TMP Goes Large Scale C e l a n e s e puts m a j o r Bishop, Texas facility on s t r e a m ; cuts t r i m e t h y l o l p r o p a n e price to 3 9 cents
V^ELANESE PUTS A N E W , LOWER PRICE
structure into effect for trimethylolpropane this week. The reason Celanese can start 1958 on such a bright note: operations begin at just-completed Bishop, Tex. facilities. Here Celanese now has the largest existing unit—able to make considerably more than 10 million pounds of TMP annually, and turn out other polyols too. General process details are simple; TMP is produced by an aldol condensation, involving the reaction of formaldehyde with butyraldehyde in the presence of an alkaline catalyst. Celanese is basic in both starting materials. Several purification steps, including a final distillation, are used to remove contaminants and get the water level below 0.05%. Celanese chemists set this water content level as an initial technical goal, and won't talk in detail about how they solved it. But they broke through about 20 months ago in pilot plant. Officials had to chose between making TMP and trimethylolethane (TME),
as the facilities were applicable for either. They felt that today TMP offers greater market promise, so it's no TME for the time being. Celanese produced TMP since May 1956 in a 2- plus million pound semiworks unit, designed with the same polyol flexibility as the commercial aldol facility. Some other polyols that could be made in b^th units are 3-methoxy butanol, anhydroenneaheptitol ( A E H ) , and TME. Celanese, in May 1956, announced a price of 43 cents per pound of TMP, f.o.b., Bishop Tex (it had been about twice that level). Then, last July, it dropped the figure to 4 1 cents delivered. Celanese claims this was the first time polyol prices were put on a national delivered basis. • Future Markets Are Vast. With its new price schedxile of 39 cents, delivered, Celanese has some vast market hopes. Principal immediate use is in the polyurethane field; TMP is used in polyesters for both rigid and flexible urethane foams, and is often employed as a cross-linking agent with poly-
Celanese supplied TMP for 20 months from this large semiworks unit. It will now probably be shifted to "several million pound" operations with 3-methoxy butanol and other polyols Final TMP manufacturing includes the flaking operations above. The flaking rolls are in a closed humidity-controlled system to prevent moisture pick-up and ensure a free-flowing product 20
C&EN
DEC.
3 0.
1957
ethers. With the rapidly increasing flexible urethane foam market estimated at 20 to 25 million pounds for 1957—and headed much higher in '58 —TMP could find a major outlet here. But the long range potential is far greater. In addition to polyurethanes, Celanese thinks TMP could compete on a still greater scale with glycerol and pentaerythritol in alkyds headed for the $1.6 billion paint market. It's strictly a matter of price in this costconscious field, and Celanese's price cut this week is keyed in that direction. Its laboratory tests bear out its contention that TMP oflFers some property advantages over glycerol—but glycerol still has price in its favor and is satisfactory in most applications. Other potential outlets include surface active agents, lubricants, textile treating resins, heat convertible polyesters, and specialty uses. Interestingly, Celanese expects to see some 20% of its 1958 output headed for the export market. The major portion is slated for Europe. Actually, the new Celanese plant can be called the only commercial scale TMP facility in operation. Heyden Newport has a small production unit capable of making either TMP or TME, but lately has chosen to concentrate on the latter. It is keeping close watch on the situation. Trojan Powder is also producing T M E in quantity, but stopped making TMP six months ago.
Most of the manufacturing process is run under vacuum, including final distillation steps. This vacuum equipment handles all of the TMP production units
Packing is also done under strict humidity control to provide properly flaked TMP. Similar precautions are used in transfer and storage steps
This finishing equipment is part of the final purification stages DEC.
3 0,
1957
C&EN
21
I N > U S T R Y &. a U S I N E S S
Harshcw Sees Sales Rise Harshaw ChernicaFs president, C. S. Parke, foresees some increase i n company sales next year, but expects increased competition to îiold down selling prices. He expects higher operating costs t o do the s a m e for earnings. Harshaw earned $2.51 a share on sales of $66 million for the year e n d e d Sept. 30, both slightly h i g h e r than in the previous y^ar. Parke told t h e N e w York Security Analysts thaat Κ arshavv has n o plans for entering consumer products or fluorocarbons. < It doesn't want to compete with custodiers for its hydrofluoric acid on the latter.) Capital spending will total about $1.5 million next year, com pared whJh $2 million in 1957. Re search spending will b e up slightly at $1.8 million. In t h e long run, the company expects f u t u r e growth t o at least matc=h its past record.
• Electro Organic Corp., makers of electrochesnicals, intermediates, and fine organ des, h a s m o v e d from Newark to a new, 50-acre site a t Glen Gardner,
N.J. Î D e p t . ofr the Army breaks ground at Fort Belvoir, Va., for the first closedcycle gas turbine t e s t facility in the country. Data coming from t h e operation of t h e turbine, combined with information gleaned from AEC's Gas Cooled Heactor Experiment, nowplanned, will be u s e d t o design a mobile ga*s-coaled nuclear power plant for militarry use.
• National Cooperative Refinery Assoc, starts a $1.8 million project to revamp crude, coking, and alkylation units a t its McPherson, Kan., refinery. Work will permit crude runs to be increased above present 28,500 bbl. a day.
chloride monomer and flexible and rigid poly (vinyl chloride) resins. Carbometal produces calcium carbide and ferro alloys, and recently started build i n g steel a n d coke facilities at Nihuil, Mendoza.
• Fasson Products has opened a new technical center and general office building at Painesville, Ohio. Research will be chiefly on adhesives used in selfadhesive labels, decorative materials, and graphic arts materials.
• Shell Development Co. breaks g r o u n d for a $500,000 process develop m e n t lab at Emeryville, Calif. Shell says t h e laboratory will provide a "test tube-to-manufacturing p l a n t " stepping stone during development of n e w pe troleum products and petrochemicals.
• American Petrofina of T e x a s and Anderson-Pritchard Oil Corp., award construction contracts for alkylation units at refineries in Mount Pleasant. Tex., and Arkansas City, Kan., respectively. In addition American Petrofina awards a contract for a platformer at its Mount Pleasant refinery.
• Chemical & P i g m e n t Co. has com pleted a plant in Oakland, Calif., for making Meteor Brand 33% zinc sulfate for agricultural and industrial uses. Wilson & Geo. Meyer & Co. will con tinue as exclusive sales agents for Meteor zinc products.
• I n t e r n a t i o n a l Metalloids, lnc„ will have a semiconductor-grade, elemental silicon plant on stream within six months near San Juan, Puerto Rico. T h e firm, plans for which were announced earlier (C&EN, July 22, p a g e 22), is a joint venture of W . R. Grace and Pechiney. Majority stockholder will b e G r a c e Internacional S. Α., a wholly owned subsidiary of W. R . Grace. Annual capacity of the n e w plant will be 20,000 pounds of highpurity silicon.
^"Τ*
:
Process industries Trends B Y - P R O D U C T COKE
• Monsanto Chemical a n d Car bo meta I
of Mendoza, Argentina, are working out an agreement to make PVC in a joint venture in Argentina. Construc tion would start in the first half of next year at Mendoza if agreement is reached. Plans call for making vinyl
B I T U M I N O U S COAL
SALES (Chemical & Allied Products vs. A l l M a n u f a c t u r i n g ) BILLIONS OF CHEMICALS S
DOLLARS ALIIED PRODUCTS
ALL MANUFACTURING
t$lL
L.i-t
-ΊΛ^.
i,.i.r fit ι ,i..,l
..ία, x. ,jf. ΪΚΞ
'28.0 Oct.
MANUFACTURING
STEEL O P E R A T I O N S Pe
'jïtt
Ont
?Q-r—
CCJPOC >
~
rr-
r
•3 2.01 Oct.
. *> .
1$# •
Λ Ι Μ ' . ' Μ Ί ' , Ι HLlI'éF t 1955
22
Cfc EN
DEC.
-lit
*\\Ί
'»:
»" Γ* Ι ' Ί Ί Γ
j^i^i;;;i^^iV^1^rwy*raQ Λ&·^
