984
NEWS
EDITION
Vol. 19, No. 17 Source or Wax Found in Sugar Cane
New wing of Aubert Hall
Increased Facilities for Chemistry at University of Maine CHEMISTRY, chemical engineering, and pulp and paper technology have been provided increased facilities a t t h e Uni versity of Maine, in t h e recently completed wing t o Aubert Hall, t h e building which h a s housed t h e D e p a r t m e n t of Chemistry a n d Chemical Engineering since 1914. T h e formal opening of t h e new wing will t a k e place on September 26 and 27, 1941, and will be t h e occasion of a joint meeting of t h e Maine Section of t h e AMERICAN C H E M I C A L SOCIETY and
the
Maine-New
Hampshire Section of t h e Technical As sociation of t h e Pulp and Paper I n d u s t r y . T h e building is designed to provide ade quate facilities for present needs and t o allow for future expansion, particularly in t h e field of chemical engineering.
New Plants to Expand Alumina Output toward Desired Goal ON
RECOMMENDATION of
OPM
and
the
W a r D e p a r t m e n t , Defense P l a n t Corp. has entered into a contract with t h e Aluminum Co. of America for construc tion and operation of an alumina plant in Arkansas, with an annual capacity of 400,000,000 pounds, and three aluminum smelting plants. One of t h e latter, with an annual capacity of approximately 150,000,000 pounds of aluminum, will be located near Massena, Ν . Υ. ; another with a yearly capacity of 90,000,000 pounds near Bonneville D a m ; and the third in Arkansas with 100,000,000 pounds a year. T h e plants will be designed a n d con structed by the Aluminum Co. of America for account of D P C without profit to t h e aluminum company. Plans, specifica tions, construction, equipment, and all cost accounting will be under supervision of DPC. D P C will p a y for and own t h e plants with all equipment and facilities. T h e plants will be operated by t h e Alumi n u m Co. of America under a five-year
lease, paying D P C 85 per cent of net profits from operation. T h e contract pro vides t h a t D P C ' s plants shall be operated to t h e same relative capacity as Alcoa's. Should aluminum demand fall below 40 per cent of t h e rated capacity of all t h e plants owned b y Alcoa and b y D P C , either party m a y cancel the lease. If a t any t i m e , in t h e opinion of D P C , t h e price a t which Alcoa is selling the aluminum produced in t h e leased plants results in unreasonable profits from operation, D P C and Alcoa shall a t t e m p t to agree upon a price satisfactory to both. I n t h e event of failure t o agree, Defense P l a n t Corp. shall have t h e right t o cancel t h e lease. T h e contract with Alcoa calls for 340,000,000 pounds annually of new aluminum manufacturing capacity. D P C is consid ering construction of other plants having an aggregate capacity of 260,000,000 pounds to be built and operated by other manufacturers. A total of about 3,100,000,000 pounds of alumina annually is now considered necessary to produce 1,400,000,000 pounds of aluminum metal per year and meet alumina requirements of the abrasives and chemical industries. T h e plants proposed in Arkansas will use bauxite available in t h a t region and will have special facilities for washing silica out of the low-grade ore. This will extend t h e useful reserves of bauxite in Arkansas almost three-fold b y bringing into use low-grade ores never previously considered of commercial value. O P M has also recommended t o the W a r D e p a r t m e n t t h a t extraction of alumina from alunite be started on a small scale at · Marysvale, Utah. This operation would be conducted by Kalunite, Inc., Salt Lake City, with a plant having a capacity of 2,000,000 pounds of ore per day. Alumina has never been produced from alunite or clays on a commercial scale, although pilot plant operations handling about 2,000 pounds of ore a d a y have been conducted by Kalunite, Inc., for some time ( N E W S EDITION, July 25, page 809).
FROM t h e sugar-cane " m u d " t h a t r e sults during t h e process of milling cane, U. S. D e p a r t m e n t of Agriculture chemists see t h e possibility of recovering annually some 6,000,000 or 7,000,000 pounds of wax. A t a time when addi tional domestic sources of such material are especially desirable, this discovery is considered valuable t o defense. The wax occurs as a t h i n coating on t h e surface of cane stalks, according t o How ard S. Paine, B u r e a u of Agricultural Chem istry a n d Engineering, who directed t h e research. T h e coating is so thin t h a t a ton of cane yields less t h a n 2 pounds of wax, a n d recovery would not be economi cally feasible were t h e wax not concentrated incidentally i n sugar manufacture. As t h e juice is crushed from the cane m o s t of t h e wax is washed off and remains in suspen sion in t h e juice until taken o u t with t h e " m u d " formed in clarification. T h i s " m u d " has always been thrown away a s waste although, when dried, it contains from 5 t o 17 p e r cent of crude wax. T h e investigators have determined t h a t t h e best way t o recover t h e wax is t o t r e a t t h e dried " m u d " with a solvent a n d t h e n use a selective solvent t o remove fats in with t h e wax. T h e wax is h a r d , w i t h a melt ing point of 174° F . Samples s e n t to t h e trade indicate t h a t , whenever i t is p r o duced in q u a n t i t y , it can be used i n m a n u facture of polishes, impregnated a n d coated products, molded articles, and t o replace waxes now difficult t o get because of unsettled world conditions.
Use of Tin in Defense Stock Pile Τ Τ
S. P A T E N T 2,251,580, issued August 5, 1941, t o Robert F . Ruthruff, Chicago, represents what is believed t o be t h e first example of use of a defense i t e m during storage. D r . Ruthruff, inventor of t h e process for converting propylene a n d the butylènes into high-quality gasoline in t h e presence of a copper p y r o p h o s p h a t e catalyst, in t h i s p a t e n t explains t h e use of an adsorption complex of phosphorus p e n t oxide o n t i n oxide for the same purpose. Although t i n is more expensive t h a n copper, since it is not consumed in t h e process it is possible t o use it in t h e defense stock pile in this manner. I n an absolute emergency t h e tin base catalyst could b e diverted to applications where substitution of other materials is impossible, a less advantageous b u t more readily available catalytic agent then being used t o accelerate conversion of gaseous olefins to gasoline. ©Λ&^>
PRODUCTION of lead from domestic mines for t h e first quarter of 1941 was 112,992 tons, for April 38,234 t o n s , and for M a y 39,116 tons, reports t h e U. S. B u r e a u of Mines. T h e 1940 o u t p u t w a s 457,392 short tons.
