered together some capital in New York and formed the Boeckeler Associates, which now leases the plant from the Trenton Valley Distillers Corp. and is the actual operator. Boeckeler has brought in as his works manager Frank J. Smith, widely known in the distilling industry. Smith formerly was connected with the Seagram Distillers Corp. He was CHEMICAL
at one time manager of the Calvert distilling plant at Relay, Md., and also was in charge of Seagram's plant at Louisville. Also taking an active part in the new operation is William J. Hale, who has been elected to the board of directors. The particular feature of the Trenton Valley plant is that it is equipped with rectifying columns with an unusually large number of plates, originally designed for the complete removal of the undesirable constituents of whisky with the idea of producing a whisky which would age quite rapidly and thus could be marketed in a short time. This equipment makes it possible for Boeckeler to produce 190 proof ethyl alcohol on whisky stills, whereas the majority of such alcohol now being turned out by whisky plants is of only 120 to 160 proof. The normal capacity of the plant is 3,500 distillers' bushels of grain a day. However, some departments are equipped to handle up to 5,500 bushels a day, and Boeckeler hopes eventually t o bring the entire plant up to this level, the ultimate capacity being close to 14,000 wine gallons a day. Since the plant's production of alcohol is earmarked primarily for the synthetic rubber program, and secondarily for smokeless powder manufacture, it gets the highest priorities and Boeckeler has had no trouble getting necessary equipment to convert the plant. T o facilitate handling of the alcohol under government supervision, it was A N D
ENGINEERING
NEWS
Chemical Manufacturers* Indexes r
T 1 HE September index of the value of chemical manufacturers' inventories, according t o t h e monthly industry survey o f the Department of Commerce, was 161.5 compared with 164.4 in August, and 126.0 in September 1941, taking the aver age month of 1939 at 100. September index of the value of chemi«cal manufacturers' shipments, taking an average month of 1939 at 100, was 185, compared with 171 in August, and 175 in September of the previous year.
N e w Hemisphere Rubber Source
A view of one of the stills at the Trenton V a l l e y Distillers Corp., from above. These bis stills, running up five stories throush the plant, were unique in the whisky industry when they were built a few years aso, in that they could produce spirits as high as 1 9 2 proof.
necessary t o build and equip a bonded warehouse and a denaturing plant. As an economy measure, the new manage ment also constructed a new water-supply system which takes water directly from the Detroit River, about a mile away, eliminating the cost of city water. Although, the denaturing plant was re quired by the Government, the bulk of the alcohol is shipped undenatured in tank cars to storage depots designated by the Defense Supplies Corporation. Grain, incidentally, is supplied to the distillery b y the Conamodity Credit Corporation, Boeckeler considers the distillery among the eight o r ten finest in the country. It is amazing, he says, that it should have been allowed to sit idle for so long. Boeckeler's lease is "for the duration", and he has no plans beyond that time. However, i t is not likely that the plant will ever return to the production of whisky. Boeckeler believes synthetic rub ber, particularly as it provides a vast market for farmers' grain, is here to stay, and that i n peacetime it will require far more than the presently planned wartime facilities for converting grain to alcohol. Even discounting synthetic rubber en tirely, President Curtis points out that there should b e a ready market for the company's entire alcohol production in the Detroit area after the war. Industrial users in this area normally consume be V O L U M E
2 0,
NO.
24»
tween two and three times the annual capacity output of alcohol b y the Trenton Valley plant, and the freight-rate advan tage which the company would enjoy is not to be overlooked.
Bureau of Mines Projects Continued Λ MAJORITY of the wartime construction " ^ projects of the Bureau of Mines, or dered suspended by the War Production Board, October 20, are to be continued. Construction work on the bureau's helium plants, explosives research labora tory, synthetic oil project, and pilot plants and laboratories working on aluminum may continue to completion, subject to limitations contained in previously issued Preference Rating Orders. A decision on two additional projects was deferred.
Hormones for Soybeans T ^ H E Glidden Co., Cleveland, Ohio, has developed a method of making sex hormones from soybeans. The company has been in limited production for some time, but demand has increased recently because these hormones are no longer available from Germany and Austria, where they were derived from animal pro teins.
DECEMBER
2 5,
W 42
/CRYPTOSTEGIA, a flowering vine in Cali^ fornia, Mexico, and Central America may become one of the most important sources of natural rubber for the Americas. It is considored one of the best plant sources of latex. Most important of the cryptostegia projects, contracted for by the United States Rubber Reserve Co., and the Hai tian-American Development Corp., is the planting up t o 100,000 acres of the vine in Haiti. In t h e United States 60 skilled horticulturists are being recruited, and it is estimated that about 100,000 Haitians will find employment when the work is fully organized. In rainfall, soil and climate, Haiti is be lieved b y agricultural authorities to be one of the more favorable areas for rubbergrowing in the Western Hemisphere. Al ready small amounts of cryptostegia rub ber from mature vines have reached the United States for testing. The quality of t h e rubber is said to be good, comparing favorably with rubber from Hevea and Castilla trees. Experimental plantings will soon be under way in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Mexico. These will augment test cultivations now under way in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California, under the auspices of the D e partment of Agriculture, Lacking previous commercial experi ence, the rubber yield from cryptostegia can only be estimated. Experimenters believe the plant can be safely cropped after the first year and mature plants may yield some 250 pounds of rubber per acre. Rubber from cryptostegia cures wei', the authorities say, has good tensile strength, and is comparable with Hevea rubber, i t s resin content is suitable for mixing with synthetic rubber. T h e plant also offers some possibilities for by-products—kapok from the floss found in t h e seed pods; fiber for rope from the stems: and alkaloids as drugs. Production of cryptostegia requires little steel or other strategic materials and little skilled labor. It is estimated that one man per acre will be sufficient to harvest the leaves. 1691
