The Editor Looks a t .
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IIEC FEBRUARY 1958
Silicones are a $50 million business, but all the commercial manufacturing is done by three chemical firms. Union Carbide has within the last few months used the total of its experience to construct a complete new plant at Long Reach, W. Va. Basic silicone products are made at this plant by directly reacting silicone with methyl chloride to form chlorosilanes. From these chlorosilanes come a variety of silicones for a variety of uses. Research and development on application of silicones are intensive and the Long Reach plant areas are arranged so that production capacity can be quadrupled with the minimum modification of existing facilities. Safety was designed into this plant-and the considerations are detailed in this month’s Staff-Industry Collaborative Report, which you will find beginning on page 132. Nuclear technology has, over the period since research and application information first began to be declassified, occupied an increasingly important part of I/EC’s editorial content. The formation of the Subdivision of Nuclear Technology, within the ACS Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, marked a milestone of recqgnition within the ACS. Eighty-five pages of I/EC’s main technical section are devoted to a nuclear technology package-from the first program of the subdivision. Fluorine is an important malerial in the atomic energy program. Three years ago I/EC published details of an improved medium temperature fluorine cell. Page 178 presents construction and operating details of a larger version (32 anodes) of this cell, the major causes of failure, and what is being done to improve and develop the cell. A companion article describes a 24-pound-per-hour plant using five of these cells. Annual production of uranium concentrafes is over 15 million pounds. Ion exchange processes account for production of 80y0of these concentrates, so new resins are bound to be interesting. Permutit has developed a resin specifically for recovering uranium from sulfuric acid leach liquors; its characteristics are discussed beginning on page 171. Solvent extraction with tributyl phosphate is used in separating rare earths, in purifying thorium for atomic energy uses, in recovering uranium salts from reactor equipment-to name some applications. Pilot plant and process studies, equilibrium data, and effects of radiation on the solvent are among subjects discussed in this area. Radiosotopes are saving millions in petroleum refining; they make possible a new flow measurement technique. Ionizing radiations have both good and bad effects on materials and chemical processing. Some of the engineering factors involved in using radiation for chemical processing are discussed by Ranftl of G.E. Damage to lubricants arid making of labeled compounds are other subjects in the “use” area of this group of articles, A complete study of the centrifugal compression still developed by K. C. D. Hickman and the Badger Manufacturing Co. as a part of the saline water conversion program was offered to I/EC readers last year in May. Bromley at the University of California presents on page 233 a study of the performance characteristics of the Hickman-Badger still.
VOL. 50, NO. 2
FEBRUARY 1958
131
