INTERNATIONAL
India Pushes New Chemical Projects Interest centers on cement, phthalic anhydride, activated carbon, and coal gas projects Thirty-two inventions were reported for development by 12 research institutions to India's National Research Development Corp. during 1961-62, according to the corporation. About a third of these inventions relate to chemical materials and processes. Among the development projects undertaken by the Indian corporation, work has been completed on a method for making white cement from feldspar at the regional research laboratory in Hyderabad. The method is now available for commercial use. In addition, trial runs should begin soon at a phthalic anhydride pilot plant, built at the Central Fuel Research Institute in Jealgora, Bihar. The plant has a capacity of 500 pounds per day. Plans are also under way to build a commercial plant to make activated carbons, trade-named Hykol X and Hykol BC, for use in bleaching. The plant, estimated to cost $3.2 million, will be built by the National Research Development Corp. at the regional research laboratory. Capacity will be 2 tons a day. Hykol activated carbons are made from high-grade coke (derived from Hyderabad coal). The coke is treated with saturated steam to give Hykol X. Hykol BC is a mixture of high-grade coke and Hykol X. At the national chemical laboratory in Poona, preliminary details are being worked out for building an aromatic chemicals unit. Another pilot plant for p- and m-cymene has been designed at Shri Ram Institute for Industrial Research, Delhi. This unit will have a capacity of 5 to 7 pounds per hour. It will be used to study economic and design aspects of using fluid and packed-bed reactors. Licenses. Processes licensed by the National Research Development Corp. which have gone into production include: salicylic acid (11,000 pounds per month) by Modi-Desai Industries, Bombay; antirust solution by Plastipeel Corp., Bombay; sisal wax by Ayurvedashram Pharmacy, Ltd., Ahmednagar; fat liquor (sulfonated animal or vegetable oil or a combina58
C&EN
JAN.
14,
1963
tion of the two) by Cawnpore Oil and Soap Mills, Ltd., Kanpur; salicylanilide by Amar Dye-Chem, Ltd., Bombay (bench-scale trials are in progress and plant and equipment have been ordered); water-dispersible DDT by John Moore (India) Private, Ltd., New Delhi; light basic magnesium carbonate by Selective Chemicals Private, Ltd., Bhavnagar; diosgenin from Dioscorea tubers by Cipla, Bombay. The National Research Development Corp. also has assigned its process for making titanium tetraiodide to Research Corp., New York City. Research Corp. plans to license the patent (U.S. 2,819,946) in the U.S. Coal Gas. The Indian Council of Scientific & Industrial Research plans to set up a coal gasification plant with a capacity of 30,000 cubic meters a day of synthesis gas (or an equal amount of fuel gas) at the regional research laboratory. Cost of the plant is estimated at $4.4 million. The council also sanctioned a number of other projects, including a tartaric acid pilot plant for the national chemical laboratory and fundamental studies on flotation of manganese dioxide at Lucknow University.
BRIEFS Polythane Fibres, Ltd., has acquired Stretchables International of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Polythane Fibres, a subsidiary of Polythane Corp., a joint venture in the U.S. of Chemstrand and Peteco, Inc., plans to make spandex fibers at Belfast by mid-1963. Stretchables International will continue operating independently in making natural rubber threads.
Polyvinyl Chemicals, Inc., has a new
polymer plant in production in the Netherlands at Waalwijk. Capacity is in excess of 20 million pounds a
year. The product line will be similar to Polyvinyl's U.S. line—acrylic, vinyl acetate, and styrene copolymer emulsions. Polyvinyl Chemie Holland, N.V., an affiliate of Polyvinyl Chemicals, will operate the new plant.
Fansteel Metallurgical and Belgium's Societe Generale Metallurgique de Hoboken have started to build their new refractory metals plant in Hoboken, Belgium (C&EN, Sept. 3, 1962, Part 1, page 29). The two companies have formed a new company, FansteelHoboken, S.A., to build and operate the plant. Products will include tantalum, niobium, tungsten, molybdenum, and their alloys. A complex of new buildings, on an 8-acre site next to the Belgium company's plant, is being built to house the new company. Initial production should start this June. All of Fansteel-Hoboken's products will be sold by Belgium's Societe Generale des Minerais, which is also the sales agent for Societe Generale Metallurgique. Fansteel-Hoboken, capitalized at $7.2 million, is equally owned by its two parents. Societe Generale Metallurgique is associated with Union Miniere and Societe Generale de Belgique.
Signal Oil and Gas Co. plans to acquire an interest in Raffinerie Beige de Petroles, S.A., Antwerp, Belgium. Raffinerie Beige de Petroles has 200 gasoline outlets in Belgium and a 30,000 barrel-a-day combination asphalt and light product refinery at Antwerp. Signal Oil is also planning to acquire West Germany's Mineraloel and Asphaltwerke (Mawag), A.G. Mawag is primarily an asphalt producer. It operates an 8000 barrel-aday asphalt refinery on the Kiel Canal at Ostermoor. It also makes straightrun gasoline and heating oils.
West Germany's Farbenfabriken Bayer, A.G., has set up a new subsidiary, Bayer Nederland, N.V., in Arnhem, the Netherlands. The new firm, capitalized at about $330,000, will look after the parent company's fiber and dye interests, until now handled by N.V. Defa, Amsterdam. Bayer's chemical, drug, and Agfa divisions will be represented in the Netherlands by N.V. Deafa, Nedigepha (both Amsterdam), and by N.V. Agfa Photo in Arnhem.
