Document NGD9n1QOYK71oqMxL2LBZJXMw

Carbide to try new 1 N fracking reactor\ St 169th ACS NATIONAL MEETING Within the next three years, Union Carbide will build a 25,000 ton-peryear ethylene production unit of a new design. Although the primary interest anil be ethylene production, the flexi bility of the new unit may be instru mental in resurrecting acetylene as a major component in petrochemistry. Key to the flexibility is a new cracking reactor design. At a Division of Petroleum Chemis try symposium on new approaches to fuels and chemicals by pyrolysis, Car bide's H. G. Davis noted that Carbide and the rest of the industry have found that conventional tube cracking fur naces don't offer much hope of higher Continued on page 40 ethylene yields in the future. When compared with some of the cracking furnaces built in the 1940's, many of today's tubular furnaces have no great er efficiency. Davis says that conven tional furnace development has been aimed at higher production and not necessarily at higher efficiency. But, if conventional tubular furnaces are wanting in efficiency, there are more efficient designs available, and Carbide plans to employ one of them at South Charleston, W.Va. It has been recognized for some time that operat ing hydrocarbon crackers at high sever ity and low residence times provides significant advantages for producers of ethylene and other related petrochemi cals. A number of companies, such as M. W. Kellogg Co., are testing several designs that employ very short resi dence times. Carbide has entered into a coopera tive arrangement with the Kureha and Chiyoda firms of Japan to begin design and construction of the advanced cracking reactors--the design that Car bide thinks is farthest along at present. The new reactors use steam as an inert cracking medium. As partial pressure in the reactors (the partial pressure of everything but the inert steam) in creases, yields of acetylene, butadiene, and hydrogen increase, while yields of methane, ethane, heavy liquids, and propylene fall. Similarly, decreasing the residence time at constant severity (essentially constant temperature) in creases acetylene and hydrogen pro duction. In the process employing the new re actors, preheated hydrocarbon- feed stock is injected as fine liquid droplets into a turbulent stream of superheated steam. Vaporization is almost instanta neous and mixing is extremely rapid. After a short residence time for pyroly sis to occur, product gases are quenched. The actual residence times range from a few milliseconds in the high-acetylene regime to as many as 50 milliseconds for products of more gen eral utility. With the advanced cracking reactors, acetylene becomes a much more im- i portant product than it is in conven tional cracking chemistry. It is impor tant enough to justify the revival of acetylene-based processes, says Davis, and he believes that a reversal of the present trend of declining interest in acetylene may be at hand. In any case, at Carbide, the designers now tend to think in terms of ethylene plus acety lene yields. The reactors being designed for Car bide have several attractions. They in clude flexibility in the choice of feed stock, improved efficiency, greater and controlled acetylene production, and extremely short residence times. The great savings in raw materials and the ability to optimize over a wide range of product mixes more than counterbal ance the increased investment and op erating costs, Davis points out. a Tenneco starts TENNECO Chemicals has brought its 250-million-lb/year polyvinyl chloride resin plant on stream at Pasadena, Tex. Special processing at the new plant, and changes made in the company's plants at Fiemington and Burlington, N.J., permit Tenneco to provide 12 PVC grades with a maximum monom er content of 10 ppm. This is a 98% reduction. "These resins will make it easier for fabricators to operate safely below the OSHA action level of 0.5 ppm or less vinyl chloride in work areas,'' Ray mond H. Marks, Tenneco Chemical's president, said. Tenneco's ultimate goal is commer cial production of PVC resins with no detectable amounts of monomer. A company spokesman estimated that 17-10 million was spent to bring the New Jersey plants up to the new standard. An estimated $3 million was added to the total cost of the Pasadena TENNECO Chemicals' new Pasadena, Tex., plant is the largest single-commodity, PVC resin plant in the U.S. It doubles the company's output. general-purpose VO CO The OSHA regulation fixing a 1 ppm time-weighted average is presenting a wnro AAot "f Ko**a la rjA utflV level by the April 1977 deadline, and respiratory protection will be neceseortf nt Inner nnrt nf the time. Marks ) * Recent (cancer deaths of three employees who worked in a polyvinyl chloride unit of B. F. " ' Goodrich Co. at Louisville, Ky., are being investigated by the company, to learn y if they were related to occupational causes. The three deaths, in September 1971 Jz, and March and December 1973, were due to cancer of the liver. Goodrich points "W out that the prevailing exposure levels to vinyl chloride and other hydrocarbons at its Louisville facility and other plants are already well below today's federal * 4. OSHA limits. ishemisU Group Halts ^e safety publication In 1972 following reports PVC, were produced last year. B. F. Goodrld by an Italian researcher that rats exposed to Is the largest maker, accounting for on estl Vinyl Chloride Safety very large doses of vlnyl-chlorlde vapors had mated 18% of U.S. production. developed malignant tumors of a kind that Isn't The Labor Department will hold hearing, Report as Doubts Arise W;' __________ found in man. At that time, the MCA report said that such an effect hadn't been observed in humans. beginning next Monday to examine the exten of worker exposure to vinyl chloride and to ex plore whether federal exposure standard: By m Wall STBtrT JOURNAL Staff Reporter WASHINGTON--The Manufacturing Chem ists Association, or MCA, has stopped circulatUic a safety publication dealing with vinyl ^chloride following reports' the chemical may voaslbly be associated with four fatal cases of \ rare form of liver cancer atnong workers who handled the material. i The action by the Industry trade group reMilted from an announcement last month by The association said It would issue a revised safety report on vinyl chloride after the ques tion raised by the B. F. Goodrich finding Is re solved. Meanwhile, an MCA-sponsored task force on vinyl chloride, consisting of 19 companies that make the chemical, are continuing to study health records of vinyl-chloride workers through the industry. Animal studies are also being conducted. The task force began its work should be tightened. A spokesman for the MCA, whose 174 U.S, member companies account for B7% of vinylchloride production, said an attempt wouldn't be made to recall the vinyl-chloride safety pub lication but that medical representatives of all member companies and "various technical committees" have been alerted to the possible link between the chemical and human cancer. P..F. Goodrich Co. that it was investigating following the Italian report but has accelerated the cancer deaths of three workers at its Louis Its study since Goodrich raised suspicions ville, Ky., polyvinyl-chloride plant, A spokes about the chemical, a spokesman for one of the man said yesterday the company had con companies said. firmed -a fourth worker at the plant had also A Goodrich spokesman said the MCA task- dted of the same form of liver cancer. force study on worker health records might be .The association had revised its vlnyl-chlor- ready for presentation to the association "by the end of the month." The animal studies, he said, would take longer. Almost all the vinyl chloride produced In the U.S. is used to make polyvinyl chloride, a plas tic used in myriad products. Some flyji billion pounds of polyvinyl chloride, also known as TEN 2612 FPCto Reconsider ^ Southern Naturals ti&ord Price for Gas ' - _ , Wall sr"**T JOURNAL Staff Reporter J WmVHGTON - The Federal Power Com- mi^pD will reconsider Its Feb. 1 decision au- thqrmng Southern Natural Gas Co. to purchase nsgiral gas at a record price of 55 cents per thousand cubic feet. ^ commission said it unanimously de*4 hold hearings on the decision after being^petitioned by the American Public Gas "delation; Consumers Union of the U S Inc |4t^ubert H, Humphrey <D.. Minn.);'Rep' 3SSSrt"FI<U*and 0,6 Attorn;y Ge"` Wt!*------------ */*/?*. | Columbia Gas System ! Hints Stock Offering: : < ____ V/> , Bp a WALL STREET Journal Staff Reporter . 'WILMINGTON, r>gl --Columbia Gas Sys tem Inc, indicated plans to sell both., n^w and prpfattpii stock to hcln finance additional gas supplies, for which it plans to spend about S255 million this year. ^ The Utility said It will ask stockholders at the April 18 annual meeting to Increase au thorised common to 50 million shares from 39.5 million and authorized preferred to 10 million shares from 500,000. Currently, it million common shares outstanding putShasn't yet issued any preferred. ' Columbia Gas said, it will require about $175' million in new capital this year and, "at least for several years, the annual re quirements will be of even greater magni tude." Last year It spent about $175 million for new gas supplies, IV added. VCM--a possible |(* tJl cancer risk? the plastics industry was rocked by the nciws last week, that vinyl chloride mononer (VCM) has come under sudden scrutiny as a possible carcinogen. Id has stated that it is investigating the suspect death of one worker, although an extensive search of past employees' records has shown that no such risk has existed before. ICI em ploys around 400 people on VCM pro duction, and a total of 1 200 involved in.PVC manufacture. The UK's Factory Inspectorate is to visit the UK companies involved in VCM and PVC manufacture in the next few days ah3 discussions have already begun to deride what further action maj be required to protect workers. A / Combustion Engineering 3^5 Unit Wins Japan Contract STAMFORD, Conn. - Combustion Engln^cHnfr Tm- said its C-E^Lummus subsidl-' ary was awarded a contract valued at sev eral mTTUnn dollars mdesifn and jngtneer_A. -cKemical plant for Shin-Etsu Chemical In- dustry Co. of Japan. Combustion said the plant's main prod uct will be methvl-_chloride. used to make silicones. If will, produce 30,000 tons of chemicals a year and will be completed in late 1975 at Naoetsu, Japan. ^| McMoRan Plans to Sell Interest in Properties To Dow Chemical Co. --------------- fys/f\ By a WALL STREET Journal Staff Reporter DALLAS -- McMoRan Exploration C said it concluded an agreement to sell a 20 Interest in its domestic producing properti to Dow Chemical Co. for $5.8 million. Most of the properties are on the Tex I and Louisiana Gulf coasts. McMoRan said the sale would enable to reduce its bank debt "substantially," a provide additional working capital throu elimination of about 350,000 a month in : terest expense. The company added that the transaction would be accounted for reducing the oil and gas property account $8.7 million from $14.5 million,, there a! would be a reduction of depreciation, dep tion and amortization. McMoRan also said the agreement p vtdes it a continuing option for the next fi years to repurchase up to 50% of the wo. Ing interest to be acquired by Dow Chei cal. J, B. Rankin, president. Said he anti pates that the sale 'would have "a sign cant positive effect" on the company's ea ,ings for the fiscal year ending June 30. oaCf P$i DRILLING-PRODUCTION TWO producers have received a p< mit to sell gas from Offshore Loui ana for 350/Mcf, plus 3,50 more eve 3 years under a 20-year contract. The Federal Power Commission a proved the sale by Pennzoil Prodi ing Co. and Midwest Oil Corp. of 7f MMcfd to Sea Robin Pipeline fro Block 225, Ship Shoal area. In clea ing the sale at that price, FPC foui no evidence of collusion in fixing t! rate or that the parties engaged anticompetitive conduct which wou taint the rate. The FPC staff has asked for a n ing on whether the six working-i terest owners in Block 225 had e Nat " i nnaatteead cciompetition. `o - the 7.6^/gal. duty on posed for the construction of methanol plznU^SautiZThTM65 ht^ ***" pr' '7 W/e tej TEN 2613 5.Z3t Gqodrich Retiring )s Petroleum Buys (^Quston Natural Unit's S^eirtJoint Venture )$:$P)jOTpN--HNG Petrochemicals'Inc., a of Houston Natural Gas Corp., HflUipe Petroleum Co. purchased Us _|terest in a natural gas processing and j,ethj^u>%-manufacturing complex south of ^ot^taniHNG and'Phillips operated the corrjywu^as a joint venture. lf.nptex includes a natural-gas pro-. rcMsing'^>lant near Alvin, Texas, a liquid-. ' pipeline ' extending from Alvin to I Sweeny'.refinery near Old, Ocean, :i*nd ethylene-manufacturing * facfli- tribe refinery. Terms of the sale l ^e^i^closed.- . - ' r -:/""G>aid the Alvin processing plant will ,, iwtb process nipre than' 5O0t million ''cuhlij^lefit df gas.daily from the transmis- ^skartMIjiUea of Houston Pipe Une Co., anoth^K^pfton Natural Gas subsidiary. It sajd Hi^wton Pipe Une also will continue supgjytngithe fuel gas to the complex under *ated contract., ,' .i 2 y; Robert R. Herring, Houston He i's president, told analysts, tfere company; expects.- to announce (days.plans- to- builds an<Mdnclj ^ pipeline from the Cclorado-Wyo- er to, the Gulf' Coast.- rj lhe hoped' constructioh'`'wouid f'fall and'sald he' expects' It ViU b^ld the pipeline; AfUkdtrrhdn of Texas Eastern Transmission By a Wall Btkeet Jotknal Stall Reporter HOUSTON--Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. said B. D. Goodrich will retire as chairman Friday, though he will remain a director. It said the chairmanship will be left vacant. Mr Goodrich, 60 years old, joined the natural gas pipeline concern at its Inception in 1947 as chief engineer! He was named president and chief executive in January 1965 and became chairman in 1971. Last March, relinquished the duties of chief executive to George F,.Kirby, president. Firestone Says Death THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Thiindijr, April IS, 1974 Of Worker Seems Tied I reported among its employes. In January, B. F. Goodrich Co. said the To Polyvinyl Chloride death' of three workers at a plant In Louis ville. Ky., from angiosarcoma of the liver may be related to polyvinyl-chloride opera tions. Union Carbide Corp. and Goodyear By o Wall sneer Joi-knal Staff Reporter AKBON, Ohio--Firestone Tire A Rubber Co. said the 196B death of a worker at Us Pottstown, Pa., plastics plant "appears to Tire k Rubber Co. later reported other liv er-cancer deaths among their vinyl-chloride workers. t In March, the Labor Department's Occu have been related to angiosarcoma," a form pational Safety and Health Administration of liver cancer that is apparently associated issued an emergency temporary health with the use of vinyl chloride monomer in standard, which sharply cut the allowable production of polyvinyl chloride. exposure to the industrial chemical. The Firestone said this is the first such death measure took effect April 8. W.R. Grace will market about 90% of the output of its new, 1,200-tons/day Trinidad ammonia plant in the U.S, Reasons: U.S. fertilizer markets are ex pected to remain strong; the Trinidad venture has favorable economics, based on 40-50$/Mcf. gas with a moderate escalation clause over the 15-year life of the proposed contract; and tanker movement of ammonia to U.S. terminals is cheap. The plant, to be built in partnership with the Trinidad government, is expected to be completed by the end of *76, with capacity projected at 408,000 tons/year. It will be built by Fluor Corp. (Los Angeles). Grace says the cost, about $55 million, r ^i W$< -m n CeU) PllJ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technology newsletter March 27,1974 - CHEMICAL WEEK f 31 First application of Lummus Transcat technology will be for a 30,000tons/year chloromethane plant for Shinetsu Chemical Industry Co. in Naoetsu, Japan. The process, in which ethane is a starting material, was codeveloped by Lummus and Armstrong Cork (CW Technology Newsletter; Mar. 3, '71). Transcat jg csjl be used to produce a variety of chlorinated materials, including vinyl chlo ride monomer. Another plus: the developers say there are no by-product or waste disposal problems for users of the process. TEN 2614 32 V^v THE WA^ STREET^NAU TUeSdayJu^:V^---- ---------- ------------------------------------------ ?------------{" 1-1 y~~ ---3^"'' ffi -v^ DeSatingHealth^Jobsy """" lastics ilizp/to Thwart opi HandJmg Vinyl Chloride itv By Walter mossberg Si MU7 Rtporttr oj THZ '(.WASHINGTON - tl govern- atlons could cau^ the polyvinyl chloride powder or reslnrto release trapped quanti ties of raw vipju chloride gas. |mcnt moves closer adopting stringent icjoatrols over h; of the ubiquitous In- Last wee* the Society of Uie Plastics Ins group, asserted that suffi- ^duatrlal chemical vinyl chloride, anufac- ology doesn't exist to meet the Iti^pan who use It ape mobilizing standard and warned that much of |^ow that the controls would prove ^ylly fftrru^a H jlvThifrules would be utterly unworkable, ie vinyl and polyvinyl chloride Industry might have to close If the standard goes into effect. The society predicted that 1.6 million jjtbi companies say, and industry would lose jobs and "at least $65 billion" in sales and an,_ essential manufacturing material. In production could be lost. i consequence, they add, makers of plastic Ralph Harding Jr., president of the soci ?pipe, auto parts, phonograph records and ety, said that the proposed standard "is fmany more products would be driven to the technologically infeasible to achieve, even .'wall. And, they contend, thousands of jobs with the highly sophisticated methods of in- 'would vanish. plant control that have been developed by nils gloomy picture is likely to dominate the Industry over the years. If the proposed Labor. Department hearings, beginning i today, on planned standards for eliminating 'no-detectable-level' standard. Is adopted, the vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride * the exposure of plastlca-industry workers to resin producing industries will be forced to the chemical, which is suspected of causing | cancer! 11 ? Exposure to vinyl chloride, a gas, has close down immediately." The Labor and Health View been jinked by researchers to 19 cases of a A number of labor-union and occupation | rare liver cancer, angiosarcoma, among al-health experts are expected to dispute the jg Marker* handling it in the U.S. and other society's claim at the hearings, They con ^^wuntries; in 16 of these cases, death re- tend that it Is possible to meet the standard ^Hulted. In addition, angiosarcoma has re- without closing the Industry. ^HcenUy been blamed for the death of two But harsh predictions are contained in employes in plants handling polyvinyl many of the more than 125 letters from plas i chloride, the powdered derivative of vinyl- tics firms already on file with the Labor De ` gas that is fabricated into a wide partment. The letters, representing the writ fbt plastic products. (Two other deaths ers' formal "comments" on the planned frorn^angiosarcoma have been discovered rules, give an indication of the probable . .eroding people living in the vicinity of plants tone o( this week's hearings. Although most ' using polyvinyl chloride.) letters concede that some controls are April, the Labor Department's oc- needed on vinyl chloride, most contend that cqpaUonal safety and health administration the proposed measures would mean nothing a temporary emergency standard less than the collapse of their industry. limiting workers' exposure to vinyl-chloride Almost all the letters come from users of [ gas to GO parts per million in the air they polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, and not compa ; breathe, a sharp reduction from the pre- nies directly handling vinyl chloride itself or i.vioug limit of 500 parts. Now, the agency is those turning it Into PVC. In most cases, | proposing--and witnesses at this week's they explain that their suppliers of PVC ( hearings will debate--a standard cutting ex- have told them the standards will make It f poeure permanently to "no detectable" le- Impossible for them to continue producing jtvtl stall. the raw plastic. Urged to write to the gov ft t Although the plastics industry opposed ernment, the PVC users have done so, fore Ttbe emergency ruling, its voice has so far ; been weaker than that of organized labor { and various scientific groups, which back j the tough rules. casting their financial ruin. "Unless a reasonable approach U taken," wrote Prank Groeneveld Jr., presi dent of a plastic-pipe-extruding firm In Flor iDooiq for the Industry? ida, "it could mean the destruction of many E' Ai this week's hearings, however, the in small businesses such as. ours where we I dustry is expected to argue strongly that the have invested our life savings." "no-detectable" exposure plan would spell doatn for the several dozen plants that make 5 vlnyl chlorlde gas or turn It Into polyvinyl ' chloride powder or resin, and for most of | tile' hundreds of plants that turn polyvinyl | chloride into plastic products. R. J. Clayton, chairman of Louver Drape Inc., a California maker of PVC window blinds and folding doors, wrote that "37 years ago, at the depth of the depression, I started a one-man business which has grown today where we do approximately $7 million worth of business and employ over Tht standard would require that most in the production of vinyl chlor- 250 people." If the new rules are imposed, he said, "we'd be back to a one-man busi Tlde and polyvinyl chloride, which employs | an estimated 6,500 workers, be conducted in ness overnight," [cloaed-off, regulated areas where exposure lean be controlled by ventilation devices or . other methods. In addition, some operations let plants turning polyvinyl chloride into 'products, which are said to employ up to 700,000 worker*, would be subjected to siml- i lir SrliwMt enrlneerinr rules If those ooer- One firm, Custom Trim products Inc., which makes plastic trim for several big auto makers, warned that the new rules could cut off Its supply of PVC resins, end ing its production and causing it to risk law suits by Detroit for failure to fulfill supply contracts. The firm, an officer wrote, "would undoubtedly be forced Into bank ruptcy." Hubbard Apiaries, a beekeeping com pany in Onsted, Mich., wrote to declare that It couldn't remain in business if PVC sup plies were threatened because its honey is sold in PVC bottles and glass bottles are scarce as a result of a soda-ash shortage! In fact, many of the letters contended that PVC is already In short supply, highly versatile and absolutely necessary for a va riety of Important uses. Spokesmen for the record industry in sisted that the plastic is vital to its opera tions. MCA Records IncJ contended that if the standards forced PVC production to end, "our industry would be forced out of busi ness." j The National Association of Home Build ers said the standards jiould drive the rising costs of housing evep higher by forcing builders to abandon economical PVC hous ing components. It warned that such a de velopment could mean "sorely needed hous ing would be beyond the reach of an in creasingly large segment of the public." Norton Co.'s plastics and synthetics divi sion, which makes tubing for medical uses,, warned that if the new rules curbed supplies of PVC, desperately needed equipment used | in kidney dialysis and heart surgery might become unavailable. And Graniteville Co. of Granlteville, S.C., a maker of fire-retardant tents and tent material, called PVC "the most Important component" in its products. What's more, Arthur Culbertson, a Flor ida plastics executive, and Gerald Kessler, an officer of an Ohio plastics company, urged modification of the proposed stan dards on the grounds that they themselves had had long personal exposure to vinyl chloride without ill effects. Most of the letter writers acknowledged the need to protect workers from the possi bility of liver cancer. But they urged delay in Imposing such harsh restrictions, both to give scientists time for further research and to allow the businesses to phase in the new controls. But one writer took a decidedly less sym pathetic view of the dangers of death from vinyl chloride. Jameson Crane, of Crane Plastics Inc., in Columbus, Ohio, wrote, "We continue to be impressed with the com parison of the number Of deaths annually due to suicide prompted by loss of jobs, ver sus the 19 angiosarcoma deaths world-wide ; over 35 years of PVC production." i TEN 26l5 GheniaUoy,(iasiDeli^n^^ * T i Goodrich Unit Building ; b TORONTO; -it. Chemallo^ Minerals Ltd. iBaidtt has .been advised by the operator on tan 11,000-acre Fort Worth Basin gas field in Texas in which Chemalloy baa a 36% net instertatthat gas deliveries from 13 completed begin by mid*July. alloy said its share of production jKraque from the gas will exceed $100,000 a ipoQffj!.' Under 80% take or pay provisions of \ jpneylously reported contract with Coastal' BtatasGas Corp.'s Lo-Vaca Gathering Co. unit, in force since' May 27, the venture was credited with 250 million cubic feet of gas eight completed wells in June: Cur* rjfdly^ the basic price fpr the gas covered , mjil)r ,the contract, which is reviewed an* ^ jq cents 'a thousand cubic leet, AXES V` tasdstaddition to the 13 completed wells, the jqpOTator of the acreage, Sniedley Petroleum Reapurces Inc,; Fort Worth, will be drilling MkhddUlonal 45 well sites.,..................... "^fSiemalloy's net Interest In the Texas Md l1SFlM36%% wuithn Tloorraonnwtoj-buaosoeTMd C..h..e...s..t.e..r.v..i.l.le. fiMiXid.; an affiliate, holding a 4% inter- gfn^fvafely;' owned71Smedley Petroleum source^.a 40%' Interest; and the Texas iTpwher the'remalninjf 20%. ^ ' ': ' ^iu SVjUtjj >) a, \ '-'1 , at#- BTQNfSun Oil Co;, said tylVAg) | heads discovered apparent pom* \ natural gas shows in two. weU*. Cfshore'Texas. r H"""' 7 said the': group la conslderirigorder* ; dijll platform, "to develop the riewly ` reserves at the earliest possible ills are bn the 2,904-acre Block AHigh. Island area about .150 miles oTQaJveston. The group"acquired : '* the June IB, 1973, federal off- lease sale. It also acquired an tract,` Block A-S69, at A `federal last May '&,!,-'; 6'i a 31.25% .interes^'In^rtlyi; .^he'1 wells,-Other members 'of ,, are: ,?Anadarko Prodoption Co. lasternExpioratioh Co., which are Pannandle Eastpm- Pipe; each of!which, has a 15% Shamrock Corp.; 19%$; lyOjfcjJ ig' Cb.1;' a subsidiary1* bfr-LonlF "*"* ~ tiling k Expltr- idt * Q5|-:,po.; ,yi The U.S. Supreme Court sent back for , reconsideration a circuit court decision ^that prevented the Federal Power Cornemission from authorizing higher natural gas prices in the Texas GulfCoast area. Plant at Louisville Site j For Polyvinyl Chloride x / /> /& Bp a Wall srucr Joiknal Stall Reporter AKRON--B. F. Goodrich Chemical Co., a B.F. Goodrich Co. unit, said that it is build ing a new polyvinyl-chloride facility at its Louisville, Ky., chemical plant, but that the new plant won't meet proposed government vinyl chloride exposure level standards. The company said that workers in the new plant, which will supplement an older faculty, would be exposed to vinyl-chloride levels "lower than those currently existing in 'our five polyvinyl-chloride plants" but said that "the actual levels won't be known until the plant la in operation." The com pany said that the proposed Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard of "no detectable level" of vinyl chloride in work areas isn't "technically feasible." Goodrich declined to state the cost or size of the facility. The Louisville plant was the site at which It-was first discovered that there may be a connection between a cer tain type of cancer and vinyl chloride. -The company said that the plant was ex pected to begin production in mid-1975, and that work on the facility had already begun, Goodrich said that any further cutbacks in exposure levels, arising from the compa ny's research project on the problem, could take tq> to two years to implement, from the date ot the development. ' The statement cAme in testimony by a company official at .hearings in Washington j on the proposed government standard. 1 I //boating chemical plants being built Within the next 18 months or so, two unusual vessels will slip away from their moorings in western Europe and head for their destination half way around the world in Indonesia. Shortly after dropping anchor in the Strait of Makassar, separating the islands of Borneo and Celebes, chemical engi neers expect to bring into operation the world's first floating chemical plants. One of the ships will produce ammo nia at a designed daily rate of 1500 metric tons. The other will be capable of making 1700 metric tons daily of urea (C&EN, April 1, page 13). Shar ing the $150 million contract are Brus sels-based Coppee-Rust and IPI Con structors of Zug, Switzerland, which is responsible for overall management of the project. The Indonesian state-owned oil com pany, Pertamina, will use gas associ ated with the offshore oil wells near Texas Oil Buys Gas Field From Exxon for $7 Million DALLAS--Texas Oil k Gas Corp. said It purchased the Plckton natural gas field in Hopkins County, Texas, from Exxon USA for $7 million. Exxon USA Is the chief do mestic unit of Exxon Corp. Included in the acquisition are 16 produc ing gas wells, three producing oil wells, gathering lines and other related facilities .artf surface equipment. Gas from the field currently Is being sold to Lone Star Gas Co. under a contract that has seven years to run, Texas Oil k Gas said. ^'57/ Halt of Allocations On Residual Fuel IsProposed by FEA f vj-V ------- ' By a Wall STJU'CT Jqvshal staff Reporter WASHINGTON - Pursuing Us plan to begin a phaseout of the petroleum-allocation program, the Federal Energy Adminlstra1 Uon proposed a 90-day suspension of the al location rules covering residual fuel. I FEA Administrator John Sawhlll also i said that "deallocations" of other fuels, parj ticularly aviation fuels and propane, will be proposed "as soon as practicable." HowI ever, the agency will move more slowly in relaxing regulations on the two most impor tant petroleum products, gasolines and mid dle distillates such as home heating oil, and won't propose suspensions for them "until the latter part of the summer," Mr. Sawhlll suggested. About half the residual fuel used in this country is burned in the boilers of steam electric plants and most of the balance is used by industry, large apartment com plexes and institutions. During the Arab em bargo, demand foF the heavy fuel exceeded supply by about 700,000 barrels a day, but currently "supply and demand have come Into balance," the agency stated. The FEA projected adequate supplies of residual fuel "well into the fourth quarter." The suspension of allocation regulations would take effect Aug. 1 and a public hear ing on the proposal is scheduled July 22. Under federal fuel allocation law, the FEA also must submit such proposals to Con gress before making suspensions final. p73 6/7-7/ CofA/ TEN 2616 VCM scare keeps PVC( i tight supply the '' combined effects of the vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) cancer scare. Knapsack's recent plant explosion and wnhart ilooks to be a lengthy strike at Jflfersk Hydro are keeping PVC in very ssiupply in Europe, in contrast to "Easingg:markets for other major plastics. Throughout Europe, most VOM/ PVC facilities are operating at levels re duced by around 6-10 per cent as pro ducers seek to avoid a direct confrontation with unions and government bodies over the cancer issue. Oldei'-geueration plants are being kept under a particu larly tight rein and in West Germany there is already speculation that some .units may have to be prematurely closed whefe legislation on VCM levels in work ing atmospheres is announced. . The strike deadlock at Norsk Hydro has halted PVC production at the com pany's 60 000 ton/year Porsgimnn plant. Consumers in the UK, an established export market for the company's PVC, are&Jready feeling the pinch. ? 'r,The' Norsk Hydro' strike could be a Iong^pne; the margin between the pay clams, of the 4 500 employees and Norsk Hydro's offer is believed to be large.; The company will have to offer hi^h wages rates to new labour to con- struct its Rafnes petrochemicals complex and Mongstad refinery and existing company staff are determined not to be paid less than the newcomers. In Spain, 70 per cent of the country's VCM capacity has been out of action for six weeks after a strike at the Martorell plant at Vinidor, owned by Solvay and Reposa. Lost production at the plant, which produced 120 000 ton of VCM last year, is so far equal to 12 per cent of expected 1974 .production. With more than 600 companies in Spain dependent on PVC supplies, the Spanish government is expected to an nounce suspension of PVC and VCM import duties soon. But the biggest constraint on PVC production in coming months must inevitably be the effects of the cancer scare. The US debate on VOM levels in working atmospheres is being closely followed by European unions and the International Federation of Chemical and General Workers Unions (ICF) plans to call a world conference in Geneva later this year to study the issue. Despite production problems, PVC growth rates in Europe have now slowed to around 3-4 per cent and supply could still balance demand later this year. I'*?'?/ P ^Knapsack VCM/PVC complex hitff severe explosion and fire hit Knapp- sack's West German VCM/PVC com plex last Sunday afternoon, injuring three people. The explosion occurred in the separa tion unit at the 150 000 ton/year ethy lene dichloride (EDC) plant, causing damage estimated at well over DMlm. A brief official communique from Knapsack, a Hoechst subsidiary, claims that the plant is expected to be back in operation within one month. But West German consumers are not so sure and are bracing themselves for severe market shortages, expecting PVC production to be badly affected. ^ougher Vinyl Chloride Rules Are Goal Bywall as Labor Agency Ends Hearings `f:' BBvy aa 'Wall Street Journal $(// Reporter necessarily show how the technique could p. WASHINGTON--Labor Department ofti- be used in an industrial plant, or how ex pialsiaid they hope to Issue new, tougher pensive It would be to Install. Standards tor handling vinyl chloride by The Labor Department in April Issued a tjct^when the current, temporary stan- temporary standard cutting vinyl chloride dil^J/Wpires. exposure to 50 parts per million in the air, if, department yesterday completed responding to evidence that exposure can htnerdeys of hearing on the proposed stan cause cancer. dard`barring exposing workers to any "de- Daniel P. Boyd, director of the Office of amount of the chemical. The hear- Standards Development for the depart Jngiponsisted mainly ot plastics Industry ment's Occupational Safety and Health Ad teattindny asserting the proposed standard ministration, said the evidence at the hear wxouu<ld be Impossible to meet and would ings indicates a standard of 25 parts per ^taae down much of the Industry. million can be met "across the Industry:" PBBiut'the hearings ended on a surprising He said the actual standard would .be hoU'wben an official of Merck & Co.'s Cal- "somewhere between zero and 25." A "no 'tgoti Carp. described laboratory work show- detectable" level- would be about one part Jtag that vinyl chloride gas can be totally re- per million. ' 'iq^ved from air by filtering It through acti- "There Isn't any likelihood In my mind," IjitUiB'VaHusC which Calgon make*. It can he added, "that we're going to put the in later be recovered and reused. dustry out of business." f^Ckarkvar/ othar Industry officials at the Forty-four groups of witnesses from in hearings tnristed that the findings didn't dustry and labor appeared at the hearing!. i-ii- Building safer PVC unit B.F. Goodrich demonstrated last week that it apparently doesn't expect the La bor Dept's. Occupational Safety and Health Administration to promulgate its proposed "no detectable level" standard for worker exposure to vinyl chloride monomer (CW, June 26, p. 14), While testifying at OSHA's VCM hear ings in Washington last week, Goodrich Vice-President of Manufacturing John L. Nelson said the company has begun con struction of a polyvinyl chloride plant in Louisville, Ky. The plant, to go into pro duction in mid-1975, will significantly re duce VCM exposure, Nelson stated, but still will not be capable of reaching the proposed no-detectable-level standard (see alsop. 30). The new plant will incorporate Good rich's latest PVC technology and will have several features that will result in a reduction in VCM exposure, according to Nelson. Polymer reactors to be installed in the plant will be larger than those in the com pany's five other PVC installations. Goodrich contends that the larger reac tors will have about 87% fewer VCM leak sources than those now in use. Other safety factors, according to Goodrich: greater use of computer controls and the fact that the plant will be an "outdoor" operation. The Louisville plant will be located on the property where the company now op erates a PVC plant, which was built in 1937, a Goodrich spokesman relates. He adds, however, that the new installation is meant to supplement, not replace, the old plant. Raytheon Unit Gets Order to Build Plant _ p 2* MU ------ t------ By a Wall street journal Stall Reporter LEXINGTON, Mass.-Raytheon Co. said Its Badger Co. subsidiary received a multi- million dollar contract to build a I lene plant for .Amoco. Chemicals Corp., a SJSsidiaiy of Standard Oil Co. (Indiana.) . The plant, to be built In Texas City.. Texas, Is scheduled for completion in 1976 and will produce more than 100 million pounds of the chemical yearly. Metaxylene Is used to produce an acid used In making resins that hold glass fiber together, a Ray theon spokesman said. TEN 2617 mi&'Ptisiics Unit l *W sirs*#T in; i Goodyear, Borden ^jedfor $284 Million rJ*'-'jr<Resins Plant W*` 7 K\r' Over Polyvinyl Chloride Meat Wraps - :J| i ^______ ______ ______________ / ^ . 't Ohio"Firestone Tire A Rubber Its Plastics division Is building a 1 chloride realna plant adjacent to production facility for the mateyville, Md. . , facility, acheduled for mld-1975 -will add about 60 million pounda ..to the capacity of the plant com* sna previous expansion of the corncompleted in 1972, Firestone esti- capacity at 400 million didn't disclose |^c(Jbe eaiRpni expansion.j 7 By Wall Strkkt Journal Staff Reporter CLEVELAND -- A class-action suit against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Boiden Inc. asking *284 million In damages resulting, from supermarket use of polyvinyl chloride meat wrap was filed In Cuyahoga Opw>ty> common pleas court here. The complaint was brought by Florine Schultz, a former meat wrapper for Pick-nPay supermarkets, a Cleveland-based chain. If .asks ,tl yhilllon in damages for Mrs. Schultz drfnd at least 283 other meat wrappers employed at 71 Cleveland-area Pick-n-Pay stores, since the chain began using polyvinyl-chloride wrap In "l967. The suit charges that the meat wrappers "endured chronic exposure to dangerous, air contamination from thermal decomposition of polyvinyl-chloride films as it passed over an electric heat wire being used to cut said wrap for packaging," and that the exposure has caused respiratory, skeletal and cardiac injuries. The markets, the suit states, have used Prime wrap, a packaging film made by Goodyear, and Resinite, a Borden pro- Ammonia-unit duct. V, In Akron, a Goodyear spokesman said, "Although we haven't been presented with a copy of the complaint, we are prepared to corrosion cut | Goodyear Plans to Expand Resin Plant for $10 Million vigorously defend suits of this type." A Bor den official also indicated the company hadn't received a copy of the complaint, and arid public statements by Mrs. Schultz's at 1 CORROSION-resistant systems are re AKRON, Ohio--Goodyear Tire & Rubber torney that there Is a medically proved link ducing plant shutdown and increasing effective production capacity in Venezolana del Nitrogeno C.A.'s ammonia Co< said it plans to spend *10 million over tpp .next two years to significanUy expand production of polyester resin at its plant in Print Pleasant, W.Va. between use of the wraps and physical In jury are "without foundation." ! The federal government this spring Im posed strict regulations on exposure to vi- unitsat El Tablazo-Zulia, Venezuela,- C-ia Systems mitigate corrosion 14 th? critical carbon dioxide removal pice$sduring ammonia production. Knntfhits UCAR Amine Guard,:;the -!. Goodyear said the expansion Is In antici pation of continued market growth for po- lyegter resin, used in tire cord, textile fi bers, - monofilament products and other ****' p /$ g'-Z/'li ny|-chloride fumes In plants making PVC, a solid plastic with many Industrial and con sumer applications, after exposure to the gits was linked to liver cancer -among work ers at certain plants. The supermarket meat wraps are made from a PVC resin. | passivates steel in units1 > monoethanolamine is used to The suit alleges that "as a direct result of inhalation of the highly toxic films" from cutting the meat wrap, "plaintiffs have In was developed by Ww Cwl>ide Corp. Gne .fiiuthe two 900-metric-ton/day which has been in opsome time, was treated SiftuAmipe Guard in October 1973. Thfepepotid, a new unit, was treated in N.Y.l Homer Dunnmon, T Joseph SUtlnb and O. U.f curred extremely irritating damage to the akin, eye, nose, Slid throat along with short ness of breath, coughing and general respi ratory distress, which eventually leads to serious skeletal deterioraUon with perms- 1 nent cardiac and brainal injury." ' Mrs. Schultz's attorney cited a Univer sity of California at Los Angeles study re ported last November Unking fumes from Mardr.W^.'i'r,end 3A .elBi.snbUjj/iiu . PVC wrap to respiratory ailments. The attorney said that others exposed to PVC or vinyl-chloride fumes In use or man ufacture of other PVC products may later be added as plaintiffs in the suit. He also New Louisiana gas may go for $2/Mcf said other manufacturers of PVC products1 might be added as defendants, but indicated MTs. Schultz hasn't any interest in suing the A 'PRICE in excess of $2/Mcf may be to be more than 100 billion cu ft. Pick-n-Pay chain, a subsidiary of Cook United Inc. until 1972, and currently pri around the comer for new gas re Meanwhile, gas prices in old con vately owned. serves in southeast Louisiana. ' Ken G. Martin, president of Martin Exploration Corp., Metairie, says ne tracts for intrastate sale in South Louisiana also are being adjusted up ward. In Chicago, a spokesman for the Amal gamated* Meatcutters. and Butcher Work men of North America said the union has been, concerned for some time about possi gotiations with five municipalities and four chemical plants for new and un dedicated reserves probably will re Royalty owners in Lawson field in Acadia Parish say Cities Service Oil Co. has adjusted prices upward to ble dangers connected with wrappers and has discussed PVC products with several manufacturers. f Robert Vanderyort, an administrator for sult in a price of more than $2/Mcf. The company has 13.7 MMcfd of total deliverability from four proper 50.90/Mcf from 27for Sept. 1, 1973 through Dec. 31, 1973. And adjustments for gas sold since the National Institute for Occupational ' Saiety and Health, said .institute studies 1 have linked use of the film to minor upper respiratory ailments, but that a connection ties,'Martin says. Most of it is within Jan. 1 will move prices up to 94.ltf/ hasn't yet been established between the (d) miles of the west bank of the Mississippi between Donaldsville and New Orleans. He estimates reserves Mcf. Louisiana independents report another major company also has made voluntary adjustments. wrap and more serious respiratory injury or other major illnesses. * Mr. Vandervort also indicated that PVC represents only a small proportion of fumes' given off when the wrap is cut, and that f& THE OIL AND GAS JOURNAL -- AUGUST 12, 1974 TEN 2618 much at the gas U a plasticizer, DI-2-ethyl hexyl adipate. He said that studies haven't pinpointed what chemical causes injuries, but that "probably both" are deleterious. The Institute Is nrenarin* recommends- Agrico and Farmland Industrie . plan to build an ammonia plant in ^Klahoma. Capacity of the joint-venture operation will be 1,200 tons/day, with gas feedstock to be supplied by Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. Most likely location, ac cording to trade sources, is Enid, Okla., where Farmland started up a similar unit ^jn mid-July (CW, July 17, p. 42). Market newsletter W September 4,1974 - CHEMICAL WEEK tnneco has joined otHer producers in raising methanol prices. The comSny last week posted a Gulf Coast price of 32$/gal. and moved up the quote at Bgysns!major terminals to 37$/gal., effective Sept 1. Its highest tab is 42$/gal. at Pine IBfSnd, Minn. Tenneco also hiked formaldehyde tabs, to 3.5$/lb., f.o.b. Fords or * V "jafifld, NJ. More methanol capacity may be announced soon. Trade sources :' producers plan about 4,500 tons/day of new capacity. Robintech develops safe PVC profc&s robintech Ioc. of the USA has been notified by the US Patent Office that the patent on its Rocor IKC process for PVC manufacture will be granted within the next 90 days. The process is claimed to eliminate vinyl chloride monomer exposure of workers in the ^^duction facility, and therefore avoid ^Hliver cancer hazard which is cur rently plaguing PVC producers. The, IKC (In-Kettle Compound) pro cess iV used in existing Robintech PVC plants and a new 90 720 ton/year (200m, lb/year) joint venture facility with Shin-Etsu of Japan is currently being constructed at Freeport in Texas, and is expected to be on-stream this month. luaftbtdb ail... J.i Af&cheUnit Tests Gas Well atUBwjji-i'll. -< -i. . ; < , T/n j$A--Apexco Inc. said It successfully , wildcat as a natural gas. discovery (County,' N.Mi Apexco, which Is 68% ^y.,.Apache Coip., said the well ` a rate of 2.2 million cubic feet of , plus some oi)-llke condensate, ,on Ion test through a 14-64-inch open- lorationa were in the Morrow zone between 11,958 and 11,968 feet. '. i?5.Apexco said it owns- a 37.5% interest in "tfcarweU and is preparing to drill a wholly tWupff%U aoanadjoining 1,000-acre tract, ; QtfeppServiee'Cohaldslhe remaining inter- ' I discovery welli;.\i.o I,...- Mitchell Energy Completes Gas Discovery Well HOUSTON -rMitchell Energy & Develop ment Corp, said a subsidiary completed a natural gas discovery well in the Mesquite Bay of Aransas County near the south Texas coast. The well, on a 3,663-acre block, was com pleted In the upper Frio sand formation, i The company said it produced gas at the rate of 1.6 million cubic feet daily through a 1264-inch opening from perforations at depths of 9,472 to 9,488 feet. Another interval in the same formation tested gas at about the same rate, Mitchell Energy added. Other intervals in the well, which was j drilled to a total depth of 12,500 feet, also I may be productive, the company said. The company said the nearest production to the discovery is five miles to the north west. More drilling in the area is planned next spring, Mitchell Energy said, adding that it is negotiating to sell gas from the dis covery well. Mitchell Energy is operator and holds a 35% working interest in both the well and. the lease block. Other partners are Southern Union Production Co,, 71%-owned by South ern Union Gas Co., with 35%. and a unit of Qaf$ Oil tc Refining Corp. with 30%. fl Rif ' f-/7 `If TEN 2619 FPC limits operators' use of own gas to 20% THE Federal Power Commission will allow U.S. operators to use no more than 20% of new offshore gas produc tion in their onshore refineries or pet rochemical plants. This policy decision, whittling down the "Chandeleur incentive," came in a case involving three producers who sought to use 50% of their new off shore gas in plants onshore. It ap pears to set the pattern for FPC ac tion in similar cases pending before the commission (see story p. 50). FPC also will require producers to phase out burning of gas as boiler fuel shortly. The opinion was by Comm. Don S. Smith, joined by Chairman John N. Nassikas. Comm. William L. Springer issued a separate concurring state ment, but questioned whether any of the gas should go to the producer's facilities when consumers of the "highest priority*' are told that gas is not available. FPC authorized three interstate pipelines to transport the gas for the producers from offshore leases to on shore refineries and petrochemical plants. Sea Robin Pipeline Co. and United Gas Pipe Line Co. were cleared to transport gas from offshore leases of Exxon Corp. to the producer's refin ery and chemical plant at Baton Rouge. Tennessee Gas Pipe Line Co. was authorized to move gas for Continen tal Oil Co. and Cities Service Oil Co. to their Lake Charles, La., refineries and chemical facilities. Sea Robin and United will deliver in addition 5 MMcfd of gas to Exxon's account at oil-field points in Louisiana and Mississippi for use in well injec tion and oil treatment. The balance of the gas must be sold to the interstate pipelines. FPC reported the three producers' daily refinery and chemical-plant re quirements for gas in existing facil ities total 612,400,000 cu ft, including byproduct gas. Conversion to oil at these plants would cost Exxon $79.9 million, Cities $10 million, and Con tinental $3-$3.5 million, the commis sion estimated. These figures exclude lost production time, increased oper ating expenses, air pollution, and de creased thermal efficiency. FPC sharply revised the doctrine laid down in 1970 in the Chandeleur Pipe Line Co. case, allowing the Cal ifornia Co. to ship 100% of production from certain offshore leases to an af filiated refinery at Pascagoula,. Miss. FPC then decided that the possibil ity for use in its own facilities would provide incentive for producers to ex plore for additional gas to avoid use of more costly alternate fuels. This incentive, FPC suggested then, could outweigh a possible superior use of the gas. The latest decision trims this in centive markedly. Vinyl chloride monomer price going up at PPG &t/ fJt! 6-WS ; the price of vin; * , ~~T\rj * JU*lt 1 uu spot saies and by July 1 c contract sales. Current industryquote on VCM is 1(M2.5C/11\ THE OIL AND GAS JOURNAL--APRIL 28, 197S 1 'off the PVC: eco guarantees' pm. maximum residual . Maximum vinyl chloride monomer content of 10 ppm. on all homopoly' mers, dispersion-grade and blending resins has been guaranteed by Tenneco Chemicals. Use of these resins by fabricators means that VCM exposures in work areas will be. below the Occupational Safety and Health Adminis tration's action level of 0.5 ppm., according to the company's president, Raymond Marks. The same cannot yet be said for Tenneco's copolymers. Key: proprietary kettle cleansing and monomer evacuation techniques Ten neco has developed in conjunction with startup of its new, 250-millionlbs./year PVC resin plant in Pasadena, Tex., equippedjyith 35,000-gal. tanks developed by Shinetsu Chemical Industry (Tokyo). orgia- Pacific Says ifc*KliiU_\a.v.;A M1'- ,,'V- ,T ffiriyl Chloride. Level it Plant Meets Curbs A>V.. .. * * Company1 Claims Its Process Guts : Emission' of Gas,' a Linked to Liver Ailment fi\ - ' S.Z3-7S~ ,, C 3$ `111. -T*------" y. f' ^ m'! d W all STitcct Joi ukaI, stall Reporter iRTLAND, ' Ore. - Georgia-Pacific claim* that it haa solved vinyl chlor* illution problems at its new polyvinyl de plant in Flaquemine, La. riyl Chloride Is a gas used since World 01 to make polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, id plastic with wide industrial and conr application. Last year, the gas was with a rare and usually fatal form of Uvercancer, glosarooma. To protect work(*'> plants where the gas is produced, the qdfctipational Safety and Health Administrai tk^ ordered companies producing PVC to yinyl chloride levels in the air worker* jgggbe to a maximum of one part gas per jnSUon parts air in an eight-hour period. -Pacific said its new, highly com puterized production facility meets the reguWltirifc -The process here results in an un* dually low level of residual monomers norefltflte remaining, in PVC, thus reducing pol- problems' in fabricator plants where resins are reheated to make . . . vinyl lucts," T. Marshall Hahn, executive vice fdent, said. customers for the PVC resin ini manufacturers of PVC pipe and fit<tfng*l electrical conduit, electrical wire and similar products, the company Silant Is expected to run at Its capac ity < jiO.OOO tons annually by the end of the iJ*a*fc<5*>orgia-Paclflc said. ^ "* ..........; (ifimlcallJriit toBuild. PlantsinLouisiana^^ SfijfrLAND,' Mich! - Dow Chemical' Co. .Jdlts Dow Chemical U.S.A. division plans j&buiid two plants at its Plaquemlne, La., fKiUty to produce petrochemical products. company declined .to give the cost of project, due to be completed in 1978. The pjapttwffl make alkanolamines and glycol A joint wildcat some 100 miles south of Port Arthur, Tex., has scored another gas discovery in the Gulf of Mexico Pleistocene trend. The lease line well establishes gas pay under two tracts--High Island A-270, owned pr Tenneco Oil Co. 45%, Chevron Oil -0. 45%, and Samedan Offshore Corp. 10%; and High Island A-269, a 100% Shell Oil Co. block. Tenneco drilled the 1 OCS-G-2724 to 8,848 ft A-270 in ap proximately 160 ft of water. Test re sults were not revealed, f* ^ $~fZ% PPG V inyl Chloride Monomer Will Cost i. l\Cent a Pound More /f ) By a Wall Stuct Jousnal Stall Reporter .PITTSBURGH-PPG Industries Inc. said it `is raising prices on vinyl chloride mon omer one cent a pound. '.'.The new prices are effective Sunday on spot sales and July 1 on contract sales, PPG said. iVinyl chloride monomer currently sells on long-term contracts in the range of 10 cents to 12% cents a pound. PPG attributed the increase to "continually increasing cost pressures." t Vinyl chloride monomer is the key sub stance in making the nearly 5.S billion 'pounds of polyvinyl chloride plastic used an nually in the U.S. One of the most widely used of plastics, it is used in plastic pipe, floor tiles, home siding, furniture covers, wire coatings, phonograph records and hundreds of other products. | Presumably, one of the upward pres sures on costs of making vinyl chloride monomer is the recent order of federal oc cupational health.author!ties for Industry to drastically reduce worker exposure to vinyl chloride gas. Long-term exposure to the gas has been linked with a rare cancer of the liver. Plastic-industry officials have claimed that the cost of meeting the new standards would be so great as to be "economically unfeasible." The new standards, effective last April 1, were recently upheld by the Su preme Court. Coquina Oil Boosts Natural Gas Prices It Charge-s-----2----F----irmsIDU,/v By Wall Stmxt Jouinal Stall Reporter MIDLAND, Texas -- Coquina Oil Corp. said it renegotiated contracts to increase its price for natural gas produced from two fields. Coquina said it Increased to 81.80 a thou sand cubic feet from 81.30 the base price it charges Lo-Vaca Gathering Co., a unit of Coastal States Ges Corp., for natural gas from the Conger gas field in Sterling County, Texas. Coquina holds a 22% Interest - in that field. Including adjustments for heat ing value, the new price amounts to 82.02 a thousand cubic feet and is retroactive to May 1, the company said. Coquina also said it increased to 81.60 a thousand cubic feet from 80 cents the price it charges Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. for gas from the Ardmore gas field in Carter County, Okla. Coquina has a 16% interest in that field. The 81.60 price is retroactive to April 24, Coquina said. In addition. Coquina said that because of the volume-of production from the two j fields, which it declined to state, its man- i agement believe* the price Increases will "significantly increase" future earnings, be ginning in this year's third quarter. Shortages of Gas lnWinter Are Seen By Pipeline Firms , ^O --------------- By a Wall 8TREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter WASHINGTON -- Interstate natural-gas pipeline companies are predicting shortages of up to 2.9 trillion cubic feet of gas next winter, according to the Federal Power Commission. This would be 45% greater than the cur tailment during the 12 months ended March 31, which the FPC said totaled two trillion feet of natural gas. The FPC also reported that natural-gas reserves committed to interstate pipeline companies fell 14 trillion cubic feet last year, the seventh consecutive year to show a decline. A House Commerce subcommittee opens hearings today to investigate natural-gas supplies and curtailments to see if the short age is, in the words of one subcommittee staffer, "fact or fiction." The study by the FPC's Bureau of Natu ral Gas shows projected curtailments in nat ural-gas deliveries next winter by 29 of 48 major interstate pipeline companies. The states expected to be hardest hit by curtail ments, according to the FPC study, are Del aware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. "This study just confirms what we've been warning for months: There's a bad shortage coming this winter," said an FPC | spokesman, Diamond Shamrock Plans f 6> Polypropylene Resin Plan^. CLEVELAND -- Diamond ^Shamrock Corp. said it plans to build a polypropylene resin plant adjacent to an existing facility near Houston at treost ot more than 860 mil lion. The company said the new plants *vhi`eh is slated for completion in late 1977, will have an annual capacity of 240 million pounds, increasing the company's capacity for the resin to 400 million pounds, a year. Polypropylene resins are used in* making carpeting, film, containers, medical prod ucts such ss syringes and other products. Diamond Shamrock is a diversified chemicals and petroleum producer. Co noco Chemicals is shifting headquarters to Houston from Saddle Brook, N.J., ef fective Aug. 1, mainly to gain better ac- . cess to feedstock supplies.(fj.U */'/ 7 -"P TEN 2621 C environment PVC plants are ready to pass first test /irij^hloride monomer emissions have been cut to less than 25 ppm. to meet OSHA standard. Most producers are working on additional improvements needed for 1976 Manufacturing methods for limiting xposure to vinyl chloride monomer are bout to meet their first test. Last month be standard limiting VCM exposure to 5 ppm. went into effect and an inspecion program directive was issued to re* jonal offices by the Occupational Safety nd Health Administration. Indications are that plants should pass ospections with relative ease. But they ppear to be only the warmup for sterner :sts in the future. Unless the Supreme :ourt intervenes, a 1-ppm. exposure limit dll become the standard in April 1976. he high court has already refused to dety standards and is not likely to hear furter arguments against a Court of Apeals decision upholding the standards ZW, Feb. 12,p. 12). In addition, the Environmental Protecon Agency by next month is expected to ropose standards limiting VCM emisons to the atmosphere. (EPA hasn't inicated what the standard might be, but inyJ^hpducers believe it may be 400 pnnBmd the Food and Drug Adminis- ation probably will adopt a limit of "no etectable level" for VCM migration for >odstuff-grade packaging. Meeting the Standard: For the motent, plants seem to be complying with ic present 25-ppm. exposure standard, or example, John Nelson, Goodrich hemical's vice-president for manufaciring, reports his company's plants are perating at about 6 ppm. or less on a me-weighted average. A Union Carbide >okesman says VCM exposure average about 5 ppm., although "the alarm ells still ring"--a warning to workers to m protective masks because the level ts reached 25 ppm. Daniel Boyd, director of OSHA's stanirds development office, says he senses l "air of optimism" among producers i compliance with the 1976 standard of ppm. However, the key question is: ow much use will have to be made of spirators? Respirator manufacturers tell Boyd at "business is lousy." And Robintech -estf^t Stewart McCambridge says a new joint-venture plant with panTShinetsu at Freeport, Tex., alady is meeting the standard without the ;e of respirators. On the other hand, Tenneco Chemicals President Raymond Marks says there is "no way" his company will be able to meet the standard without respirators, al though the same Shinetsu technology will be used at its 250-million-lbs./year plant at Pasadena, Tex. Says Hany Conners, general manager of Diamond Shamrock's plastics division: "No one will meet the 1-ppm. limit 100% of the time without respirators, despite what Robintech says." And whether some of the older plants with smaller reaction vessels can survive once the 1976 standards go into effect will depend on new production technology that most vinyl chloride producers are now attempting to develop. Optimists point to progress the indus- Photo; W*k--Htnry GrotUrwky MANUAL CLEANING of reactors has been reduced 90% by installation of new units. try has already made in stripping un reacted monomer from the polymer, in reaction vessel cleaning methods that re duce the number of manual cleanouts, and in development of larger vessels that appear to reduce emissions. Industry already has spent millions on development work and, according to the Society of the Plastics Industry, will be spending up to $200 million on addi tional process improvement techniques. Goodrich, for example, says it will spend $42 million during a three-year period to protect workers from VCM emissions. New Plants: One good indication of producer optimism is the expansion of polyvinyl chloride capacity that is under way. (Producers also seem to agree that new process units are probably more eas ily controlled for VCM emissions.) In ad dition to the new Shintech plant, new ca pacity includes Conoco Chemicals' expansion to 500 million lbs./year at its Aberdeen, Miss., plant; Borden's addi tion of over 200-million-lbs./year capac ity at its Illiopolis, 111., plant; Diamond Shamrock's 200 million lbs./year at Deer Park, Tex.; and Goodrich's new unit being built at Louisville, Ky. All this new capacity is not a fixed fig ure. "It depends on how much we can re duce residual VCM," says Ken Schurter, Conoco Chemicals business area man ager for PVC. For one thing, polymerization of VCM is a batch operation. Getting maximum monomer reaction and then removing re sidual VCM from the vessel takes a long time. With increased onstream capacity and a soft market, PVC producers are finding they have more time to strip VCM from the polymer. Whether they will be happy with the long batch times when the market picks up remains to be seen. But FDA's concern about residual VCM in food packaging will keep the pressure on producers. Residual Removed: Tenneco says max imum residual on all homopolymers, dis persion-grade and blending resins is 10 ppm. The company has achieved 98% VCM removal for 85% of the 30 polymer grades it makes, according to Vice-Presi dent Joseph Fath. Robintech also says its polymers are at 10 ppm. And Goodrich's Nelson says VCM residual has been re duced to 10 ppm. for 90% of the com pany's polymers. The catch is the remaining 10-20% of the polymers. Tenneco, for example, can't yet guarantee 10-ppm. residual VCM on copolymers, which is 22% of its business. It's much more difficult to remove un reacted VCM--which amount to 3% of the initial charge--from low-molecularweight resins. "To get a low stripping level on a general-purpose, dry-blend homopolymer may take half hour, but TEN 2622 May 7, 1975 CHEMICAL WEEK 49 environment with a copolymer it could take all day," pacity--by the end of the year. says one producer. Conoco has developed its own tech Reactor geometry that is favorable for nology for the four 20,000-gal. reactors agitation and heat exchange is not the installed at Aberdeen. Borden has built pst favorable for stripping because of 20,000-gal. vessels, using Monsanto tech Ke low ratio of free area to liquid vol nology, to supplement its less-than-8,000ume. Producers traditionally have relied gal. reactors at Uliopolis. And Diamond on a second vessel for stripping. They are Shamrock's new vessels at Deer Park are now using steam jets and vacuum pumps, large, although not as big as Shinetsu's. also are applying heat (live steam) to in Four 50,000-gal. reactors built by Huels crease the partial pressure of the VCM. at Marl, West Germany, are the largest "Stripping studies are the area with the that have been built so far. biggest potential payoff," says a Union These large reactors have fewer con Carbide manager. nections, thus fewer potential leaks. They Big Reactors: The use of large reaction also require less manual cleaning. Man vessels is said by some companies to be a ual entry for cleaning has been cut 90% major step forward in PVC technology. and only 25% of the personnel required Shinetsu has developed 35,000-gal. reac for older plants are needed for plant op tors and other manufacturers are pur eration, according to one company. suing large reactor technology to ease the But so far, use of large reactors seems VCM emission problem. to be limited to certain resins--generally At present, 30% of industry capacity is those used in the construction industry. said to be in reactors smaller than 2,500 Resins for electrical wiring, flooring or gaL and 70% of capacity in reactors records, which must have no nonporous smaller than 3,000 gal. But Tenneco "fish-eyes," cannot be made in these ves Chemicals' Marks calls this "yesterday's sels. technology" and predicts large reactors Cleanup: By automating processes, re (over 18,000 gal.) will produce some 1 ducing workforces and improving tank billion lbs./year--16-20% of industry ca cleaning methods, producers are cutting worker exposure to VCM. For example, Tenneco's Fath says no manual cleaning is required at its new Pasadena plant. Manual cleaning is said to be "in frequent" in Conoco's new reactors and as little as once every 12 batches on small reactors. Some proprietary cleaning methods also are available, but generally they in volve high pressure (up to 10,000 psi.) cleaning with water or solvent. Another area of development: socalled "clean wall" polymerization for mulations that might reduce agglomera tion on vessel walls. Shinetsu has come up with a variation of its own. It sprays the vessel walls with an unidentified ma terial to prevent the polymer from stick ing. "We're scratching like hell," says one industry spokesman. And the scratching appears to be paying off. "It's a learning curve," says SPI. Although one company spokesman says the curve is asymptotic between 5 ppm. and 1 ppm. of VCM. For the present, it appears respirators will be needed for many of the resins pro duced. But a way still may be found to make PVC plants emission free. TEN 2623