I
.
Organics Have 6rown Pkenomenally
JAMES HIBBW *.-u n i d SE. G L T CMef, ~ ~ Chemical ~ < W Division, G ~ >D. ~c. , , ,
.
pounds produced by
_. .. i .i
,.
' . I si.
.
knowledge 80 vital to such an undertaking. .'Bfit m e industry was built even though t b p r o c e s s w% cost;ly. By 1918 the number of manufacturers had swened t o 187; production of intermediates, t o 'milli
.,,
3s
~
1;.a.I 1929
I
1932
pounds, valued at $123 million; and the output finished coal-tar products, to 75 million pounds, valu at 88.3 million. Because many of the organic chemicals made duri the war were used for explosives and other war materi production fell rapidly after the Armistice, reaching t low level in 1921 of 144 million pounds, including million pounds of non-coal-tar chemicals. which were
':?
.1
INDUSTRIAL AND E N Q I I B B R I N Q CHEMISTRY
.. .
"reported for the first t h e in that yesr. The mcordk% of sales rather than the value of producti0.n also was initisted in 1621; salsa totsled $64 million. Durh this period of consolidation and adjustment, industry was aided by several factors. omeatic production of these ohemicals e Act of 1916, imposed Sddition4l , and other coal-tar chemicals. by .the Dye and Chemical Control Act of 1921, which prohibited the importation of dyes ahd other coaLtar derivatives into the United States unless these products were not reasonably obtainable from domestic industry. '@eT&TAct of 1922,which superseded the Dye and
[email protected]$f%t of 1921,and later the Tar8Act of 1930 set the "Americim d i s g price" as a basis of determining the duty on competitive imports, thus providing additional tariff tection for coal-tar intermedistea, &, medicinsls, l l a v o ~ materials, and synthetic odorifemus or aromatic
'
I
Vvl. 40, No. 6
I
DIPS Production, Sales and Value
A second factor was acwsa.to bssiopatenta. The Trading with the Enemy Act of 1857 authorized the granting of licenses for the mannfactw and sales of products covered by enemy-owned patents.' T h d pat&& had long been a great obstacle to the development of domestic synthetic orgSnic c corporation, called
8.
Custdan. Nearly ailable to industry on
reached 1.2 billion pounds and sales amounted to $175 million 10 1929 the acvclie emuD of omanie chemicals exceeded. io qwtity pmdukd, the c&c or-coal-tar group. When such Another fsotor that .of wistmce in.the iwu& given in this ariicle they arS in tern of acyalic and
[email protected] of organic chemic& rather than prcducta derived from c d - t a r or non-coal-tar mu-the system of grouping Wed in the TarS Act of 1930. Many identical chemicals am t of that yea+, the President directed t h e ~ T a t E.' now d e + I fmm both m u w . Mast cyclic compounds are on to collect and tabulate data on United States of c d - & r origin. The panic of 1929,andthe subsequent depmiodsdversely sfIected the organic chemical industry but not ao &rely 88 many other industries. F'rcduction in 1930 still exceeded a billion wunds. In 1981 ~ r o d ~ c t i oofn inter-
ctiona 1332 and
lies to the continuously expanding of today just as it did to the dye
below the 1930 level. I n 1932 intermedistaa deother lSo/,in output and 6nished products 10%. statistics am not available for theee two years. In ry was well under way; 1.3 billion pounds were
h o w of labor w d equipment-all
.
onlnanoeplants.
Pro-
The increase invalue of
lune 1948
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINKERING CHEMISTRY
sales was even more rapid than the increase in quantity of sales. Sales were valued at over $2 billion in 1944, declined to $1.9 billion in 1945, and again increased in 1946, probably because of advancing prices.
981
MEDICINALS Production, Sder and Value
PRODUCllON AND SALES BY USE
The synthetic organic chemical industry is made up of a number of individual industries such as the phamrseeutid, plastics, dye, and perfume industriea. Thesa comnme certain common raw materials but produce Werent Iiniahed products. Some companies manufacture chietly producta that may be ckailied in only one of the 10-nee classifiiatiom under which the statistica are published by the U. S. Taritr Commi8sioi; others manufacture chemicals that may fall into several group. As the growth of the whole synthetic organic chemical industry re&& the growth of the individual group making up the total, it is of intereat to examine each group sepmtely-and note where the g m h t expansion occur&. Not all of these groups have been in existence as far back as 1929. F'roducte classi6ed as rubber-processing chemicals, surfaceactive agents, and plasticizers were reported as a subgroup under miaeellsneous chemicals until recently, or as a misOellanmus chemical. The table on page 986 is constructed on the basis that the preeent claesi6catiou of a chemical was in existence throughout the years covered. For some earlier years, however, it is neceassry to estimate part of the data. INTEFdXEDIATES. cyclic intemediskS Sre nStUrdy the largest single group of synthetic organic chemicals, as they am the mw materisls for dl other finished cod-tarDroduds. In1929 output was about a third of a billion PO output of 2.5 billion pounds was due in no the production of ethyl b e m n e in turn, was need to make 406 another intermediate in the manufacture o
*urn
50
40
30
10
It. A
: P
d
*"dl
35 30 25 20 15
10
5 0
ductiM'of &, skctly contmlled during the war, did not nsah i&um until 1946, wbenJ86 million pounds were pmduction in 1947,willp b a b l y be still greater.
I & , %
m TONEB. From 1929 15 and that .d s@h%'%&e set aside in antidpation clined the foUowing year but E&an t e 33 miUim.poundaproduced in 1946 re war demand forlakesused in printkig and fbt other pnrpom. MEDIWBulk medicinals have shown considerable growth in quantity produced in the last d+e and a half and . .. 8 p h d growth in value owing M the nianufacture in &&t yema of new products having a high & ti value. In 1946des, whicki had amounted to $9.2 million in 1929, totaled $218 million, of n.hieh penicillin accounted for 890 million and
I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G CHEMISTRY
*
Val. 40, No. 6
PUSTICS MATERIALS
FLAVOR AND PERFUME MATERIALS Production. Sales and Value
Production, Sola and Value
30
20
10
0
vitamins $53 million. See tables, pages 987 and 989. 'Jn term of finished pharmaceuticals, the value of d e s would be more than double this amount and .even larger .g.natural
.' '.
has expanded from 40 million poundsin 1929 1946. The war creited a &at d e mand for resi ctlon quadrupled during the war years. The largest single w of sykthetic resios is in protective coatings, followed by molding and casting. Notwithstanding the huge wartime increase in the w of synthetic rposea in 1947 undoubtedly exn of 1948. Synthetic w i n s fae by elastomers and intermediates. c m . Antioxidants, peptizers, bber-processing chemicals are used ther synthetic or natnral, and pron the demand for rubber. Manugradually throughout the thirties, sharpl$ in l ~ > ~ ~ $ g h t l y i n 1942, and reached a maximum of 101 fi%illiodpbuni)s in 1945. The inorewe WBB partly due to tkpfact thaLproceasing of synthetic rubber IP quires considerably moWk$xy c h e F l 8 than does mturA rubber. EJASTOME~ ( I N C L ~ I -_Sfl@&c NC RUBBER).. Elus-
tomers have the property of stretching considerably more than their own length and of returning with force to their original position. Throughout most of the latter part of the thirties these products were special-purpose synthetic rubbers produced in quantities increasing gradually from 1to 2 million pounds. In 1939.production doubled compared with the years immediately preceding and increased another 50% in 1940 to 6.6 million pounds. When the supply of natural rubber was cut off by the war, production was stimulated, notwithstanding great technical difEculties, with the result that 28 million pounds were produced in 1941, 59 million in 1942, 573 million in 1943, and 1.8 billion in each succeeding year. So extraordinary an increase in production of a group of chemicals has never been equaled hut it has not continued at the same level, owing to the present availability of natural rubber. Most plasticizers are used principally to RAETICIZERS. &e plastics materials certain physical properties; some have other m. Production of plasticizers usually folIows the trend in the production of synthetic resins. The output of more than 6 million pounds in 1929'increased to the pe& output'of 187 million pounds in 1944 but declined in succeeding yesra. This was due in part to a smaller demand for dibutyl phthalate, a plasticizer for smokeless powder, and for dimethyl phthalate, which has a secondary use as an insect repellent. SWACE-ACPIVEAQENTS. In the late 1920's and early thirties Burfaceactive agents were almost exclusively sulfated an8 sulfonated fats and oils used as textile assistants; at present they are also used as substitutes for soaps, in shampoos, dentriJices, and agricultural sprays, and have many other applications. The data plottel in the chart on pag? gsC an"d.shosn in table on page 937 refer to weight of pure qctive ingreaQ4nt. 1 Bv 1938 the' outuut of these chemicals had increased 71% byer the I!rLI,output of about 29 million pounds. The con-
IN D U S T R I A L A N D E N 0 IN EE-IITII 0 C H E M I S T R Y
lune 1948
1
ELASTOMERS Production, Sales and Value
983
ria& -biport9nce of surface-active agents shows little sign of diminishing. $ee chart on next pege. M.I~~ELL~NEOWS CHEMICALS.The chemicals in this p u p consist of products such as insecticides, photographic chemicals, taming materials, plant hormones, solventq and halogenated hydrocarhorn which are combined in subgroup, acyclic intermediates, and other chemicals having diverse m. Acyclic chemic& in this group are by far the more nu me mu^ and important. In 1929 the to pmduction of dl Cbemiaalsin thisp u p was 629 million ponn ; sales were 400 &n pounds, v a ~ u dat million. In 19% production *xe 2 billion pounds, in 1941 it was more than double this hmownt, and in 1944 it m h e d a msximum of 9.6 hillion pow&, 100 million of vhich represented cyclic compounds. This &thg volume largely reflected the stepped-up output of hnbgemtd hydroosrbons to 1.6 billion pounds, f d d e hyde to 48aslilliqrii?#&ne to 350 d o n , acetic acid to 268 ene to 468million
%
19291931
1937
1939
1941
SWKd U. 1. Mff C . m d . k n
trihution of sulfonated oils to the total was also slightly lese.
tatistics on other
I
6e4
Vol. 40, No. 6
I N D U S T R I A L A N D B N Q I N B B R I N Q CHEMISTRY
SURFACE-ACTIVE AOCWTS Production, Sales and Value mmd *rcl
200
I so
100
intermdata and finished products. Crudes from coke ovens, which had been valued at less than half a million dollam in 1913, mse by virtue of high prices and larger output, to $7.7 million in 1915 and to $45 million in 1917 (combined output by tar distillem and by-pmduct coke ovens, U. 6. Tariff Commission, “Census of Dyes and Coal-Tar Chemic&,” 1917, page 15). Although Lsrge!nuplua?s of crudes were expected immediately following the termination of European hostiiitk, firat in the steel and coke industries, 88 after World War 11,and later the rapid development of new marketa for tar crudea considerably minimized the d e p d n g eEect of aurplus stocks. By 1929 by-prcduct ovena supplied about So% of the tsr crudes. Sales at by-product plants amounted to $33 million and by distillers to 840 million. Ae the output of tar crudes depends on the quantity of coke need in the steel industry and consumption of industrial and household gas, the d e p d o n of the early 1930’s caused a decrew in output of the principal tspeg of tar crudes (see chart, page 978) which reached a minimum value in 1932-33. Thereafter the output me agsin and, after a minor decline in 1938, averaged about $150 million during the war yeam. In timeof war toluene is in great demand for the production of TNT-the explosive trinitrotOluene-and large quantities of benzene am required for the mandacture of phenol for plastics and for the picric acid type of explosiva. A number of attempts w m made to obtain toluene from petroleum during World War I, hut the quantity 80 produced was small. As the p m u m of European demand for toluene and phenol increwad in the early 1940’s every g o r t WBB made to increase the supplies of tar crudes for war purposes. Toluene w88 &ripped from motor bemne, but it w88 immediately obvious that cosl could never ~ ~ p pthe l y demand. Petroleum came to the mcue. Technical advances in petroleum cracking and reforming during the preceding decade made it poseible to reach
I
E $hide chemic& from petroleum, dtursl pmducta are the raw materisla for a vast number of c h e m i d . There is considerable overlapping of pmducta in the several groups. The PI‘&&& #f@xlpc@ of the destructive distillstion of eosl henol, and tsr. The coal-tar inthe coal-tar ch& industry. recover m y of the byof coke, which w88 then nearthemine; indeed, until World W&I there only a small m a r k t for such raw materisls. , W i t h m b f thedemandforgssforheatingand illumination and for fusnsee and metallurgicsl coke, the ine5cient -ve oven was graduadlywplaced by coke ovens, which pen&tWrecovery of coal-tar.crudes. By 1915 more than m . o f the domestic production of coke was in by-prod.I: uct ovens. World War I created 88 suddc.:,a.’&&andfor crudes 88 for ’
1929 I9lS
1937
1939
IOUlcEt Y. S. T d H Conni.&n
1941
1943
194S1946
lune 1948
INDUSTRIAL AND HNGrNEBRING CHEMISTRY
oil for wood preserping m h e d a msximum in 1942 of 175 gallons-47 million gaUons m t e r thsn the output of
U. 8. RUDDER CONSUMPTION
&On
1929.
Nahrral and Synthetic
Toluene is not the only chemical of importance derived from peW€eWnin recent years. Butadiene from petroleum alone, nearly 800 million pounds in 1945, was vital to the synthetic rub& prdgram; xylene, naphthenic, and cresylic acids and 6hortidUh crude hydmoarbons are the raw materials for an in large number of finished chemical products den d ' f j b r n petbleum. Ethylene glycol, isopropyl alcohol, wt+,imd chlorinated hydrocarborn are but a few worthy of mation. cnidls from petroleum and n a t d gas for further prooess; h g wbra not aepsrstely reported More 1943, but Bince then thw b v e rapidly incressed 88 shown in the following table.
IO00
800
600
400
Cnde W from ccroleum and naturl sar faor ch.nk.1 c o n w r l n : U n k d &et produalon and uln, 1943-46 ArolMtiu
200
0
sr
the peak output of toluene in 1944 of 134 million~ons,not including ahout 70 million gallons at tlie Baytown o h c e ,.,. plant. his was h w t 10 times the usual peacetime pro. I:.:
