i650624a711

May 18, 2012 - Ind. Eng. Chem. , 1961, 53 (12), pp 19A–21A. DOI: 10.1021/i650624a711. Publication Date: December 1961. Copyright © 1961 American ...
3 downloads 0 Views 2MB Size
AS

I/EC

GOES

TO

PRESS

trendsletter TO

THE

CHEMICAL

AND

PROCESS

INDUSTRIES



Magnesium baseball bats



Engineering students most mobile



Urea for de-icing



Chemical complex grows in Puerto Rico

IN STORE FOR TOMORROW

J u s t around t h e corner may be machine washable and m-icriir.n dryabi.e w o o l e n s — s l a c k s , s h i r t s , b l o u s e s , and c h i l d r e n ' s wear. Cl.enionl t r e a t ments a r e a l r e a d y making many woven or double k n i t wool f a b r i c s machine washable; with minimum s h r i n k a g e . Wool b l a n k e t s and outerwear a r e avail— -shed e n d tu:::ble dried. Development work lble which can b> :;ac. w i l l s o o n a p p l y the m e t h o d s to c o r e d i f f i c u l t gai'ments of b o t h w o o l e n and w o r s t e d f a b r i c s . The d a y s of t h o u s a n d s of s e t s of specif.i. c a t i o n s for m a k e r s oi t; o r d i n a r y " t i n " c a n m a y r-;oo:i be over. Da Pont has i n t r o d u c e d a m u l t i p u r p o s e can c o a t i n g w h i c h r e p l a c e s r.riiiy o f the v a r i e t y o f e n a m e l s u s e d to line the insides o f t i n - p l a t e c a n s for v a r i o u s p r o d u c t s . Eudium, b a s e d on p o l y b u t a d i e n e . m a y b e the 1 o n s — s o u g h t u n i v e r s a l l i n o r — a . s i n g l e c o a t i n g c a n b e used a s a s a n i t a r y e n a m e l , for lining c o r n c o n t a i n e r s , or for c o a t i n g b e e r c a n s . EudLuni a l s o w o r k s well a sn c o a t i n g for aluminu.::—alloy c a n s , a c c o r d i n g to Du P e n - . Next y e a r ' s b a t t i n g c h a m p i o n m.-y not u s e o n e — b u t don't bet on it. Major league baseball players have already experimented tli m a g n o s : urn b a t. Most p l a y e r s h a n d l i n g the p l a s t i c - c o a t e d ligh"! m e t a l bat a r e u n a b l e to tell a n y d i f f e r e n c e in p e r f o r m a n c e from w o o d o n b a t s . Magnésium b a t s far outlast the w o o d e n kLr.d. h a v e g r e a t e r w e i g h t u n i f o r m i t y thai: w o o d , a n d give n o " s t i n g " w h e n h i t t i n g the b a l l . T h e nagnesiu-r. b a t p r o m i s e s to take a big tare o: the n a t i o n ' s 6 mi H i o n — p e r — y e a r b a s e b a l l bat m a r k e t . P l u t o n i u m — b e a r i n g g l a s s c o u l d b e u s e d a s a n u c l e a r fuel. Formulei— tions of p l u t o n i u m o x i d e i r. s i l i c a t e g l a s s e s can b e d r a w n into tiny fibers with l a r g e s u r f a c e a r e a s . T h e s e a r e e s p e c i a l l y a d a p t a b l e for e i t h e r c h e m o — n u c l e a r or p o w e r reactors. In the c h e m o — n u c l e a r r e a c t o r , fission f r a g m e n t s e s c a p e from I he fibers to form d e n s e a r e a s of ionized p a r t i c l e s in t h e s u r r o u n d i n g m e d i u m . These dense ionization areas c a t a l y z e r e a c t i o n s p r o d u c i n g industrial c h e m i c a l s . In the p o w e r reactor fibers a r e c o a t e d w i t h a l u m i n u m a n d p a c k e d w i t h pov.'dercd a l u m i n u m to form a s a n d w i c h — t y p e fuel e l e m e n t . H e a t from the f i s s i o n o f p l u i o n i u m 2 3 9 w o u l d b e u s e d to g e n e r a t e e l e c t r i c i t y . A n o t h e r p r o m i s i n g s o l u t i o n to s o m e of t h e critical w a t e r s h o r t a g e a n d s t r e a m p o l l u t i o n p r o b l e m s is g o i n g into t h e m a r k e t i n g s t a g e . B . F_. G o o d r i c h will m a k e and sell w a t e r treatment e q u i p m e n t b a s e d on a rigid v i n y l filter comb d e v e l o p e d by M e a d C o r p . Vinyl f i l t e r — c o m b u n i t s p e r form the s a m e f u n c t i o n a s b r o k e n rock or tile in c o n v e n t i o n a l stone t r i c k l i n g filter b e d s , b u t w i t h m u c h g r e a t e r e f f i c i e n c y . A prototype trickling, filter p l a n t is o p e r a t i n g at a l a r g e p u l p and p a p e r b o a r d m i l l in G e o r g i a . A l t h o u g h t h e first v i n y l - c o r e d p l a n t w a s d e s i g n e d s p e c i f i cally to treat p a p e r m i l l w a s t e s , G o o d r i c h s a y s the s a m e p r i n c i p l e w i l l w o r k for t r e a t i n g m u n i c i p a l s e w a g e or i n d u s t r i a l w a s t e s o f many other types. VOL. 53, NO. 12

·

DECEMBER 1961

19 A

trendsletter

(CONTINUED)

NEW IDEAS YOU CAN USE TODAY Need a de-icing compound that won't corrode expensive metal equipment? Urea lowers the freezing point of water to 11.5° F., ample for most icing situations. Road crews in Winnipeg, Canada, and several large airports, including Chicago's Midway, used urea successfully last winter to remove ice from roads, runways, and sidewalks. Urea does the trick in either shotted or crystalline form, but the shotted form is more convenient to apply because of its free-flowing characteristics. Accurate coating measurements from one ten millionth to several thousandths of an inch thickness are possible with a new lightweight, inexpensive electronic thickness gage. Twin City Testing Corp. will make and sell the portable instrument under an agreement with Boeing Co., developer of the gage. The instrument measures backscatter from a beta ray emission. Twin City expects to have it on the market soon. Pound-for-pound, bromotrifluoromethane (Fréon FE—1501) is the world's best chemical fire fighter. After some seven years of use in aircraft engines, the fluorocarbon will soon make its appearance for home and boat owners in a handy 2-g—pound extinguisher. For use against flammable liquid (class B) and electrical (class C) fires, FE-1301 has several advantages: It is nontoxic, leaves no residue, requires no heavy, expensive high-pressure containers, and is six times as effective as carbon dioxide and the equal of dry chemical extinguishers. ON THE PERSONAL SIDE Few industrial concerns have gone as far as Rohm & Haas has in providing protection for employees against a nuclear attack. The company completed its first personnel shelter in 1956 at Bristol, Pa., and now has facilities at three other locations. Underground shelters are designed to protect against blast, radiation, and fallout, and will accommodate all employees in the plants on any one shift for as long as two weeks, if necessary, without outside help. Engineering students are the most mobile of graduating seniors, according to a survey at the University of Detroit. While 94% of arts and sciences seniors and 95% of commerce students accepted jobs within 100 miles of home, only 55% of engineering students stayed that close. In fact, 17% of the engineers accepted jobs more than 1000 miles from their homes. AT THE CORPORATE LEVEL Although productivity measurements are extensively used in some individual industries and for the national economy, companies using them are still a small minority. Efficiency at the company, division, plant, or department level is still gaged, for the most part, by such traditional standards as output, profitability, and unit costs. A study by the National Industrial Conference Board indicates that productivity measurements can be a valuable supplement to existing performance criteria and can give better understanding of the relationships of wages, prices, and productivity to the company, industry, and national economy. They can help to plan and control manufacturing operations, measure effectiveness of equipment investments, and determine effects of. wage increases on prices and profit margins. Foreign subsidiary operations of U. S. firms are on the increase in France. Cyanamid International is building a chemical plant at La Rochelle, Procter and Gamble's French branch bought the Fournier-Ferrier factory at Marseille and will make soaps and syndets there, and Tidewater Oil formed Huiles Veedol France to make and sell oil, grease, and chemicals for the automobile industry. 20 A

INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

WHO'S EXPANDING, WHERE AND WHY Demand is still increasing for a pair of old chemical industry products, chlorine and caustic soda. General Aniline & Film is spending between $10 million and $15 million to expand chlorine-caustic facili­ ties at Linden, N. J. Most of the chlorine output will go to organic chemicals makers in the northeastern section of the country. Caustic soda will also be used in chemical manufacturing. In Canada, Hooker Chemicals, Ltd., launched a million—dollar plan to expand its chlorinecaustic plant at North Vancouver, B. C. Additional capacity is needed to supply Hooker's Canadian customers, most of whom are in the pulp and paper industry. Isocyanates for polyurethane foams are involved in construction plans for a couple of new plants. Allied Chemical Canada, Ltd., will supply diisocyanates to the Canadian market from a multimillion dollar facility in Ontario. This will be the first plant of its type in Canada and is scheduled for completion in late 1962. And FMC Corp. will build a new plant adjacent to the company's chlorine-caustic plant at Charles­ ton, W. Va. New facilities will produce toluene diisocyanate for use in polyurethane foams. Chlorine-caustic plant will provide some of the raw materials for the operation. Elsewhere in the polymer field: National Starch and Chemical is stepping up production of polyvinyl acetate resin from a semicommercial basis to full commercial scale. New plant at Meredosia, 111., will help satisfy increasing demand for the resin as a base for aerosol hair spray formulations. Koppers revealed an 85% capacity boost for its expandable polystyrene, at Kobuta, Pa. Wide acceptance in low temperature insula­ tion, packaging, flotation, and construction applications is the reason for the increase. And Eastman Kodak will up its polypropylene capacity by 50% with a capacity increase at Texas Eastman's plant in Longview, Tex. Boost will make the Texas plant capacity 10 million pounds annu­ ally, and Eastman's total capacity will be 30 million pounds per year of polypropylene. Two related projects will add to the growing chemical complex on the south coast of Puerto Rico. Commonwealth Oil Refining makes its initial move into petrochemicals with a $6.5-million plant to make naph­ thalene and other aromatics, located next to its refinery at Ponce. Plant will have design capacity of 50 million pounds of naphthalene annually, with provision for future expansion. It is expected on stream in January 1963. Stepan Chemical plans a $7-million phthalic anhydride plant, also on the south coast of Puerto Rico. Stepan signed a longterm contract to purchase naphthalene from the Commonwealth Oil facili­ ties for use as raw material in phthalic production. Although most phthalic anhydride makers produce for captive consumption, Stepan plans to market its output. Leonard Construction Co. of Chicago is building a 750 ton-per-day contact sulfuric acid plant for National Phosphate Corp. at Marseilles, 111. Leonard also got the contract for a 150 ton-per-day contact sul­ furic plant near Hobbs, Ν. Μ., for Climax Chemical Co. Pittsburgh Plate Glass has two new chemical projects under way. Methyl chloroform from a plant under construction at Lake Charles, La., will be used as an industrial solvent by adhesives makers and in aerosol formulations. PPG's synthetic resins plant at Circleville, Ohio, will make raw materials for its paints and coatings plants in various parts of the country. Both plants are scheduled for operation by late 1962. VOL. 53, NO. 12

·

DECEMBER 1961

21 A