Document 3ro80X4MZrOaZJ6XdvKZQY6x

IT* `.'TRY Cir sofosls ride PC expansion wave Most c ':pu - goes to plasticizers for polyvinyl chloride, growth of which is threatened by pollution worries ,A Tt Producers of oxo alcohols for plasti cizers and other uses are coming out of their latest round of expansions in high spirits--and, apparently, with con siderable justification. The flexible' polyvinyl chloride business, which ac counts for more than S0% of oxo alco hol output in the U.S., continues to grow at an extremely healthy rate this year after an extraordinary perform ance in 1909. ' . llc'-caiii this outward show of buoy- y the oxo u\;'/nol producers, ho flows an undercurrent of anx- ier. ' intermediate and long term 's for PVC in packaging. Tin the anxiety is mounting end* - ' i.'naliy of the solid waste dispose 1 aches posed by .the bur geoning of PVC in packaging. Al ready, me.' men lx are under way at the federal, state, and local levels of government aimed ultimately at out lawing the use of PVC in consumer packaging. Anxiety. Chemical industry anxiety over the ban-PVC-from-packaging movement, is not confined solely to oxo alcohol producers, for as oxo alcohols go, so go many constituent materials, including ethylene, propylene, butyl ene, and ethanol. For now, at least, the flexible PVC business is booming, and oxo alcohol producers seem preoccupied with en suring ample capacity to meet ever growing PVC plasticizer demands. From the looks of things, meeting this demand should pose no problems. For example: Continental Oil is boosting n-al- lcanol capacity from 100 million pounds In 150 million pounds a year by mid-1971. Enjay Chemical recently has ex panded branchcd-clmm alcohol capac ity to 200 million pounds per year. Oxochcm Enterprises, a joint ven ture of \V. R. Gr-'cc and Common wealth Oil & Refining, will bring on stream by year's -id 2-etli\! hexanol plant with l\ Cll; .-ils of 250 million pounds pc yc'ar. P will be Jo;Mice! in Pcnuclas. ! Mens.' ; i" o--et., lo .s'.e : up a new 150 :: i .vioM ; ioi.ii 'i-per-ye;t linear al'.'ohoi'. p. . i) - 1971. Linns' a. f. :<:_ Miixturc:; of a.lco- lads i:. in . -om ' :ib;cncs by aii oxo : j::ctii: j .. eduction. ) These expansions cap an overall boost in the four categories of oxo al cohols giving total capacity of more than 1 billion pounds. These cate gories include normal alkanols, mostly linear alcohqls, highly branched alco hols, and 2-cthyIhexanol. A billion pounds of capacity has given some produce m the uneasy feel ing of too much too soon. For one, Larry Pickholz of Houdry division of Air Products thinks that the newly ex tended total U.S. oxo alcohols capacity marks the latest phase in an. exagger ated stepwise growth of alcohols for plasticizers. Mr. Pickholz explains that, while PVC growth is compara tively uniform, plasticizer alcohol ca pacity generally grows by fits and starts to match it. He predicts that PVC demand for plasticizers will not meet present annual capacity of 1.25 billion pounds until 1973-74. Antipollution. Beyond the im mediate concern of overcapacity and possible price weakness lurks a spectre of general market collapse under the growing pressure from nntipollution forces. The problem is that incinera tion of flexible PVC liberates hydrogen chloride gas. Flexible PVC contains 30% plasticizer ester, such as dialkyl r-" ~ r' i t vb \V v// phthalates and a-iipatt >. formed from oxo alcohols and second , o ictants, such as phthalic anhydride. The hydrogen-chloride is not onlv a serious pollutant but also damages in cinerators, critics claim. Without in cineration, PVC turns up as a solid waste problem. Fedc-V. state, and local pollution control Vhoriiics are coming under increasin':, political pres sure to force the pack .ging industry either to come up with r practical solu- Carbide is leading U.S. oxo alcohoi producer Celanese Conoco Dow-Badische Enjay Ethyl Corp. Getty-Air Products Oxochem Enterprises Gulf Oil Monsanto Pennwalt Shell Chemical Tennessee Eastman Union CarF.vj USS Chemicals a C&EN . na = no', avai/ab-t* Plant location Bay City, Tex. Lake Charles, La. Freeport, Tex. Baton Rouge, La. Houston, Tex. Delaware City, Del. Penuelas, P.R. Philadelphia, Pa. Texas City, Tex. Dover, Ohio Deer Park, Tex. Long View, Tex. Texas City, Tex. institute. W.Va.; Ser.drift, Tex.; Punce, P.R. .'averhill, Ohio Products Annual capacity (Millions of pounds) 2-Ethylhexanol Normal alcohols 80 ' 150, mid-1971 2-Ethylhexanol Branched alcohols Normal alcohols 40 203 100 Branched alcohols 2-Ethylhexanol na P50, late 1970 Linear alcohols 15-40 Linear alcohols * 7.El'.*, mid-1971 2-Octanol 2-Ethylhexanoi. m 80' 2-Ethylhexano! 110 2-Ethylhexanol and branched alcohols 2-Ethylhexanoi ?:F Branched alcohols na V- crr:7. 2!??0 % '........_ DSW 588240 STLCOPCB4093576 eel conducted by New York Univer- efficient re-use of used plastics for new :.d: 3 sily. T'ne study is intended to deter mine llie eifect that burning plastics purposes is a very real possibility. At stake. Oxo alcohol makers may have on incineration and on the pro well hope for the success of SIM's work : i duction of pollutants. The research on PVC. A rundown of higher alco .5 involves working with a conventional hols processes shows the multitiered ' f municipal feed-typo incinerator and analyzing its refuse arid flue gases. technical investment and materials outlets which arc at slake. Normal K / > ' ^ : I - \ ./ A- SPI expects the project to produce alkanols, such as those made by Con . I recommendations for improved incin tinental Oil and Ethyl Corp., come erator designs and procedures to alle from polymerization of ethylene with J- viate any disposal problems caused by Ziegler-type catalysts. Hydrolysis plastics. ends the reaction and leaves a product " 1 r >...... ... Misunderstood. Up to now, SPI be that is a mixture of l-alkanols with lieves, the incineration properties of even numbers of carbon atoms. - / I'T' 1 '"/ : ' ;> 1 j _ ..J Conoco is expanding its Alfol alcohols plant at Lake Charles, La. (above). PVC film (right), major market for alcohol-derived plasticizers, rolls off Reynolds Metals' production line tion to the-PVC waste disposal prob lem or to discontinue use of the plas tic in consumer packaging! Helping to tighten the political screws are vari ous citizen action groups for environ mental quality which for the most part have begun to switch from the shot gun approach to singling out specific targets in their assault on industrial pollution generally. Industry has not absorbed this at tack without taking initiative of its own to find solutions that could remove ob stacles to PVC in packaging. For ex ample, the Society of the Plastics In dustry (SPI) is sponsoring an $82,000 study at New York University, New York City, aimed at improving incin erators. TRW, Inc., is studying burn ing and recycling plastics by a $100, 000 grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. And Monsanto's Enviro-Chem Systems sub sidiary Iras developed a nvrolvsix method to eliminate hydrogen chlo ride emission. " These projects are complemented by firm antipollution policies taken by the plastics industry. SPI contends that, ``Both polyvinyl chloride and polysty rene have been attacked erroneously as serious air pollutants and have come under threat of restrictive legislation." SPI's counterefforts to such a threat include sponsoring the research proj- t'.. PVC have been seriously misunder stood. SPI maintains that, "Contrary to much erroneous comment, hydrogen chloride as a by-product of PVC is a negligible air pollutant, and its effect in incinerator corrosion has been ex aggerated." In the U.S., the total pro duction of all PVC is equivalent to less than 0.6% of all municipal refuse, SPI says, and only a fraction of PVC is in cinerated. In incinerator refuse, there are many materials besides PVC that produce hydrogen chloride and other chlorides, among them food wastes, grass, leaves, shrubbery, paper, and salt. "It is die judgment of the industry that the ad ditional quantities of PVC that will be incinerated in the next few years will not significantly increase corrosion,in incinerators," SPI says. Nevertheless, SPI puts its weight be hind plastics re-use and acknowledges the hurdles to be overcome. The plas tics industry must seek to develop packaging systems that are returnable and that use less material, the society says. "It is in our interest to pursue these activities. Even if it were not, public'pressure eventually will make it mandatory." There are formidable technical bar riers to true recycling of plastics--the reduction of them to their monomer or polymer constituents--SPI says, but Gulf's starting materials are alpha olefins, produced by polymerization of ethylene, but terminated by elimina tion to 1-alkcnes with even numbers of carbon atoms. In a reaction with carbon monoxide and hydrogen--the oxo process--a mixture of normal and 2-methyl aldehydes is produced, which can be reduced by hydrogenation to a mixture of normal and 2-meihylalka- nols with odd numbers of carbon atoms. Because the carbon skeleton is formed from ethylene polymeriza tion, the structure of the alcohols is mostly linear. Enjay's highly branched alcohols come from oxo reactions of olefins pro duced by combination of propylene and butylene refinery fractions. Ole fins containing from nine to 12 carbon atoms are formed, though some hep- tenes and octenes arV produced as well. The olefin mixture is put through the oxo process with reduc tion, which adds a hydroxymethyl group to the highly branched carbon skeleton. A pure compound used in plastici zers is 2-ethylhexanol. This alcohol is produced by base-cataiyzed condensa tion of n-butyraldchyde, followed by hydrogenation. Widespread use of 2- ethylhexanol comes partly from the variety of methods possible to use for its manufacture. ' ., DSW 588241 -;SEPT.:28, 1970 C&EN ,M STLCOPCB4093577