any world traveler knows," Dr. Dubos observes, "the fitness of design to local constraints accounts for much of the charm and interest—as well as comfort—of regional styles." The 100-odd delegates were a mixed bag of scientists, bureaucrats, educators, businessmen, students, and environmentalists (including one who boycotted the foamed polystyrene cups furnished at coffee breaks "because they're made out of petrochemicals"). So when the discussion groups repaired to their meeting rooms, the discussions were sometimes quite spirited and the opinions less than unanimous. Nevertheless, the delegates did find some things to agree on, and these went into the final report. For example, as noted, the delegates questioned whether Project Independence would be desirable, even if it were to be successful. "The energy problem is clearly international in scope," their report reads. "The nations of the world are inescapably interdependent because of uneven distribution of natural and human resources." Thus, "international balances of trade and logic of specialization and optimal utilization of resources (for example, U.S. importing oil and exporting food) should not be disturbed without careful assessment of national and international impact." As to the Government's "aggravation" of energy and environmental problems, the delegates said that government activities had "involved too many divergent agencies, characteristically been poorly coordinated, and included economic measures which are often disfunctional." And they called "for convening of a national conference to lead to establishment of a sound and coordinated energy policy which is ecologically sound."
Floating chemical plants being built Within the next 18 months or so, two unusual vessels will slip away from their moorings in western Europe and head for their destination half way around the world in Indonesia. Shortly after dropping anchor in the Strait of Makassar, separating the islands of Borneo and Celebes, chemical engineers expect to bring into operation the world's first floating chemical plants. One of the ships will produce ammonia at a designed daily rate of 1500 metric tons. The other will be capable of making 1700 metric tons daily of urea (C&EN, April 1, page 13). Sharing the $150 million contract are Brussels-based Coppee-Rust and IPI Constructors of Zug, Switzerland, which is responsible for overall management of the project. The Indonesian state-owned oil company, Pertamina, will use gas associated with the offshore oil wells near
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C&EN June 17, 1974
E G U . S . P A T OFF
Santan, on the east coast of Kaliman tan, to make fertilizers for the coun try's rice-growing industry. So urgent is the need for the fertilizers that the Indonesians can't wait out the four years or so that it would take to build comparable ammonia and urea plants on land. By electing to have the units assembled in Europe, construction time will be halved. Ammonia will be produced by crack ing the gas and interacting the result ing hydrogen with nitrogen from air using the synthesis process developed by Paris' Le Grande Paroisse, licensed by IPI Constructors. The facility is being built into a 65,000-ton ship. Some of the product will be shipped to the mainland for conversion to ammo nia-based fertilizers. But the bulk will be used as feedstock for the urea plant in a converted 30,000-ton ore carrier. Coppee-Rust is licensee of the urea synthesis technology developed by DSM in Heerlan, the Netherlands. The new plant will be the biggest anywhere involving DSM's nonstripping process. Apart from the unusual engineering and construction problems entailed in building chemical plants in the rela tively confined space of the ships, a va riety of other technical difficulties must be overcome. For instance, wa tertight connections will be needed where the gas in-take hose enters the ammonia plant ship. Complicating this aspect of the engineering further is the fact that the ship will be undergoing continual movement with the normal flow of the ocean current. Also, the temperature in the region, which is on the equator, usually is about 90° F. during the day and rarely drops much below 70° F. at night; the relative humidity can be as high as 100%. Consequently, the chemical plants will have to be air conditioned, a fact that will present ventilation problems. Erik Bunge, managing director of DSM's engineering subsidiary, Stamicarbon, believes that interest in float ing plants for making fertilizers and other chemicals could become wide spread. He notes that some Japanese companies are considering the idea se riously, mainly because of the over crowded conditions in Japan and the serious air pollution problem there. So, too, are engineers in the People's Re public of China, he says. Floating chemical plants have a special advan tage when they are keyed in with off shore gas wells, he points out. The ships may be moved from one location to another as the wells are used up. IPI Contractors says that the project has already generated "a very large number of inquiries" from others who are interested in possibly going a simi lar route to putting in chemical plants. Apart from obviating the need to pipe feedstock gas to shore, ship-bearing production units would be easier to build and faster to bring on stream, particularly in remote regions.
