More Olefins for Britain
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I INTERNATIONAL More Olefins for Britain Two plants tor making olefins l>\ cracking petroleum fractious will be ex- panded by British companies. At (•rungemcmth. Scotland. British Hydro- carbon Chemicals is more than dou- bling its ctlnlciic capacity by building ι third plant. It will be the largest of its kind outside the L\ S.. and will IK· considerably bigger than any simi- l.it plants so far announced in Europe. It will fiiahle existing ethylene consum- iiijH plants and the polyctlnlene plant now under construction to be operated .it full capacity. The new project will bring total plant investment to almost SMC) million. Completion date: mid- 1960. British Cclanese. a Cotirtaulds sub- sidiary, will expand its Spondon. Derb> . cracking plant by 40''<. Work has begun and should be completed within α year. The ethylene and propylene will he used to make a wide range of petrochemicals. The cracking process is one developed by Celanese, and dif- fers from the American "steam crack- ing." The British Cclanese plant was first started in 1942. Petrochemi- cal products include acetone, acetic acid, vinyl acetate, hydrocarbon resin, butadiene, ethers, and aromatic hydrocarbons. Sahara Cas for France The French government will prob- ably make a decision within the next lew* weeks on the best way to move nat- ural gas from the Sahara to France. Gas deposits have been found at Uassi R'Mel which are three times as important as the Lacq fields in south- ern France. Proved reserves are 17.6 trillion cubic feet. Probable reserves are 28.2 trillion. By 1965 the field could produce 700 billion cubic feet per year. The power available is equiv- alent to that obtained from present French coal production in the Nord and Piis-de-Calais areas. Transportation is the big problem. The French estimate that Algeria can only use about SS billion cubic feet per year by 1965. So the rest must be exported. There are several possibili- ties. Gas could be piped to the Medi- terranean coast of Europe and used tor ueiieratms electric power which could be sent to Spain, southern France. Sicih. and southern Italy. Power plants could be put into opera- tion m a short tune, and tins scheine would be quite flexible. But the amount of electricit> a\ ailahle would be much greater than that needed m southern Europe, the excess would ha\e to be sent to the north. "This would mean building expensive power lines with high current losses. An undersea pipeline could be built. However, the technique for laying un- derwater lines has never been tried at the great depths imolved < S500 feet >. Because of the pressure, it might be accessary to use several parallel lines of small diameter instead of one big pipe. Condensation and pumping would be problems. Special tankers could carr> liquefied gas across the Mediterranean or into the Atlantic and to northern Europe. This plan has the advantage of flexi- bility and usefulness on smaller proj- ects. But the technique of transport by sea has not been worked out yet. French engineers are watching very carefully the experimental shipments to be made from Venezuela to Britain. Estimates put the cost of gas at 0-20 to 0.26 mil per cubic foot on the Al- gerian coast. 0.40 mil on the south- ern French coast, and 0.45 mil in Lor- raine, in the north of France. • Africa's first nuclear reactor will be set up by General Dynamics at the Uni- versity of Lovanium at LeopoldviBe, Belgian Congo. It will be used to make a variety of medium- and short- lived isotopes for the university's sci- ence courses. The reactor model is the T R I G A, developed by General Dy- namic's General Atomic division and exhibited at the Second International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. • Britain's Wtndscaie reactor, which has been shut down since its overheat- ing last year (C&EN. Oct. 21. 1957, page 21), will not be restarted. The U. K. Atomic Energy Authority says that the S 1.4 million cost of repairing 86 C&EN NOV. 10. 1958 New Text
Transcript of More Olefins for Britain
I INTERNATIONAL
More Olefins for Britain Two plants tor making olefins l>\
cracking petroleum fractious will be expanded by British companies. At (•rungemcmth. Scotland. British Hydrocarbon Chemicals is more than doubling its ctlnlciic capacity by building ι third plant. It will be the largest of its kind outside the L\ S.. and will IK· considerably bigger than any simi-l.it plants so far announced in Europe. It will fiiahle existing ethylene consum-iiijH plants and the polyctlnlene plant now under construction to be operated .it full capacity. The new project will bring total plant investment to almost SMC) million. Completion date: mid-1960.
British Cclanese. a Cotirtaulds subsidiary, will expand its Spondon. Derb> . cracking plant by 40 ' '< . Work has begun and should be completed within α year. The ethylene and propylene will he used to make a wide range of petrochemicals. The cracking process is one developed by Celanese, and differs from the American "steam cracking." The British Cclanese plant was first started in 1942. Petrochemical products include acetone, acetic acid, vinyl acetate, hydrocarbon resin, butadiene, ethers, and aromatic hydrocarbons.
Sahara Cas for France The French government will prob
ably make a decision within the next lew* weeks on the best way to move natural gas from the Sahara to France.
Gas deposits have been found at Uassi R'Mel which are three times as important as the Lacq fields in southern France. Proved reserves are 17.6 trillion cubic feet. Probable reserves a r e 28.2 trillion. By 1965 the field could produce 700 billion cubic feet p e r year. The power available is equivalent to that obtained from present F rench coal production in the Nord and Piis-de-Calais areas.
Transportation is the big problem. T h e French estimate that Algeria can only use about SS billion cubic feet per year b y 1965. So the rest must b e exported. There are several possibilities. Gas could be piped to the Medi
terranean coast of Europe and used tor ueiieratms electric power which could be sent to Spain, southern France. Sicih. and southern Italy. Power plants could be put into operation m a short tune, and tins scheine would be quite flexible. But t he amount of electricit> a\ ailahle would be much greater than that needed m southern Europe, the excess would h a \ e to be sent to the north. "This would mean building expensive power lines with high current losses.
An undersea pipeline could be built. However, the technique for laying underwater lines has never been tried at the great depths imolved < S500 feet >. Because of the pressure, it might be accessary to use several parallel lines of small diameter instead of one big pipe. Condensation and pumping would be problems.
Special tankers could carr> liquefied gas across the Mediterranean or into the Atlantic and to northern Europe. This plan has the advantage of flexibility and usefulness on smaller projects. But the technique of transport by sea has not been worked out yet. French engineers are watching very carefully the experimental shipments to be made from Venezuela to Britain.
Estimates put the cost of gas at 0-20 to 0.26 mil per cubic foot on the Algerian coast. 0.40 mil on the southern French coast, and 0.45 mil in Lorraine, in the north of France.
• Africa's first nuclear reactor will be set u p by General Dynamics at the University of Lovanium at LeopoldviBe, Belgian Congo. It will be used to make a variety of medium- and shortlived isotopes for the university's science courses. The reactor model is the TRI G A, developed by General Dynamic's General Atomic division and exhibited at the Second International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy.
• Britain's Wtndscaie reactor, which has been shut down since its overheating last year (C&EN. Oct. 2 1 . 1957, page 2 1 ) , will not be restarted. T h e U. K. Atomic Energy Authority says that the S 1.4 million cost of repairing
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INTERNATIONAL
the reactor would make the plutonium produced in the estimated remaining life of the reactor very expensive. Plutonium is now being made in substantial quantities by the Calder Hall reactors, and the Chapelcross reactors will come on stream sometime next year. Fuel from the Windscale Pile No. 2 will be discharged and reprocessed for other uses.
• Russia's Centrai Statistical Board says that the state plan for the third quarter of 1958 was fulfilled 102' , by-Soviet industry. The goals of the past two quarters also have been exceeded, and the plan for the past nine months has been carried out 103%, according to the board. During the past nine months, as compared with the same period last year, outputs of the iron, steel, and nonferrous metals industries increased by 9' ; the fuel and power engineering, timber, paper, and woodworking industries by \0(A ; and the chemical and rubber industries by 12% .
• Australia now has a vinyl acetate plant with capacity to supply all of her demands. The $1.25 million plant is operated by C S. R. Chemicals Pty., and is putting out about 2000 tons of vinyl acetate yearly. The process uses ethanol made from molasses fermentation. Process "know-how" was supplied by British Celanese.
• Reichhold Chemicals will set up a Hong Kong affiliate as a joint venture with Hong Kong industrialists. The new company will make Reichhold's entire line of industrial synthetic resins. Λ two story plant to be built in Hong Kong will start producing by next spring.
• Girdler Construction, a Chemetron division, will design and furnish a hydrogen plant for the 40,000 barrel-per-day refinery now being built at Saint John, New Brunswick, for Irving Refining. Canadian Bechtel, Toronto (the refinery's engineer-constructor), has authorized Girdler Construction to design a plant to supply more than 3 million cu. ft. per day of 90% pure hydrogen to the refinery's hydrodesul-furization units.
• Du Pont paint products will be made by a plant to be built in M alines, Belgium. The plant will be operated by the subsidiary, Du Pont de Nemours (Belgium), S.A.. which will be formed in the near future.
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