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PTA, IPA, PVC tergents and : worked with the >o we can view )bjectively and i ryou. t petrochemical : idle all the im- . rom the first ; ' the finishing j iergy Corporation^ ersey 07039. j WHEELERt October 5, 1983--Vol. 133, No. 14 engineering 92 Burning hazardous waste This month, seven years after the passage of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 80% of the hazardous wastes generated are ending up in landbased graveyards. But not much longer. Although many chemical companies see no long-term dangers in the practice, land interment is being regulated out--at federal and state levels--as a waste management option. The inevitable result: "The chemical industry is being pointed in the direction of incineration." cover: Robert T. Martinott viewpoint 3 Burning is getting better We don't need floors for prices letters 5 weekly price index 13 economic trends 18 Monthly leading indicator key changes 99 10 Round two of the shakeout in bulk resins "Companies that do not have vital interests at stake have got to go" 11 Aromatic tabs: edging up again Derivatives gradually ratchet upward in hopes of a benzene comeback 12 Demand spurs silicone makers to hike prices But nagging problems persist, including fierce market competition 13 Resurrection for aluminum And the need for 1 million tons of chemicals to sustain the recovery 14 What's before the high court Cases involving antitrust and "bubble" pollution may produce surprise: 16 Burford tells Congress her side Choosing to be a good "team player" even though she disagreed 17 wrap-up: Monsanto sells a business. Armstrong expands a rubber plant. Formulation chemicals for pesticides. A plastic jug for wines mmm 86 environment Workers' suits over dioxin pick up speed Former employees who processed 2,4,5-T are seeking their day in coun 90 finance In the '83 upturn, frugality persists Managers are keeping a firm hand on inventories and receivables 98 people An optimist heads Cominco American John Anderson sees a brighter future for the troubled subsidiary lOOenergy Why there's worry over the oil reserve At issue is the efficacy of the free market to handle a supply emergency Chemical Week, ISSN 0009-272X/83 (includ ing Chemical Specialties and Chemical Indus tries), is published weekly, except for one is sue in December, by McGraw-Hill, Inc. Subscription rates: U.S. and possessions, $35 per year; single copies, $5.00; Canada, CDN $47 per year; elsewhere, upon re quest. Executive, Editorial, Circulation and Advertis ing Offices: 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices; ID 102060. Postage paid at Montreal, P.Q., registration No. 9443. Title registered in U.S. Patent Office. Postmaster: Send form 3579 to Fullfiilment Manager, Chemical Week, P.O. Box 430, Hightstown, N..J. 08520. 9 business: Allied links up with a DNA-research firm. Great Lakes ups its stake in electronic chemicals. Methanol overcapacity in the cards 20 international: French chemical investment will rise. Convictions in the Seveso dioxin case. Sumitomo buys Dunlop's European operations 85 markets: Benzene production hits a new peak. Potash markets turn up sharply. Prices rise for polystyrene but plummet for caustic soda 96 technology: Polymeric paving in London. Eastman's gasifiers look good. Tackling manganese deposits. Getting ready for a water crisis 104 Washington: EPA proceeds with a ban on EDB. A setback for coal slurry pipelines. EPA's list of priorities. An uncertain future for gas supplies hazardous waste It's costly, eration as a means of getting rid permits for hazardous waste iiu* but it may be of their waste products. Last tors so far, it is processing anoth summer, Occidental Chemical be There's no breakdown by indust gan operating an incinerator at the applications that EPA has ret the best solution Niagara Falls, N.Y., to destroy or called in, but the odds are t chlorinated and fluorinated number of them came from chc wastes at the rate of 1.6 million companies. EPA estimates that 3`< This month, seven years after the pas gal/year. cinerators are now operating a sage of the Resource Conservation and Bofors Nobel is-installing a $20 mil tween 240 and 275 facilities arouiv Recovery Act (RCRA), which mandated lion system at its Muskegon, Mich., country. And according to Mort cradle-to-grave tracking of hazardous plant to dispose of benzene, toluene and Mullins, director of environmental wastes, 80% of those wastes are ending perchloroethylene, as well as 350 million neering for Monsanto and head o: up in land-based graveyards. A number lb of sludge and contaminated soil that Chemical Manufacturers Assn.'s s of chemical companies, which generate have accumulated on the company's 18- task force on RCRA, the chemical i; 61% of the hazardous wastes in the acre site during 20 years of operation. try operates about half of those U. S., see no long-term dangers in meth Also at Muskegon, BFC Chemicals is in ties. Mullins says, "We expect ods of disposing of hazardous wastes stalling an incinerator to destroy by more [incineration]." on land. Says Douglas Bass, associate products formed during the manufac A big reason for the increased corporate director of environmental af ture of agricultural chemicals. tion that incineration is drawing is fairs for Union Carbide: "We see land More applying. Indeed, firms from all latory. Amendments to RCRA tha filling as being perfectly acceptable and segments of industry are showing great now under consideration by the 1 reasonable." interest in incineration. The Environ and Senate would place severe re Nevertheless, a growing number of mental Protection Agency says that tions- on land disposal {CW, Jul, chemical companies are turning to incin while it has issued only four operating p. JO). And many states, including ____ fornia, New York,: How nine commercial disposers handled waste in 1982 nois and Maryland, promulgating re Management method Price tS/m.t.) Received (thousand'tn.t.) % Change from 1981 Jity Capacity (thousand m.t.) utilization tions on land dis that are stiffer 1 .indfill Drum Bulk Land treatment S110-240 cii: 5-24 , 1,990 IMliBiBMli 36.87D t 1,500 18.5 years1 22% those of the fc< government. Open-minded. As fills, deep wells similar methods a Inciunr.ilinn Relatively clean, high-Btu liquids Other organic liquids Solids, highly toxic liquids 395-791 119 79 ing regulated out tions for disposal *1 cording to Gordo Lenz, technical nm er for Chevron Cl cal, "the chemica dustry is being po Chemical treatment 661 10 Acids, alkalis 13-92 Cyanides, heavy metals, highly 66-791 toxic wastes 1,518 44 in the direction of i eratio Lenz obsefHHf that incineration quires a lot of en and that the costsHMH higher than those Resource recovery 66-264 133 60 421 32 other methods. Buafe** Deep-well injection Oily wastewaters Toxic rinse waters 13-32 132-264 ' 385 -19 999 39 adds, think thaiJfipl indusl ry is willinJpT" accept that," There are other Transportation 8-16c/mile 3,594 1 -- reasons for incinenfl^X| wastes, too. "WithaK I Lifetime at 1082 volumes. ^Somc cement kilns and light aggregate manufacturers pay for wastes. Source; Boo?, Allen Si Hamilton. teineration, a lot of hazardous waste ca converted into harin| nus waste imir "cessing anotlui lown by industi it EPA has rewi he odds are tin ame from clu'i umates that 33 v operating a(| facilities arouiuj i-ding to Mortoi environmental ito and head of urers Assn.'s s|( . the chemical ili half of those `We expect t| the increased n is drawing is s to RCRA tha ation by the 1 place severe re osal (CiV, Jill, tates, including aia, New York, ^ and Marylan mulgating re is on land dis t are stiffen se of the f ernment. sn-minded. As . deep wells | ilar methods a regulated out is for disposal, ling to Gordoi; iz, technical ni for Chevron C "the chemica try is being po lie direction of i* tion." Lenz obstf t incineration res a lot of ent* 1 that the costs her than those er methods. But Is, "I think that ustry is williiij ept that." 'here are other > sons for incinera1 stes, too. "With .-ration, a lot ol ardous waste cat verted into harm n SUSP Jcol, which says it incinerates 93-95% of its organic waste, opened a $13 million rotary kiln at its complex at Plaquemine, La,, in 1981. *j<Im, and the [resultant] volume mil," says William Sessa, spokesffb? (he California Air Resources ICAUB). Further, he says, "in > dunces, the heating value of the Miun can be used in the process." Station is also applicable to a hrange of organic materials, and p most important, it effects a Mml hazard reduction. Says *k Sessa: "You eliminate risks like #wider contamination." shock. Bofors Nobel found that ut( compelling. The company i choice between a $15 million Shture to install vaulted landfills hazardous waste or a $20 million fei'iit that included an incinerator. Hfgftijmny opted for the incinerator, p Craig Flanders, corporate presipccause if the company placed the iftl "in the land, the problem Mill be there. Future legislation prohibit the use of vaults," he "uiid you might have to clean it over again." ihe CMA figures indicate, a numchemical firms have already ac* ff incineration and, in fact, have fercd in developing technology. ? Chemical began experimenting asciiierating wastes in 1948. Now, James Karl, Dow's manager of ptfory affairs for solid waste, "we |r-.tie 93-95% of our organic waste." invest incinerator is a $13 million f kiln that began operating in 1981 f company's petrochemical complex b<|iiemine, La. The company also i liquid-waste incineration technoliiid lias licensed 18 units world* Is, incineration usually represents the most expensive method for disposal of waste materials. Actual costs depend on the type of material that is being burned. For instance, in August, Booz, Allen & Hamilton of Bethesda, Md., up dated its earlier surveys of nine large commercial hazardous waste manage ment facilities, and it found (table, p. 92) that the price those companies were charging in 1982 ranged from $5/ metric ton -for certain land treatments to $791/m.t. for chemical treatment of some wastes. Some cement kiln and Much' waste can be converted into harmless compounds, and what's left Is minimal light aggregate manufacturers were buying relatively clean, high-Btu waste products materials, and companies that were supplying those markets were get ting a credit of $13/m.t. of waste gener ated. But the cost range for incinerat ing solids and highly toxic liquids was $395-791/m.t. ` Ways to cut costs. Sometimes the sim ple cost figures can be misleading, how ever. BFC Chemicals, for example, had little choice at its Muskegon plant. The company's property is too sandy to build a landfill that would meet new, stringent standards established by the state. Robert L. Axtell, manufacturing vice-president, says the company per formed no detailed cost analysis; the cost of buying additional property7 sim ply would have been too high. So it chose to build an incinerator that will burn 10 gal of chlorinated hydrocarbons an hour at 4,000 F during a two-second cycle. It is also possible to reduce the costs by integrating incineration into a broad process scheme to accommodate wastes. Bofors Nobel, for instance, will use a multistage approach that, says Presi dent Flanders, "can destroy almost any thing known to man." The new unit will employ a biological carbon treatment to degrade nonhazardous materials. Hazardous wastes will go to a wet oxidation unit that handles materials that are too toxic for biologi cal treatment and too dilute for inciner ation. The toughest materials to handle, chlorinated solvents, will be pyrolized, and the organics that volatilize during the pyrolysis will be incinerated. In that manner, says Nobel's Flan ders, the burners will operate only long enough to destroy materials that cannot be treated by any other method. He es timates costs at l.lc/lb for biological carbon treatment; 1.6c/lb for wet oxida tion, 4c/Ib for pyrolysis; and 6c/lb for incineration. Getting approval. High capital and oper ating costs aside, getting a permit from EPA for an incinerator can be cumber some and expensive. The company must provide the agency with a detailed chemical analysis of the various materi als that it intends to burn. EPA deter mines the principal organic hazardous constituents (POHC) and demands a de struction and removal efficiency (DRE) of four 9s (99.99%) for each POHC. Then the incinerator operator must conduct test burns to establish that the unit meets the requirements. The test is used to define the conditions under which the incinerator will be permitted to operate. It's accompanied by gas chromatographic measurements, in com- October 5, 1983/Ctiemical Week 93 bination with other analyses, to deter However, the amendments that Con to burn within the allotted time, iipriate Techm mine the extent of waste destruction. gress is now considering would require cause the nozzle is the key, it must . "sed to clean u Such sophisticated measurements are such operators to notify EPA of what designed for the viscosity of a spwi - U soil that Sou not practical for routine operation. So and where they are burning. waste, but a number of designs Ims been accu: for record-keeping and enforcement The notification is expected to be re available. $f pass test bur purposes, the agency uses indirect mea quired within a year after President Liquid incinerators that are emplo; Ifsilorials. sures, such as air- and waste-feed rates Reagan signs the bill--as he is expected to destroy municipal waste normally Ulrogurd's proces and gas temperatures, to measure re to do. Then within two years of pas erate at about 1,500 F. However, ? mnee to oper moval efficiency. The idea is that as sage, EPA would have to issue regula ship incinerators and others that *s. It has bee) long as actual values of those parame tions, and among those would be a la to destroy halogenated wastes ope iales, a grouj ters remain within the limits prescribed beling requirement that the fuels at considerably higher temperatures.; a mobile unit during the test burn, the required DRE contain hazardous materials. its new installation in Niagara Falls, f/day is being will be achieved. Wastes burned at sea need to achieve instance, Hooker will run the inci rns-Roger for Great savings. But a new CMA study a DRE of only 99.9%. The rationale is tor at 2500-2700 F. Sfcolber new te suggests that such measurements could that the incinerator ships operate far Rotary kilns can accept a greater [employs a higl serve for the test burns. If that's so, it from population centers and that the riety of materials, ranging from s and destroys could mean considerable savings be sea and sea air provide a natural buff and sludges to liquids and gases, -`iilar bonds. . cause, says Eva Fromm, a Houston- ering action and eliminate the necessity are frequently the choice of che plasma torch, based senior chemical engineer for NUS, of scrubbing. But the special treatment companies for on-site incineration pger of applied an environmental consulting are employed by such co ilnghouse, is t firm, the permitting procedure, nies as Dow Chemical to the probl including test burns, can cost Eastman Kodak. m torch will be as much as $200,000 for a me The most important d Ife) solve the clc dium-size incinerator. characteristics for any in !1# efforts to cl Besides DREs, EPA has set ator, according to Monsari of New Yod other standards for incinera Mullins, are time, tempera eh out toxic n tors. Polychlorinated biphenyls and mixing. Mixing must p' in the moat (PCBs), the only materials that sufficient for the feed and limvli, supplied must be burned, have to be in to combine with oxygen, pjntion with cinerated to a DRE of six 9s. dence time must be adeq pawl, Ont). F Incinerators cannot emit more to keep the materials in than 180 mg of particulate matter/cu m of dry stack gas, a reduction from its earlier proposal of 270 mg/cu m. In combustion zone long en to vaporize and react. And temperature has to be enough to ensure com ling, unlike final; there's seepage 10 cinerators burning more than combustion. 0.5% chlorine must remove 99% Hot and fast. Speeding up in- destroyed of the hydrogen chloride from mixing and heating proce; IjijiiKhouse clair exhaust gases. Because the chlorine cannot be destroyed by incineration, Burning at sea: Chemical Waste Management has been operating Vufcanus l since 1972, mostly to serve Europe. the object of a number newer designs under dev ment. Thagard Research filial site in lc .if $l-2/gal. B pays, cheap HCl removal requires use of scrubbers. for ocean incinerators does not sit well ta Mesa, Calif.), for one, has a But that can actually improve the eco with companies that are committed to temperature fluid wall reactor, i bath method. nomics of incineration. Dow, for exam land-based incinerations. Louis F. Ceil- porous central cylinder, through W, an showing p ple, uses recovered HCl at Plaquemine tofanti, president of PPM, a Tucker, Ga., the waste passes, is ringed by an i; ilfopi d by Rod to neutralize other wastes. At other lo waste management firm, confesses to gas, which is surrounded by elect Ifsy Systems I cations, it recovers the material as sal being "upset" over the more lenient Radiant heat is transferred through fernis wastes ar able acid. Jerry Martin, environmental standards for the incinerator ships. refractory cylinder to the waste. !l of sodium oi manager at the Plaquemine complex, And the special exclusion may not The result, says Edwin Matovich;- f'W. advantage says that such considerations play a last. EPA's Lingle says, "As a practical inventor, is rapid heating to high ft* a uniform tc small role in justifying a new facility. matter, EPA will probably take the peratures and therefore small op fen :o that the However, scrubbing HCl from incinera same approach that it is taking for land- nity for incomplete combustion. He fed . ut at a lov tors and stack gases accounts for an based incineration." that the reactor handles inorganii fern: lly require! increasing amount, perhaps 4%, of total Two techniques. Existing incinerator well as organic wastes and that fed! is prehea U. S. production. know-how is relatively straightforward. probably the only technology that fedn that the Getting tough. Companies that inciner Current technology is based largely on chemically bind heavy metals so fed value of a ate wastes primarily for energy recov either incinerating liquids, much as an they do not leach out of the slag. N . U'i\t of combi ery do not have to meet the DRE of industrial boiler does, or in tumbling vich will not discuss costs except to .. jmrature. ' four 9s. But they could come under both liquid and solid wastes through ro that a unit is comparable in capital Id 1 uid scrubs more rigorous regulation. tary kilns. operating costs with a convent!! - k\\ oil has d EPA's Stephen A. Lingle, chief of the The incinerator ships will use state-of- high-temperature incinerator. i a -.t oy hexach technology branch in the hazardous and the-art liquid-burning technology; the The process, whose 4500 F range# officiencie industrial waste division of the Office rolling motion of the ship presents prob ceeds the 2600-3000 F of most row curding to of Waste Management, says that there lems for kilns. In burning liquids, mate kilns, has demonstrated its effect i dovelopmei are no plans to change, revise or review rial is pumped through a nozzle, where ness in treating PCB-contaminated dial a 200-lb the existing regulations in any way. it vaporizes into droplets small enough for the EPA and the California Officilt near comple OH f'homi/'Ql Woolf/fVlnhpr *5  allotted time, the key, it mu: ! Deosity of a sjii' ilier of designs opriate Technology. And it's being (wed to clean up a stockpile of PCB- soil that Southern California Edi tas been accumulating, but it first pass test burns on several classes i's that are emplu) terials. tl waste normall.v gard's process is scheduled to get )iiO F. However, ance to operate on a variety of ,hd others that li# s. It has been licensed by Vulcan lated wastes opci liates, a group of Miami investors, her temperatures | mobile unit that can process 50 in Niagara Fails, 'day is being built in Denver by vill run the incin<4(ns-Roger for delivery in January. fother new technology, a plasma accept a greater employs a high-temperature ionized ranging from solfiind destroys waste by breaking Is and gases. Titular bonds. A big advantage of - choice of cheml |>lasma torch, says Maury G. Fey, site incineration ;er of applied plasma systems for wed by such coir jnghouse, is that it can be trans- Dow Chemical to the problem site, Kodak. fie torch will be carried to Love Ca- isi important dw solve the cleanup problem there, sties for any inci efforts to clean up the site, the rding to Monsan1 of New York has used detergent re time, tempera! ,ch out toxic materials into a moat. tg. Mixing must ;e in the moat will be injected into for the feed and fi fprch, supplied by Westinghouse in e with oxygen. ration with Pyrolysis Systems must be adequiMd, Ont). Fey says the sludge :he materials m n zone long enoslffllng, unlike landfills, e and react. A f there's no fear ire has to be .0 ensure comps jepage 10 years later n. ast. Speeding up ffjbe destroyed in milliseconds, and id heating procesj janghouse claims that it can clean t of a number i .canal site in less than a year at a signs under devej |of $l-2/gal. But to be competitive, igard Research (0 Isays, cheap electricity must be :nr one, has a h| feble. 1 wall reactorJ fbath method. Molten salt reactors inder, through \4 fare showing promise. In a system is ringed by aii is Moped by Rockwell International's nmded by electrod |gy Systems Div., liquid, solid or nsferred through' wastes are fed into a molten to the waste. ' |'of sodium or calcium carbonate. Edwin Matovich,] |big advantage is that the bed pro heating to high t| | a uniform temperature for com- i efore small oppof Ion so that the incineration can be combustion. He sj ifed out at a lower temperature than handles inorganic jrmaliy required. In Rockwell's unit, astes and that it lath is preheated to 1,600-1,800 F. technology that { |kled that the waste feed has a eavy metals so tl ing value of at least 4,000 Btu/lb, nit of the slag. Mj jieat of combustion maintains the costs except to i [[temperature. The salt neutralizes oarable in capital t |lCl and scrubs the product gases, with a convents |ckwell has demonstrated that it ncinerator. destroy hexachlorobenzene with de- ose 4500 F range Ition efficiencies of better than six J0 F of most roll ^according to Seymour Sudar, the strated its effect! ct development manager. He re- t'B-contaminated i I that a 200-lb/hour demonstration K> California Office Its near completion, after which ad ditional test burns will be undertaken. Fluidized-bed combustion is also be ing adapted to hazardous waste inciner ation. Air that is forced up through a perforated plate maintains a turbulent bed of inert granules at a high tempera ture. The granules transfer heat direct ly to injected waste. And the bed itself acts as a scrubber for certain gases and particulates. Breakthroughs. A mobile unit based on the technique is under development by Energy, Inc. (Idaho Falls, Ida.), which expects to have it ready within a year. Eventually, the company expects to of fer turnkey systems. Larry Brooks, who is heading the market development effort for the company, claims the unit offers a potential capital cost advantage of 30% over other methods. Prospective operating costs are also lower because there are no bearings, seals or refrac tory to maintain. Even rotary kilns are the subject of innovation. A new design that was de veloped by Pedco (Cincinnati) employs principles learned in the granulation of fertilizer to achieve better mixing in the kiln. Pedco says its system ensures that all solids are carried to the top of the kiln and drop to the bottom twice during each revolution. "We think we can get a DRE of five 9s at temperatures of 1,500 1,600 F by the better contacting action," says Leland M. Reed, who has been de veloping the process for Pedco. He has been able to achieve such results while removing HCl by spinning the kiln at high speed and adding lime to the sys tem. So far, the results have been achieved only on a small scale, but in December, Rollins Environmental Ser vices, a major commercial waste treat ment firm, will further investigate the prospects in a pilot plant at its Bridge port, N. J., site. But while new technology may im prove costs and efficiencies, it will do little to help industry overcome a grow ing resistance on the part of citizens to have incinerators located in their area. SCA (Boston), a commercial waste man agement firm, for instance, is running into political turmoil over its $22 million incinerator in Chicago. The facility started up in January, but the company now wants to burn PCBs there. In test burns, it was able to demonstrate DREs of six-to-seven 9s, and EPA was prepared to approve it. But the approval is being held up be cause of a public outcry. Mary Montes, speaking for the neighborhood group opposing the project, objects to the fact that it is being placed among other waste disposal sites and says that it will turn that part of Chicago into a "large bin" for the refuse of other localities. Incinerator ships avoid the problem of finding locations for incinerators on land, but they have their own set of siting obstacles. The companies that want to operate the ships are facing hostile public reactions because of the need to store the hazardous wastes at port before they are burned at sea. Chemical Waste Management (Oak Brook, 111.) has been operating Vulcanus I since 1972, mostly to serve Europe. It has performed test burns of a variety of wastes, including PCBs. In January, Vulcanus II was launched and has per formed its first test burns. Although results of the tests are not official, pre liminary data indicate DREs that are well within EPA and international regu latory guidelines. But approval for a storage terminal will be determined by a public hearing in Brownsville, Tex., on a date that has not yet been set. At-Sea Incineration is also awaiting the outcome of New Jersey state pro ceedings. The company, a subsidiary of Tacoma Boatbuilding (Tacoma, Wash.) is building two incinerator ships sched- `lt will become apparent at some point that landfills are not the answer' uled to operate out of Port Newark, N. J. But it is far from certain that the company will win necessary approvals from the state. Chemical companies and others that build incinerators on site may find it easier to win approval, however. PPM's Centofanti feels that the public finds it easier for the community to relate to such installations in terms of protecting jobs. Won't go away. There may be also a growing acceptance of the need for in cineration. Nobody is suggesting it as a panacea, and more chemical treatment, process modifications and recycling will be important features of chemical waste management. But incineration seems destined to play a bigger role in treating certain wastes. Occidental's John F. Riordan, executive vice-president for Hooker In dustrial & Specialty Chemicals, calls in cineration a "key element" in Hooker's efforts to eliminate or reduce waste by products. And CARB's Sessa feels that industry will have to deal with a whole new set of economics because "at some point it will become apparent that land fills are not the answer." October 5, 1983/Chemical Week 95