PFAUDLER
CORROSIONNEERING NEWS 100,000th Elyria Unit goes to Hoffmann-La Roche for vitamin B2 work
Corrosive chemicals travel more cheaply in this truck equipped with Pfaudler glassed-steel
tanks. Tanks eliminate costly glass carboys which require considerable handling.
Glassed steel takes to the road to cut freight on acid chloride carting A certain fatty acid chloride is bought in such quantity by Lever Brothers that glass carboy packaging takes too much time, costs too much in freight and handling, and presents an intolerable breakage problem. Lever Brothers asked their carrier, Rogers Cartage Company, to talk with us. The result is the glassedsteel tank truck you see above. Each of the truck's twin tanks will hold 2200 gallons of the acid chloride or any other acidic chemical except hydrofluoric acid. They will also carry most alkalies at moderate temperatures. Two different chemicals can be carried simultaneously, since each tank is a separate unit with its own manhole, vents, dip pipe, openings, and bottom outlet drain. The truck travels 297 miles on each of its trips from Monsanto's plant in St. Louis to Lever Brothers in Hammond, Indiana. The trailer is a conventional unit. 34
C&EN
APRIL
14,
1958
We made the tanks and mounted them in such a manner that they will take to any existing road conditions. There is plenty of "give" to the glassed steel; in fact, we've demonstrated that a 36" strip of glassed steel can be flexed six inches in both directions without damage to the glass or its bond. What does Rogers Cartage think of the glassed-steel tank truck? They just placed an order for a second unit. For more details on this, contact your Pfaudler representative, or write for Data Sheet 29. Sidelight: When the truck reaches Lever Brothers, it empties its payload into Pfaudler glassed-steel storage tanks which in turn empty through glassed-steel pipes, fittings, and valves. Such total use of glassed steel from receiving to process is not so unusual as you might think, as witness the next story.
This 300-gallon reactor is t h e 100,000th piece of corrosion-resistant process equipment completed at our Elyria, Ohio plant. By coincidence the tank was ordered by the Hoffmann-LaRoche Company for producing riboflavin-5'phosphate sodium ester in its Nutley, New Jersey plant. So great is Roche production of this vital compound, as well as other vitamins and pharmaceuticals, there are literally hundreds of Pfaudler glassed-steel units already to be found in the New Jersey plant. Some claim that it would not be commercially possible to produce the riboflavin-5'-phosphate without such glassed-steel equipment. The presence of even trace quantities of metals in this vitamin B 2 compound will gradually precipitate out insoluble salts, developing turbidity in solutions of the product. Long ago we worked with Roche to make certain that glassed steel protects the process against entrance of metals. The result is that the complete process is now accomplished in glassed-steel reactors, receivers, piping, valves, etc. To discover just how complete a line of process equipment is available in Pfaudler glassed steel, -write for Buyer's Guide, Bulletin 947.
THE PFAUDLER CO. G division of PFAUDLER PERMUTIT INC. Dept. CEN-48, Rochester 3 , N.Y. See also Chemical Engineering Catalog, pages 1407 through 1418.
