• MARKETS

ANHYDROUS AMMONIA. PLANTS, SEPTEMBER 1955

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Ô I N OPERATION JANUARY i, 1955

D COMPLETED OR SCHEDULED FOR COMPLETION DURING 1 9 5 5 . Δ SCHEDULED FOR COMPLETION AFTER JANUARY I , 1956.

pg^èr Chemical and Rubber Division,

V.. \\ Business and Defense Services Administration, Jk Department of Commerce

Ammonia: Industry Taking Less However, growing market is indicated in resins and pulp industries — anhydrous capacity, 4,07^2,000tons

A G R I C U L T U R A L uses for anhydrous am­monia continue to gain and to absorb its growing production, but its con­sumption for industrial chemical pur­poses has been falling off. Thus am­monia use in various fertilizers rose from 1,223,400 short tons on a nitrogen content basis in 1953 to 1,577,000 tons in 1954, while its industrial consump­tion in the same years fell from 595,100 tons to 517,500 tons.

The smaller industrial use of anhy­drous ammonia as such, or as nitric acid, cyanides, and the like, is due to decreased consumption in industrial ex­plosives, chemicals, and a number of miscellaneous products, according to a survey conducted by the Business and Defense Services Administration.

Increases have taken r>lace in the use of ammonia in other industrial fields but they have mot beexi sufficient to overcome the losses i n explosives, chemicals, dyes, intermediates, rubber processing, water- treatment, and house­hold cleaning coaaipoundls.

• More Ammonia for Resins. T w o industries which expanded their use of ammonia during: the period surveyed are synthetic resixis (incltxding lacquers), and pulp and ;paper. Resins based upon ammonia or nitric acid take in the ureas, melajmines, ^and nitrocellu­lose, and larger production of these ap­pears to be reflected b y a rise in am­monia use, from 47,300 "tons in 1953 to 61,400 tons in 1954 .

An expanding^ use for ammonia in

pulp and paper, says BDSA, arises pri­marily from the conversion of some pulp mills from a lime base to an am­monia base pulping process. It was reported early in 1954 that 12 mills in the United States and two in Canada were using the ammonia process at that time, while others were planning to convert.

The distribution of ammonia for pulp and paper is said to have increased 10% in 1954 over 1953. The rate of use in 1954 represents a 100% growth in a five-year period.

• Ore Processing· A substantial ad­vance took place in the distribution of anhydrous ammonia to plants for ore processing and metal treatment. Ni­trogenous chemicals based upon am­monia or nitric are used for a variety of applications in metallurgy. Among them are annealing, sintering, galvaniz­ing, nitriding, pickling of steel, also flo­tation methods for extracting various metals from their ores. The high rate of activity in this field points to further gains in ammonia use.

3 8 8 C&EN JAN. 2 3. 1956

NITROGEN—-Supply and Capacity by Type

Percentage Distribution Of Ammonia by Use

THOUSANDS OF SHORT TONS Ν

Ch«mlcati, n . · . * .

,T«xtil·*, Including Synthetic Flb«r«

Plostic* end Synthttic R*«lo*

!ndu»trlal Explotivt*

EXPORTS i n h v r t _

1953 1954

A small increase is reported in the demand for ammonia as a refrigerant, but the amount used for this purpose in 1954 was still only 10,000 tons. In­dustrial refrigeration at one time pro­vided the largest outlet for anhydrous ammonia.

Ammonia consumption of 14,200 tons (against 13,400 tons in 1953) is credited to petroleum processing, in­cluding catalysts. There are some in­dications, according to the study, that the quantities reported may have been underestimated for this activity. Some of the ammonia and its derivatives ul­timately going into petroleum catalysts may have been assigned to chemicals or to the miscellaneous use group.

• Chemical Demand. The largest single industrial classification of am­monia users, chemicals, n.e.s. (not else­where specified) consumed a total of 151,000 tons in 1953 and 132,300 tons in 1954. The group takes in sulfuric acid, nitric acid n.e.s., inorganics n.e.s., and organics n.e.s. The 12% drop in ammonia use, BDSA reports, resulted largely from a smaller figure for in­organic chemicals.

^Industrial Explosives. Those en­gaged in making the government survey on ammonia evidently ran into difficulty estimating ammonia required for ex­plosives. The decline from 1953 to 1954 is not quite as great as the 27% decrease in explosives consumption re­ported by the Bureau of Mines. The BDSA also found the nitrogen content higher, and one reason may be that the Bureau of Mines' estimates of nitrogen

content are based on an over-all average of various nitrogenous ingredients of explosives.

The average apparently has not taken into account the recent trend toward increased use of higher nitrogen-content products such as ammonium nitrate. Other things may explain the discrep­ancy, among them the fact that the bureau's figures are based upon con­sumption of explosives; hence would not include all production including the amount for export.

The amount of ammonia, nitrogen content, declined from 122,000 tons to 109,400 tons.

• Fertilizer Use. Proportion of am­monia reported for fertilizer consump­tion, 1,577,000 tons against 1,223,400 tons in 1953, was also larger percent­agewise (74% against 67%) . Substan­tial growth was shown for each of the three fertilizer categories: (1 ) produc­tion of solid materials; (2) anhydrous ammonia and solutions used for ferti­lizer mixing; and (3 ) anhydrous am­monia and solutions used for direct soil application. The BDSA data also com­pare favorably with that compiled on a fertilizer-year basis by the Depart­ment of Agriculture.

However, some of the data, partic­ularly ammonia reported for the pro­duction of solid fertilizer materials, may be higher than actual consumption be­cause of exports of anhydrous and aqua ammonia. Exports of the latter two totaled 20,600 tons in 1953 and 33,100 tons in 1954. Exports of nitrogenous fertilizer materials as reported by the

Bureau of the Census represent about 6% in 1953 and 11% in 1954 of the distribution of ammonia for the produc­tion of solid fertilizer materials.

> Capacity and Supply. Annual capacity for the production of synthetic anhydrous ammonia in the United States totaled 3,545,000 tons at the start of 1955, the government study shows, equivalent to 2,920,000 tons of nitrogen. This is an increase of 108% over ammonia capacity at the beginning of 1951 when the expansion program got under way.

Additional plants under construction in June 1955 and scheduled for com­pletion at the start of 1956 brought capacity as of Jan. 1, this year, to 4,072,000 tons, or 3,353,000 tons in terms of nitrogen. Other expansions largely to be completed this year should bring ammonia capacity of the nation to 4,757,000 tons, or 3,917,000 tons N. But several other projects reported in the trade press may bring it above these figures when completed in 1957.

Production of anhydrous ammonia has been rising continually since 1948. Production in 1955 lagged behind capacity, former totaling 3,420,000 tons of ammonia, a 25% gain over 1954. Unless demand for ammonia increases in 1956 greatly, says the BDSA, it is expected that the production of this year will not exceed 80 to 90% of capacity.

The anhydrous ammonia report was prepared by C. Kenneth Horner of the administration's inorganic and agricul­tural chemicals branch.

JAN. 2 3, 1956 C&EN 3 8 9