Dynamit Nobel to Use Oxyhydrochlorination
S. C. Lind
S. C. Lind Dies at 86 in Oak Ridge Memorial services were held last week in Oak Ridge, Tenn., for Dr. Samuel Colville Lind, 86, a Past President of the American Chemical Society (1940) and winner of the ACS Priestley Medal in 1952. The noted radiation chemist, a pioneer in his field, was a senior consultant to Union Carbide Corp., which operates Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the AtomicEnergy Commission. Dr. Lind's body was found Feb. 13 when the water receded from an area that had been flooded the previous afternoon by a routine discharge of water from Norris Dam into the Clinch River. He had gone fishing below the dam the previous afternoon. A search was started when he did not return to his home at the normal time. Dr. Lind was not wearing his hearing aid when found, and local speculation is that he did not hear the warning horn that it sounded when water is to be released from the dam and was trapped in the discharge. Dr. Lind started a long and distinguished career in Washington & Lee, where he received an A.B. in 1899. He received an S.B. at MIT in 1902 and a Ph.D. at the University of Leipzig in 1905. He taught at the University of Michigan (1905-13) and worked for the U.S. Bureau of Mines (1913-25), the last two years as chief chemist. He then moved to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (192526). In 1926 he became director of the school of chemistry at the University of Minnesota. He retired in 1947 as dean of the school's Institute of Technology. 24
C&EN
FEB. 22, 1965
B. F. Goodrich Chemical has licensed Dynamit Nobel Aktiengessellschaft to use its oxyhydrochlorination process. The German company will use the process to make ethylene dichloride at its 160 million pound-a-year vinyl chloride plant being built near Cologne, in West Germany. The new plant is an expansion and modernization. The oxyhydrochlorination process uses by-product hydrogen chloride from an ethylene dichloride unit to make more ethylene dichloride. Ethylene is an uncommon starting material for PVC in Europe. However, in France, Solvay, with a license from Ethyl Corp., plans a 330 million pound-a-year vinyl chloride plant based on oxyhydrochlorination. Processes have also been developed by Shell and Imperial Chemical Industries. Badger Co. will engineer the oxyhydrochlorination units for Dynamit Nobel. The same company helped Goodrich to engineer and build its vinyl chloride plant at Calvert City, Ky. That plant switched from an acetylene to an ethylene base last year (C&EN, Aug. 31, 1964, page 18), using oxyhydrochlorination.
Humble Plans Refinery on West Coast Humble Oil & Refining plans tentatively to build a refinery in California to supply its West Coast markets, the company revealed last week. Humble has owned 450 acres near Moss Landing, about 90 miles south of San Francisco, since early 1963. No chemical manufacturing units are contemplated now for the site. Neither Humble nor any other subsidiary of Standard Oil (N.J.) now makes chemicals on the West Coast. J. Prince Warner, Humble v.p. for manufacturing, expects site surveys and refinery studies to cost more than $1 million and to require more than a year to complete. The company is studying a refinery with a capacity of about 50,000 barrels a day. Crude petroleum will come from West Coast sources if a refinery is built. The company produces about 20,000 barrels a day on the West Coast now. It expects to get another 25,000 barrels a day from the East
Wilmington field at Long Beach, Calif. Humble and four other oil companies (Mobil, Shell, Texaco, and Union Oil) recently won an 80% interest in the field by competitive bidding. Humble began marketing in California in 1960. Late in 1963, it attempted to broaden its western operations by buying Tidewater Oil's refining, marketing, and transport facilities in the West for $329 million. The U.S. Department of Justice blocked the plan (C&EN, April 20, 1964, page 19). The West Coast market for gasoline is expanding steadily. R. G. Follis, chairman of the board of Standard Oil of California, says consumption in the western states is expected to increase 25% in the next five years. His company is spending $80 million to increase its gasoline output by 40%. Shell Oil will increase its gasoline production in the San Francisco area to 85,000 barrels a day (from 55,000) at a cost of $60 million.
MCA Releases Third Study of Industry The third of four reports on competition in the chemical industry is available this week from the Manufacturing Chemists' Association. Put together by Dr. Jules Backman, the study gives a detailed analysis of the role of the chemical industry in the U.S. economy. Dr. Backman has attempted, in a relatively short report, to put together an economic history of the chemical industry. Going back to the early days of the industry, he shows where growth has taken place and explains how and why these changes have occurred. In the report, Dr. Backman claims that the impact of the chemical industry on the U.S. economy has been growing at an overwhelming rate since World War I. Dr. Backman, research professor of economics at New York University, has already authored reports on "Competition in the Chemical Industry" and "Chemical Prices, Productivity, Wages, and Profits." MCA commissioned Dr. Backman to compile the reports to combat published material that the association feels reflects unfavorably on chemical competition. Dr. Backman's fourth report, "Foreign Competition in Chemicals and Allied Products" is due next month.
