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THE JOURNAL OF I-YDUXTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 14, No. 5
Wool Scouring Wastes for Fertilizer Purposes’ By F. P. VeitchZ BUREAU OF CHEXISTRY, u.
s. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, D. C.
T
HIS country uses more than 600,000,000 lbs. of unscoured wool annually. Approximately half this weight consists of dirt, salts, grease, and albuminous and other organic matter which must be removed by careful washing. With the exception of the grease recovered at a few of the scouring plants, all of this material is wasted, being run into the streams of the country, seriously polluting the waters and rendering them unfit for domestic and many industrial purposes without purification a t great expense. Analyses of a large number of samples of all grades of unscoured wool, both domestic and foreign, show that the grease content varies from 6 to 42 per cent, averaging 14 per cent; that the watersoluble matter varies from 6 to 33 per cent, averaging 14 per cent; that the nitrogen (other than that of the‘ wool) varies from 0.3 to 1.1 per cent, averaging 0.6 per cent; and that the potash varies from 1 to 7 per cent, averaging 4 per cent. Both the potash and the nitrogen compounds are water-soluble, and it is these and the other water-soluble constituents of wool that are of interest as fertilizer materials. Under present conditions, the wool scouring plants of this country are wasting annually potash equivalent to approximately 100,000 tons of Kainit, worth a t present quotations $840,000, and 42,000 tons of 4.5 per cent tankage, worth $280,000 to the fertilizer manufacturer. A number of attempts have been made both in this country and abroad to recover potash salts and other valuable constituents from wool scouring waste, but apparently without success, except for the relatively small proportion of grease that is being recovered by the centrifugal, cracking, and extraction processes. The problem should not be regarded as hopeless, however. It is believed that wool scouring wastes can be utilized a t a profit, and that before long some procedure other than running them into the water courses of the country must be developed. In fact, some of the states are now very active in protecting water courses against pollution by trade wastes, especially against wool scouring wastes, which are among the most offensive and injurious. Wool scouring plants must purify their waste wash water a t great expense and with little, if any, compensation from the sale of recovered products. It is with the hope of working out economical processes for the recovery and utilization of all the useful constituents of wool scouring wastes that these investigations were begun by the Bureau of Chemistry. The cordial cooperation of the wool scouring industry on the one hand and of the fertilizer manufacturer on the other, without which the work cannot be carried to a successful conclusion, is sought, Experiments have been conducted on a manufacturing scale in mixing concentrated wool scouring wastes with other waste materials for the purpose of determining the practicability of economically handling the material in the fertilizer factory. The material gave no trouble and the fertilizer manufacturer is ready to use the material as soon as it can be obtained in quantity, and, of course, a t a price that will yield him a profit. “Base goods” have also been prepared on a factory scale, using the concentrated wool scouring liquors as the source of part of the potash and nitrogen. These experiments have also shown clearly that there is no difficulty in working the liquors in making base goods. 1 Presented before the Division of Fertilizer Chemistry at the 62nd Meeting of the American Chemical Society, New York, N. Y.,September 6 to 10,1921. 2 Chemist in Charge, Leather and Paper Laboratory.
Experiments to emphasize the agricultural value of the waste for fertilizer purposes are also in progress. The concentrated liquid wool scouring waste liquor so far made contains 42 per cent of moisture, 14 per cent of KzO, 1.25 per cent of nitrogen, and 14 per cent ,of grease, while the dried and degreased waste contains 24.5 per cent KzO, 25.5 per cent nitrogen, and 0.6 per cent of grease. Fektilizer material made from the concentrated waste and another waste material on a factory scale contains 6.5 per cent water-soluble KzO, 6.1 per cent total nitrogen, 3.4 per cent water-soluble nitrogen, 1.9 per cent alkaline permanganate-, and 1 per cent neutral permanganate-insoluble nitrogen, and 6.8 per cent‘of grease. This material is in excellent mechanical condition, may be handled easily in fertilizer mixing and grinding machinery, and in addition is a good dryer, with a dark color and a fine strong odor. The work that has so far been done strongly indicates that wool scouring waste can be readily handled by the fertilizer manufacturer, giving him another source of potash, nitrogen, and filler of excellent quality, in a n advantageous form. The farmer, the fertilizer manufacturer, the wool scourer, and the people and industries in the vicinity of wool scouring plants will benefit directly or indirectly from the recovery and utilization of the valuable but offensive and dangerous waste if it can be recovered economically. This, one of the most important points, is now being investigated with every hope of success, provided the cordial cooperation of the wool scourers and the fertilizer manufacturers can be had. ’ So far the response of .these industries has been most gratifying.
Reversion to Generalized Types By H. W. Jordan 133 STOLP AVE
, SYR4CUS8, NEW Y q R K
Throughout industrial America hundreds of graduate chemists and engineers, ousted from their modern, specialized industries by economic readjustment, following victory in the chemists’ world war, have reverted to ancient, generalized commerce. Some who were fortunate enough to own their homes are piecing out meager commercial incomes by discharging the servant and renting spare rooms. Others have sold their homes and have condensed their families within two boarding-house rooms. To make a living they are selling life insurance and unlisted bonds; dish drainers and sewing machines; ice cream pies and near-silk underwear. In plodding from house to house, these industrially insoluble scientists are making a lot of social analyses upon which they will report in due season. “Specialization is always preparation for destruction. Although representing adaptation to existing conditions, it becomes inadaptation so soon as those conditions change,” said Lester F. Ward, pioneer of American sociology in his classic work, “Pure Sociology,” written twenty years ago. “The law of the persistence of the unspecialized is only the counterpart of the law of extinction of the specialized. What we have in the living flora of the globe to compare with those great fallen races of the past is merely the persisting, unspecialized types which escaped destruction simply because unspecialized,” he adds. Unless we chemists and engineers broaden our field of remunerative work by research and practical scientific activity in cultivation of social, economic fields, it is back to the dish drainers and sewing machines for us.
