Document LKLpw6O7qY0o4KmR0B94Jkayb

The Chemical World This Week ChM(CA4. MeuJX , >'f - li OUTLOOK DETAILED FDD now being flared in the Middle East could be used in chemical plants there at give-away prices of PETROCHEELUCAL FEEDSTOCKS 20, 10, or even 0 cents per million B.t.u. The know-how of a two-tier price system for oil and gas is freely "One favorable fallout from the en ergy crisis has been a better under standing by government officials and the general public of the im portance of petrochemicals to the American economy." In this way Vincent L. Gregory, Jr., president of Rohm and Haas, last week led into some challenges facing technical When price controls end, dra matic improvements in petrochemi cal output will result, according to the Rohm and Haas official. (He expects decontrol on the rest of controlled chemical products, such as benzene, in April.) At that time, demand may moderate because of escalating prices for ethylene, ben available from the U.S., where it has been used for years. Some chemicals will come from the Middle East, Mr. Gregory says. But a major chemical industry there will be a long time developing because trained technical personnel and a sophisticated industrial in frastructure are lacking. people of the chemical industry, as he keynoted the 76th National Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in Tulsa, zene, and their derivatives. Mr. Gregory foresees on balance eco nomic incentives for technical de velopments that will lead to a high Decision nears on vinyl chloride rules Okla. er growth curve for petrochemicals Most government officials were --with a much more reasonable Look for a decision this week on shaken by an Arthur D. Little, Inc., supply-demand balance--than precisely how worker exposures to report showing that a 15% reduc many experts now predict. vinyl chloride should be regulated tion in feedstocks to the petro Synthesis gas made from coal so as to prevent future deaths from chemical industry would result in seems to intrigue Mr. Gregory. He a very rare form of liver cancer. Oc the loss of more than 1.6 million notes the possibility in the 1980's of cupational Safety and Health Ad jobs, Mr. Gregory notes. In addi synthesis gas at less than 2 cents a ministration chief John H. Stender tion, gross national product would pound manufactured from coal has on his desk proposed rules that decrease by $65 billion to $70 bil costine $10 tier ton at thp mine inHuctrir ~ 1 J --**" lion, according to the report . Some evidence exists, he adds, that measurably--even shut uown alto But although the Federal Energy ethylene might be made from this gether--all U.S. polyvinyl chloride Office has given a high priority to synthesis gas at 3 to 5 cents a production. petrochemicals, shortages persist pound, leading to a new ball game Recommended by the Govern because of feedstock and plant ca if petroleum prices stabilize at ment's National Institute for Occu pacity limitations. Mr. Gregory es $7.00 to $10 a barrel. Research pational Safety and Health, the timates that the U.S. shortage of under way to develop "clean fuels" rules ask that atmospheric levels of ethylene in 1974, for example, will from coai also could lead to aro vinyl chloride, now labeled a "can be about 15% of present demand. matics at potentially low cost. cer-suspect agent," be kept below About 5% will be due to lack of In addition to technical chal "detectable levels" unless workers feedstock and 10% to shortage of lenges, Mr. Gregory is concerned wear full-face, air-supplied respira hardware. with political challenges both with tors. Use of impervious suits in At the same time, a shift is on to in and without the U.S. One of some cases and engineering and heavy feedstocks for olefin plants. these is the possible impact of process changes, thus far unspeci Much larger amounts of coproduct chemicals made in plants located in fied, are also urged. Currently, the propylene will be made in these countries with large oil and gas re federal ceiling on vinyl chloride ex plants, leading to a surplus of pro serves. The large amounts of gas posure is 500 p.p.m. compared with pylene along with a tight supply of ethylene. And, Mr. Gregory says, if Gregory: challenges for technology a 50-p.p.m. level that many PVC makers claim they maintain as a crude oil costs $10 a barrel, ethyl company standard. ene may then cost 9 to 10 cents a Seven U.S. PVC workers have pound and propylene 5 cents a died from the liver cancer--five at pound. It's an interesting exercise, B. F. Goodrich's Louisville, Ky., he told the engineers, to speculate plant, and single fatalities at the on what will happen if propylene is South Charlestown, W.Va., plane of freely available priced at 4 to 5 Union Carbide and Niagara Falls, cents below ethylene. N.Y., plant of Goodyear Tire & The benzene shortfall in 1974 will Rubber. be 5 to 10% of requirements, de pending on when the Arab oil em ... i`4' After a prolonged and heated in: house scientific debate, NIOSH de bargo is lifted, Mr. Gregory esti * -'> f cided it could not set a "safe limit" mates. Currently, aromatic extrac tion units are running at capacity. / for the chemical. "We rejected the concept of a threshold limit for And new capacity is two to three vinyl chloride sras in thp atmo- ^ ------- -- 4* wvvtiVtiilv iilCuiiUVC^ exist to encourage investment in production units. i spnere,' Ur. Marcus M. Key, \ NIOSH director, told Mr. Stender. I Dr. Key also is Eiror.gh urging 4 C&EN March 18. 1974 J BFG23730 23063001 t "TT OSHA to speed up its rule making. OSHA could shorten the time to get a rule out to four months. NIOSH has yet to specify analyt ical methods or define what "de tectable" means. Research tech niques can detect parts-per-billion levels of the gas. This level would force all PVC operations to shut down, Dr. Kenneth M. Johnson of the Manufacturing Chemists Asso ciation tells C&EN. Stressing that he is not a PVC industry spokes man, Dr. Johnson adds that an ex posure limit of 20 to 30 p.p.m., measured by less elegant methods, would be "stringent, but attainable in most plants in a reasonable peri od of time." Specific limits, even if only temporary or involving a phased lowering of exposures over two years, would be acceptable. He also questions the need for, feasibil ity of, and legality of NIOSH's sug gested controls on releases of vinyl chloride to the "external environ ment." The NIOSH proposal is "devoid of any enforceability" in not requir ing immediate engineering changes to get to zero worker exposure, says Andrea Hricko, occupational health specialist with the Ralph Nader- affiliated Health Research Group. Firms merely can supply workers oiiU n rfrf dates for future engineering changes. Thus the proposal fails to recognize "the emergency nature of worker exposure to a carcinogen." Capital spending heavy all year The surge in the chemical indus try's outlays for new plant and equipment is likely to be running strong right through the end of the year. The most recent Department of Commerce survey of capital ex penditure plans (made in January and February) indicates chemical companies expect to be spending at a record annual rate of $5.5 billion during the last half of 1974, up from $5.1 billion in the second quarter, $5.0 billion in the current quarter, and S4.8 billion in 1973's last half. At year-end 1973, the in dustry had projects already under way that would cost it S5 billion to complete. A similar pattern of continued increases in capital spending this year shows up in most other seg ments of industry, suggesting that competition for engineering and construction manpower ana ior equipment will be even heavier than now Inter in the year. For all Capital outlays will rise in chemical process industries 1973 $ Billions, seasonally Full adjusted annual rates yaar 1*74 First Second half half Chemicals $4.46 Petroleum 5.45 Rubber 1.56 Paper 1.86 Food and beverages 3.11 Stone, clay, and glass 1.49 Nonferrous metals 1.67 Iron and steel 1.38 All manufacturing 38.01 Afl industries 99.74 $5.08 6.77 1.53 2.26 3.38 1.31 2.03 1.74 43.60 108.57 $5.52 7.49 1.80 2.70 3.77 1.63 2.21 1.83 46.87 116.43 Source: Department of Commerce of 1974, chemical companies plan to spend $5.3 billion, slightly more than they were planning late last year and up 19% from last year's $4.5 billion. As much as half that increase, however, probably will be accounted for by higher costs. Another indication from the Commerce survey of chemical exec utives' optimism shows up in their estimate that the industry's sales will rise 10.9% this year, compared with a gain of 16.7% last year and 9.8% in 1972. MVIV VM WI AEC weapons plant After 23 years of operating the Atomic Energy Commission's su persecret Rocky Flats, Colo., nucle ar weapons facility, Dow Chemical has told AEC that the company wants out--and will not submit a proposal for a contract to continue operating the facility. Neither Dow nor AEC is elabo rating on why Dow is opting out. Earle B. Barnes, president of Dow Chemical USA, said in a press statement only that "Dow is in agreement with AEC's position that the contract should be opened up for proposals from other com panies.' AEC has said nothing, officially. However, the facility, located about 16 miles from downtown Denver, has had labor problems in recent years. It experienced a $40 million fire in 1969. And on Feb. 13 of this year, AEC issued a press release stating that the agency "is soliciting expressions of interest" from firms interested in operating the facility beginning July 1, 1975. Dow was invited to submit a pro posal, AEC said, but would get "no advantage" for having operated the piani. in tne past tne contract naa been renewed with Dow--without competition--at three- to five-year intervals. Further, Dow had oper ated the plant since its inception in 1951 when the company participat ed in the selection of the site and design of the facility. Early this month, AEC held an unclassified briefing for firms inter ested in seeking the contract. Com panies sending representatives to the briefing included Monsanto Re search, Boeing, LTV Aerospace, Avco, Pan American World Air ways, Eagle-Picher Industries, Bendix, Hercules, Rockwell Interna tional, and Exxon Nuclear. AEC described Rocky Flats as a production facility in the AEC weapons complex, which works with plutonium, beryllium, and other materials. Production activi ties for nuclear weapons include component and hardware fabrica tion and assembly, process develop ment, R&D, and various chemical recovery operations including re covery of scrap plutonium generat ed in the fabrication of nuclear weapons components. AEC estimates that the annual cost of all plant activities required under the operating contract is about $70 million. In fiscal 1974 the plant has a payroll of $37.5 million with 1600 hourly and 1300 salaried employees. Average age of plant omnlAvooe ic 4*} iroorc until 1 1 jCeirS a_c__i__v_:il~~c. %~jo v. & ua--n.ca that most of the present 2900 employees are expected to remain at Rocky Flats. Nobelist Sutherland dead Dr. Earl W. Sutherland, Jr., who received the Nobel Prize tor Physiology or Medicine in 1971 for his discovery of cy clic AMP and studies on the mechanisms ot action of hor mones, died last week in Miami, Fla. Dr. Suther land, 58, was professor of biochemis try at the University of Miami, and previously held positions at Washing ton University (St. Louis), Case West ern Reserve University, and Vanderbilt University. He had been an American Chemical Society member since 1955. Dr. Sutherland discovered cyclic AMP (3',5'-adenosine monophos phate) in 1957. Subsequently, he elu cidated the nucleotides fundamental role in mediating hormone action and regulating cell activities, and proposed a unifying concept for the molecular basis of hormone action--already ver ified for a number of hormones The rnnrAnt invnlvps rvclin AMP as a "second messenger," with hormones as "first messengers." BFG23731 March 18. 1974 C&EN 5 23063002 t "It