THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK

Aerial view of Dow's Veazey Research Center , Freepor t , Tex., laboratory, chemical engineering depar tment , electrochemical shows sprawling one-story buildings which house the central engineering department, and agricultural research depar tment

D o w Chemical Dedicates V e a z e y Research Center

$2.6 miiiion research center named in honor of re­tired director who pioneered Dow magnesium process

y ^ o w Chemical officially dedicated its J "^ W. R. Veazey Research Center a t Freeport , Tex,, on Oct. 21 . Dr. Veazey, now retired, was a Dow director for 26 years; at one time he headed a develop­mental group which succeeded in produc­ing the first pound of magnesium metal ever made in the United States.

In its 65,000 square feet of floor space, the research center houses the Texas divi­sion's organic, chemical engineering, elec­trochemical engineering, and agricultural research, as well as analytical laboratory. Research administration offices, pa ten t office, l ibrary, shops, and stockrooms are included. Not all of the Texas division research people, however , will be stationed in these eight buildings.

Practically the entire research center is air-conditioned, t he same duct work being used for heating in the winter. Laboratory services include well water, river water , s team, vacuum, compressed air, distilled ( deionized ) 'water, and natural gas.

Of total floor area, over 5000 square feet were constructed of Dow oxychloride cement, and 29,000 square feet of vinyl tile. Dow oxychloride cement stucco, a development of Texas division's chemical engineering depar tment , covers 40,000 square feet of walls.

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INDUSTRY

Lobby of research center displays modern furnish­ings and unique mural. Alchemical symbols com­bined with modern nota­tions present simplified flow sheet of Texas divi­sion processes

C. M. Shigley ( le f t ) , director of technical re­search, and Ε. Β. Barnes, director of organic labo­ratory, in one of the modern offices

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THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK

Northern Paper Mills' evaporation plant is operated from this master control board. Feed starts through unit with 10% solids content and emerges with 6 5 % solids

Northern Paper Mills Completes Evaporation Plant

More than $ 2 million h a s been invested by Northern Paper Mills in an evaporation plant, additional boiler capacity, and aux­iliary equipment a t Green Bay, Wise. Through use of Rosenblad reversible flow, quadruple-effect evaporators, company ex­pects to attain a major reduction in its biological oxygen demand discharged to the Fox River.

Spent sulphite liquor is collected from the mill's four vertical digesters and pumped to a 10,000-gallon padding tank; fiber is removed in a rotary screen; and liquor then flows to a 100,000-gallon storage tank. From here i t will be pumped to the new evaporatiMg plant.

Principal units of this plant are five vapor bodies and four rising film plate type heaters with natural circulation. Liquor flows into the third effect, then successively to the fourth, first, and sec­ond effects. It starts through the evapora­tors with approximately 10% solids con­tent and emerges with 5 2 % solids. It is then passed through a plate type concen­trator with forced circulation to bring it up to 6 5 % solids content for atomizing with steam and burn ing with powdered coal in two boilers, recently converted for this use.

Entire evaporating plant is operated from a master panel board, which controls level and flows from each phase of the operation- Switching operation of entire unit is done simultaneously with hand controls. Evaporators are designed to handle a feed of 126,250 pounds hourly at i0<7, solids and 175° F . ; they produce a product oi 19,450 pounds hourly. The plant removes 106,800 pounds of water an hour by evaporation.

Greater Efficiency In Fuels Forecast

N E W YORK.-Motor fuels higher in oc­tane ratings than present fuels are forecast by Eger V. Murphree, head of Standard Development. They will be made possible through thermal reforming and catalytic reforming, processes which call for in­creased energy- consumption at plants, plus slightly more crude oil.

But production of more powerful gaso­lines does not mean depletion of our crude oil reserves, and in this connection Mr. Murphree took to task t h e President's Ma­terial Policy Commission's (Paley) report. Authors of the report's petroleum section were misinformed, he said, in their conclu­sion that much energy is lost in the drive for higher octane gasolines.

He compared increased refinery use of energy with "increased useful energy" ob­tained from hieher octane fuels; said this gain could b e estimated at 6 % from 1951 to 1956, and about 12*% by 1963. In years following, gain could h e as much as 259r as more efficient cars replace the old.

SOD's noted research engineer handed bouquets to auto and petroleum manu-

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factur<*rs for simultaneously boosting en­gine and fuel power. He said new re­filling techniques still in the lab stage will provide gasolines to meet quality needs in the t'uiiue. Mmphree 's talk was made before the Society of Automotive Engi­neer M .

Petroleum Progress Is Proceeding in Other Directions. B. Brewster Jennings, Socony-Vacuum president, told the annual Oil Progress Week luncheon that gains have been achieved in reducing product losses in handling, in better abnve-ground storage facilities, and also through mini­mizing flaring of petroleum gas.

Larger proportion of oil likewise is now recovered in the field. Some 40 years ago, oil men were lucky to get 20 to 25</c of the oil in a reservoir; today, it is 5 0 % or more, sometimes 85% of the. estimated underground reserves.

As to future oil supplies the speaker was pessimistic. Unless more oil imports are made available, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain present ratio of demand to supplies. To maintain it over the next 20 years without more im­ports, industry will have to find a billion barrels a year over our annual discoveries since the last war.

Commercial Solvents Increases Ammonia, Methanol Production

More than 70,000 tons of nitrogen-bear­ing ammonia and 15 million additional gallons of methanol will be produced yearly at new Sterlington, La., facilities of Commercial Solvents. These facilities, costing in excess of $20 million, will double CSC's production of both basic chemicals.

New ammonia plant is first of t h e chemi­cal industry's privately financed postwar nitrogen expansion programs to be com­pleted and in production; it will aid mate­

rially in helping to reach the national goal of a 709Î- increase in nitrogen production by 1956. Ammonia produced will be proc­essed into approximately 75,000 tons of ammonia nitrate fertilizer and 30,000 tons of nitrogen solutions, both for use in crop fertilization.

The Stengel process, which eliminates conventional prilling towers, coolers, and driers, is being used for the £rs t time in making ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The process is named for its inventor, Leonard A. Stengel, of Commercial Solvents' re­search division. It is housed in separate buildings th™*'1 miles from Sterlington.

Additional methanol facilities make Commercial Solvents one of the world's largest producers, with an annual output of 30 million gallons.

Approximately 50 million cubic feet of natural gas. principal raw material used in making these chemicals, will now be required each year. It will be drawn, company says, from Louisiana and Texas sources.

W . C. Foster Board Chairman New Porter International Co.

William C. Foster is board of directors chairman for the newly organized Porter International Co. Immediate objective of company is to supply free world countries with a year's supply of spare par t s on most items given in aid programs. Financing, where possible, will be on dollar basis between American concerns and foreign ones, with International performing com­missioned liaison. International will later seek to license Γ . S. patents abroad or foreign patents in the U. S., guarantee royalties, and. in general, promote spread of technical know-how in a businesslike way on both sides of the Atlantic.

Mr. Foster is the present director of

A N D E N G I N E E R I N G N E W S C H E M I C A L

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THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK

Polymer Corp . Completes Research Laboratory Polymer Corp. officially opened its new research labora tory at Sarnia, Ont. , on Sept. 29. $1.25 million building has 38,000 square feet of floor space with steel wall part i t ions, concrete floors, and acoustic tile ceilings; it conta ins first electron microscope in Sarnia. I n addit ion to laboratory facilities, bu i ld ing houses a modern research library

t h e Manufacturing Chemis ts Association a n d first full-time president in MCA his-"tory. Mr. Foster says he will not be with Internat ional in an executive capacity but w i l l continue as MCA president, a position w h i c h is his real center of interest. He says, with regard to International, he is merely another investor and board member» a s he is in other companies, and will act only in an advisory capaci ty to Interna­tional out of his diversified acquaintance wi th international business.

Other hoard members inc lude: Paul R. Porter , former deputy director of the Eco­nomic Cooperation Administration in Europe ; \V. John Kenney. former under­secretary of Navy; Col. George L. Arta-monoff, former president of Sears Inter­national; Maj. Gen. Fred Anderson, chair­man , Transit Van Corp., Dallas, Tex.; Ken-yon C. Bolton, son of Representative Frances P. Bolton (R.-Ohio) and president of Cleveland Airways; and Reed Vreeland, president of t h e International Bank of Washing ton . Of the directors, only PorteT a n d Artamonoff will devote full t ime to operat ion of company.

G O V E R N M E N T

ODM's Reactivation Order O n Mobilization "Packages"

Order VII-4, just issued, is designed to mainta in a high state of readiness for quick reactivation of those military pro­duct ion lines vital for defense. The Office of Defense Mobilization order states that product ion equipment anticipated for mobil ization needs will b e kept in effi­c ient operat ing condition as "packages" a t o r near the p lants which will operate them.

A package is the complete complement of tools and equipment necessary for pro­d u c i n g any specific item at a plant .

The order allows for government ware­hous ing only when it is impossible to store a t or near the plant. Government owned e q u i p m e n t will not be leased for non-defense purposes except in extraordinary cases. Where tools or .facilities are not wholly owned, arrangements will be made t o keep the "packages" as complete as possible. Existing government leases are riot affected.

F T C Claims Radioactive Fert i l izer Not a t Al l So

Garden Research Laboratories ' RX-15, a chemical fertilizer, d id not result from a tomic research and does not contain radioact ive ingredients, claims Federal T r a d e Commission. T h e false claims of t he Madison, N . J., company must stop, accord ing to an initial decision. The com­p a n y and its associated advertising agency, H u b e r I loge and Sons, Ν . Υ., must further s top claiming that scientists at the Atomic Ene rgy Commission, Rutgers University, or a n y other educational institution made pho tographs showing short t ime results of RX-15 . They must also cease claiming tha t the liquid fertilizer is more powerful in tha t it supplies 3 6 0 % more plant food 1000 times faster than other fertilizers, tha t it is cheaper, and that it is the only o n e which does not injure plants.

Columbium-Tantaium O r d e r Continues

Need for colurnbiurn and tantalum and steels containing these metals is forcing cont inuat ion of regulations on these metals. T h e Business and Defense Services Ad­

ministration has issued regulatory orde M-106 for eolumbium-tanta lum which i similar to the old National Production Au thority order M-80 which formerly con trolled these and allied metals.

Office of International Trade Changes Its Name

In line wi th the streamlining takin; place in the Depar tment of Commerce an< other Washington agencies, t h e Bureaa ο Foreign Commerce is replacing the Offic» of International Trade as a primary uni of the Commerce Depar tment . In addi tion to OIT's former duties, BFC is als< responsible for export control operations Working closely with Business and D e tense Services, BFC's emphasis will be foreign trade promotion, especially privât* foreign investment.

Director of BFC is former OIT direc tor Loring Κ. Ν lacy, who is responsible tc Assistant Secretary Samuel W . Anderson BFC has three major offices: Office of Ex port Supply, for export licensing, undej John C. Borton; Office of Economic Af fairs, for country information, unde: Robert E . Simpson ( ac t ing ) ; and Office of Intelligence and Services, for commer­cial intelligence and trade development under Ε mil E. Schnellbacher.

Certificates of Necessity Certificates of necessity for 54 new

facilities, amounting to $49,377,301 were issued by the Office of Defense Mobiliza­tion from Sept . 24 through Oct. 7. I i addition, 11 applications were denied Only three certificates of chemical inter­est were issued in this period. The largesi went to Atlantic Refining Co.. Atreco Tex.; petroleum refining; 6 5 % allowed or $2,587,470, 45Γ-Ϊ: allowed on $541,700 and 15rv allowed on $41,420. C a m ; Chemical Co., La Salle, 111., has been is­sued a hydrociuinone certificate for 60% allowed on $380,201 which h a d previously been denied. The last certificate went tc American Polymer Corp., Tewksbury Mass., for polyvinyl acetate; 5 0 % allowed on $358,760. Certificate grand total ii $28,187,492,000 for 18,160 facilities at ac average 6 0 % allowed.

T E C H N O L O G Y

Geobotany Points W a y to Uranium Prospecting

Geobotanical techniques in uraniuiE prospecting m a y save much t ime and ef­fort in digging for the precious material. Methods involved are based on observa­tions that certain plants grow more prolifi-cally near sources of selenium, and thai ash of trees rooted in ore deposits shows a relatively h igh uranium content.

This new w a y of prospecting has been tested b y Mrs . Helen Cannon of the Geological Survey in· the uranium-bearing

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