Document e127dpK3eJDjbgpekERDVbOm4

) MONSANTO COMPANY Texas City, Texas ' Date : January 25, 1967 1' ) ~" To : W, C. Puller Subject: Monthly Production Summary VCM Plant January, 1967 VCM was 13.7 MM pounds (113.4$ of rated capacity and 102.2$ of schedule). Rates were limited primarily by demand. As of January 1, the rated capacity in VCM was increased from 138 MM lbs./year to 145 MM lbs./year. Quality control was excellent except for 3 days when 22D14 (VCM final purification column! flooded. 654 M lbs. of offspec VCM was made during this period. This material will be rerun as on-spec storage conditions permit. Department 23 EDC production was 13-7 MM lbs. (109*6$ of rated capacity, and 97.9$ of schedule). Plates were adjusted as required by Department 22 EDC requirements. Department 26 EDC production was 450 M pounds (l8$ of rated capacity, and 75$ of schedule). Department 26 was down 18 days due to not being needed to meet VCM demand. The safety meeting for the month was a review of Monsanto's "Safety Guide." In addition to the safety meetings, Mr. Hysmith explained the use of the Scott-Air-Pak to the VCM personnel. There was one injury during the month - a boilermaker got copper chloride catalyst dust in his eye while pressure testing 26RI (oxidative chlornation reactor) tube ferrules. Mr. R. L. Blackmon reported to"work as the area clerk for the VCM-VAM area. K. F. Webb "ay Rosenberg Jb CBY 1113341 f * RSV0032939 MONSANTO COMPANY_______________________________________ Texas City, Texas Date : January 3, 1967 To t W. C. Fuller Subject: VCM Plant Annual Summary - 1966 PRODUCTION: VCM set a yearly production record of 145.9 M pounds (106.6% of budgeted, 105.7% of rated__capacity, and 98.7% of schedule) break ing a past record of 137 M pounds set in 1963. Rates were limited by raw material availability for 10 months and mechanical failures. Two record production months were achieved during January and December due to acetylene availability, excellent on-stream time of all units, and good quality control. Department 23 EDC production was 165.3 M pounds (110.2% of rated capacity and 103.2% of schedule). Department 26 EDC production was 20.7 M pounds (83.3% of rated capacity and 86.2% of schedule). Research data became available in January that allowed the O2 concentration to be raised from 9% to 12.5%. Due to mis-setting of the safety trips which caused many O2 trip-outs and because of instrument and analyzer failures, the catalyst was poisoned early in the year. New catalyst was installed in August, and operations since then have been good. QUALITY: Quality control was good all year. There were no VCM tank cars returned from customers for rerunning due to being off-spec. Minor problems with allene and methyl acetylene were encountered each time the C2H2 purification hydration reactor was recharged (four times during the year). Minor problems were had with HC1 showing up in the VCM storage sphere after transferring. This is presumed to have been caused by cross-contamination in the vent system. car 1113342 RSV0032940 W. c. Fuller- -2- January 3, 1967 COST; VCM unit cost (corrected for variances from Departments 23 & 26) was 5.70 , vs. budget 5.413 fd/lb. This set a new record breaking past low of 5.91 fd/lb. set in 1962. The main contributors to the above budget cost were above standard cost of chlorine (estimated at $550,000), and high variance from Department 26 due to high catalyst usage, low yields, and low volume (estimated at $358,000). Repair costs were in fair control with yearly total being $20,000 above standard. SAFETY: Minor injuries increased in 1966 compared to 1965. There were a total of 40 injuries (1 major and 12 serious). There were no fires during the year. A minor Cl2 vapor spill occurred in September when putting the Cl2 system into operation after maintenance worlc had been done. PROFIT IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS Project Title 1966 Actual $ SAVINGS 1966 Goal Annual Potential Increase VCM production Increase EDC production Reduce VCM cost EDC cracker gravitometer Reduce 22R3 downtime Reduce VCM maintenance^. cost $ 72,000 31,000 513,800 16.000 7,200 -0- $ 48,600 122,000 815,600 60,000 7,200 40,000 $ 72,000 119,000 1,026,000 60,000 7,200 53,334 Total $640,000 $1,093,400 $1,337,534 K.J. fat* K. F. Webb `i> CBY 1113343 RSV0032941