Document 0gYMkda6DOEYxJq05XXxJEKjx

MONSANTO CHEMICAL COMPANY Texas City, Texas J. V. Waggoner R. T. Clark S. Putnam G. T. Ryan S. L. Hunter B. L. Williams To: W. P. Zimmerman At: Texas City, Texas July 3* 1958 Subject: Uninhibited VCM Stability Reference: DM Brown to WF Zimmerman 6-27-58 This is in reply to Question 1. in the reference memo: Will we have a stability problem in shipping uninhibited vinyl chloride monomer? Stability and storage tests conducted by Monsanto have been summarized in the following reports and memos: Hunter to Eckert 11-8-56 Yates to Vinyl PRES Board 1-6-58 Plastics Div. Research Dept. {Spfld.) No. 587 Texas Div. Research Dept. No. 116 This work indicated that polymerization does not occur under the conditions described when VCM is stored in stel.' Recently we have made some further calculations on the conditions necessary to get a runaway polymerization. These calculations were based on kinetic data obtained in the following: Plastics Div. Res. Dept. (T.C.) No. 176 Plastics Div. Res. Dept. (Spfld.) N . 804 Bengough and Norrish, Proc. Royal Soc. 200, 301 (1950) Assumptions were: 1. That mixing of a tank car will keep the temperature uniform on the inside. 2. That the heat transfer coefficient through the tank car to the air is about 10 BTU/ft yhr/F. 3. That the monomer in the car is as pure as that carefully purified in the laboratory. 4. That the polymerization rate in the tank car is the same as in glass. CBY 1111703 RSV0031126 Page Two W. F. Zimmerman July 3, 1958 The results showed that if the temperature in the car rises to 104F, the outside temperature must be 94F or* lower to safely remove heat of polymerization. At a temperature of 122F In the car the outside temperature must still be 94F or lower. At l4oF in the car the outside temperature must be 66F to remove the heat of polymerization. Since it 13 doubtful that such ideal conditions would occur and allow a runaway polymerization we feel that the stability uninhibited VCM would not be a problem in shipping. One other point--our VCM normally contains 20-40 ppm of chloroprene-- which is as effective an inhibitor as phenol. As far as ICC is concerned we are still shipping inhibited VCM. WFY; jad CBY 1111704 RSV0031127