Would you consider another plant location if you could increase net income by 14%? A new research study indicates that expected net income for drug and pharmaceutical manu facturers varies 2% - 24% depending entirely on plant location site. UTAH; A Profitable Location tor the Pharmaceutical and hruâ Industrv
An Executive Summary
The methodology examines the critical cost/ benefit factors for a hypothetical plant of 500 in each of 13 major U.S. cities from coast to coast. The opportunity for profit with a Utah loca tion is 14% higher than the average of all 13 study cities. If you are interested in reaching Western mar kets more economically, send for an Executive Summary of the study. Just mail your business card t o : John Leete, Director Utah Industrial Promotion Division # 2 Arrow Press Square - Dept. CE-911 Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 CIRCLE 43 ON READER SERVICE CARD
The latest from Aquitaine? five new thioorganics
Dimethylsulfoxide 2 - Mercaptoethanol (DMSO) " C. P. " Grade
Thioacetic acid
1-2 Ethanedithiol
Planning offered for SNG/fuels refineries Methane Sulfonyl Chloride (under development)
adding to our comprehensive range of Aliphatic Mercaptans, Sulfides, Disulfides, Polysulfides, Sulfoxides, etc. Data sheets and samples available on request
Please send me : Π literature Π sample Products Intended uses_
Name Position CompanyAddress
Aquitaine - Special Chemicals Department - Tour Aquitaine - Cedex n° 4 - 92.080 - Paris-lâ-Défense - ω France - Telex PETRAK 62 952 - Tel. 256.61.61 5 Address of nearest Aquitaine representative available on request ξ CIRCLE 5 ON READER SERVICE CARD
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C&ENSept. 11, 1972
value of recovered chemical compounds may become important. Fuel values of selected organic wastes have been little recognized in the U.S. until recently. However, this use of plastics may have the greatest environ mental benefit for the lowest cost, Mr. Ingle notes. In effect, such use would close the circle, extracting fuel value from plastics that originate as products of recovering volatile products from the petrochemical industry. Growth of recycling as a major factor will be slow, Mr. Ingle predicts. Many solid-waste-disposal officials, he says, consider recycling efforts as needless interference with efficient disposal of refuse. Any viable national policy for recycle cannot for long interrupt the international movement of plastics, paper, or other materials for reclama tion. Recycling will become significant in the U.S. to the extent that private initiative pulls "re-used" or recycled materials into useful and accepted prod ucts. This economic pull will probably be amplified by a push from various federal economic incentives. Two possi ble incentives are federal procurement policies and revision of tax structures such as depletion allowance, which has the effect of overstimulating use of vir gin materials and suppressing recycling. Mr. Ingle believes that it is now neces sary to expand recycle techniques when adequate separation methods, now be ing developed, are available. Many plastics formulations have been announced which offer some hope of accelerated degradation through photochemical processes and, occasion ally, through bacterial action. However, Mr. Ingle says, it remains to be seen if the cost of such materials is warranted. Industry must also determine that such new materials don't present more problems than they solve.
Most of the interest in synthetic natural gas (SNG) centers on conversion of coal. Ideas concerning re distribution of energy sources have not commonly emphasized petroleum as a major source of fuel for electrical power, but the picture is rapidly changing. If the concept of a fuels refinery takes hold in response to that change, M. W. Kellogg Co., for one, is ready with a scheme for the refinery planning and analysis that will be required. Evidence for a change in distribution comes from Robert M. Jimeson of the Federal Power Commission. He told a symposium on environmental pollution control held by the Division of Fuel Chemistry jointly with the Division of Petroleum Chemistry that he expects 90 of the present coal-burning power plants to convert to oil by 1975. When coupled ( Continued on 43)
with an additional 30 gas-to-oil conver sions that may take place in the same period, the prospect is that oil will power the majority of electric power plants for the first time in history. Gas and oil together could possibly furnish primary heat for two thirds of the electrical power stations. How much of the gas would be SNG is moot, but there is little doubt that petroleum's position in the nonautomotive fuel busi ness would be greatly enhanced, at least in the near term. One problem that petroleum com panies would face is planning and analy sis of current operations to meet the de mands of the power companies. To help solve the problem M. W. Kellogg is stepping up its involvement in comput erized planning and analysis. Dr. Richard H. Kantor, a process engineer at Kellogg's Houston office, notes that marginal fuel gas supplied to a pipeline as well as low-sulfur fuel oil are enjoying market prices far above the levels of five years ago. This has caused engineering and construction com panies such as Kellogg to polish up their analytical tools for the new direction in operations. Recent developments in linear pro graming have allowed Kellogg to ad vance its planning capabilities. Describ ing the company's activities at a sym posium on process evaluation—predesign and economic analysis, held by the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Dr. Kantor notes that Kellogg has acquired a programing sys tem for automatic generation of stan dardized, logical matrices and reports. Classified by major process activity, the resulting models have linear programing formulation techniques in common, but all data and premises for a specific application are supplied independently as needed. There are no data built into the basic program. The overall planning and analysis capacity at Kellogg is referred to as KELPLANS, and currently includes the use of operational linear program modeling in five major process activi ties. The newest addition to the KELPLANS system is the fuels refinery complex. The process configuration represented by the current fuels refinery reflects the trend toward conversion of refinery feed stocks, probably imported high-sulfur crudes, into low-sulfur fuel oils and SNG. Based on product demands and economics, the product slate may range from some ratio of SNG:fuel oil to essentially complete conversion of the crude to SNG. Exclusion of motor fuels from the product slate may allow access to lowerpriced imported feedstocks, since prod ucts with a heat or power end use are less likely to come under restrictive con trols. A separate modeling system for handling cases of this type allows the removal of large sections of the con ventional refinery model pertaining to processing and specification blending of
motor fuels. This results in reducing the computer time for compiling and optimizing the linear program. In developing a fuels refinery model with a capability of producing SNG, Dr. Kantor and his associates neces sarily considered streams that may be insignificant or even nonexistent in con ventional refinery studies. Chemical process water, oxygen for partial com bustion, and carbon dioxide have little effect in the economics of the conven tional refinery but are important in the SNG/fuels refinery.
Hepatitis antigen removed from plasma l&EC—Even if blood donors were routinely screened for hepatitis antigen, users of plasma products would still be subject to considerable risk of infection. Now a process that can effi ciently and economically remove anti gen from plasma on a large scale has been developed by chemical engineer Stanley E. Charm and Bing L. Wong of the New England Enzyme Center of Tufts University's school of medicine. An outgrowth of enzyme isolation techniques, the process uses bound hepatitis antibody to form a complex with the antigen in plasma. The com plex can then be filtered and bound antibody regenerated and reused. Serum hepatitis is frequently associ ated with a particle called Australia antigen or hepatitis-associated antigen. It is strongly suspected of causing the disease either by itself or as part of the infectious agent (C&EN, Aug. 14, page 24). After blood from donors has passed its short "shelf-life" as whole blood, blood cells are removed and the plasma pooled for processing into plasma prod ucts such as fibrinogen and other clot ting factors used to control bleeding during and after surgery. The incidence of hepatitis in the general population, Dr. Charm points out, is about one in 1000. Thus, he notes, plasma products have a very high incidence of hepatitis associated with them. The new process uses sepharose 2B to which hepatitis antibody from goats has been attached by a cyanogen bro mide method—about 20 mg. of antibody to 1 ml. of sepharose. Plasma and anti body are mixed gently at 8° C. for sev eral hours. The complex formed is removed by filtration of the plasma through filter paper. Treating the complex by washing with an alkaline (pH 11) saline solution dissociates antigen, which, as a by-prod uct, can be used to produce more anti body in animals. Bound antibody is regenerated by washing with a pH 7 saline solution. It can then be reused. Dr. Charm thinks that first commer cial use of the new process would most logically be made by large companies
Λ
Micro Reaction Vessel
Grunbaum K-F Pipet
Water determinations In the field and in the lab with one precision L/l aquametry apparatus. L/I's instrument is so simple that untrained personnel can make a deter mination in 2 minutes with high precision. L/l guarantees 1 % accuracy,0.5% repro ducibility over 90% of the range of the instrument (1 part/million to 100% water). L/I's price is $355 complete with one quart of K-F reagent, which is $700 less than comparable instruments. L/I's 6" χ 10" apparatus uses your Karl Fischer reagent bottle as a reservoir, eliminating the odors and hazards of transfer. The reaction vessel is an ordi nary 4 oz. disposable "cream" jar. Using L/I's microreaction vessel —interchange able with the 4 oz. jar—3 nanoliters of water can be measured in 2 ml. Save time in standardizing your K-F titer with a GRUNBAUM K-F Pipet (repro ducibility 0 . 1 % . Price $12.00). Use the same pipet for sampling. For more details, fill in and return the coupon. Gentlemen: Send me details on your Aquametry Apparatus. Name Title Organization Street
Citv
State
Zip
«LABINDUSTRIES The Error Eliminators 1802V Second Street, Berkeley, Calif. 94710. Telephone (415) 843-0220. Cable LABIND, Berkeley, CA, USA. CIRCLE 39 ON READER SERVICE CARD Sept. 1 1 , 1972 C&EN
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